Laboratory Industry Report

For outreach programs to grow and thrive, industry experts at the conference emphasized that labs need the support of senior hospital executives. In a keynote presentation titled “Know Your Numbers,” Michael Metzler, the former COO of St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (Boston) and CEO of St. Anne’s Hospital (Fall River, Mass.), provided a valuable window into the mind of a CEO considering a move into outreach testing. Metzler prefaced his discussion of how to make the business case for outreach with a warning. “The lab must have a reputation for excellence before outreach can be sold to the CEO,” he said. “Weaknesses must be fixed before making the case for outreach.”