An academic medical center's 20+ year partnership with Labcorp continues to deliver quality

Synopsis

An academic medical center's joint venture with Labcorp, initiated more than 20 years ago, has resulted in significant savings for the medical center, as well as access to state-of-the-art equipment and diagnostic testing. The relationship enables the health system to focus on its core mission-patient care-while Labcorp deploys its expertise and industry strength to manage the lab on a daily basis, support new service lines and develop strategic plans for the future.

Challenges

In 1999, the medical center formed a laboratory strategic partnership with Labcorp to expand their lab outreach, reduce costs and improve management. Years later, the strategic partnership continues to provide high-quality, cost-effective and competitive lab services for an entire region.

Health system snapshot

• Regional academic medical center
• Main hospital plus two regional health centers and four urgent care clinics
• Seven Centers of Excellence
• 42 primary care practices and specialty practices

Results

Supporting and accelerating growth

Over the years, as the medical center has doubled its number of beds and added new service lines, Labcorp has kept pace by adding capacity and expanding the test menu to support the new service lines. In addition to overseeing laboratory operations, Labcorp supplies technical expertise, project management and support for a wide range of managed care contracts.

With Labcorp running lab operations, the medical center can focus on adding new services lines such as cellular therapy, kidney transplants and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The strategic partnershp, through Labcorp's knowledge and expertise in procurement, has invested in new lab equipment to support these advanced treatments.

At the heart of the successful relationship between the medical center and Labcorp is a strong sense of trust and open communication. The medical center is able to access Labcorp's extensive resources, including leading medical, scientific and business experts who can bring advice and clarity to a wide range of operations and initiatives.

457K

2001 outreach test volume

4.3M

2021 outreach test volume

1.1K

per day COVID PCR test capacity

Realizing financial, operational and quality benefits

Partnering with Labcorp has yielded significant benefits for the medical center, including:

• Financial - Under the knowledgeable management of Labcorp, the lab is profitable, generating arevenue stream and return on investment for both partners.
• Operational - Labcorp's vendor contracts ensure the lab has the most advanced technology while helping to better manage concerns about about supply chain shortages. The Labcorp on-site director consults several times daily with the medical director and other team members.
• Patient access - Labcorp's nine local patient service centers are convenient for patients and are staffed by Labcorp's highly trained, caring team.
• Care quality - Standardization of laboratory testing, swift turnaround, a collaborative approach and the availability of Labcorp's corporate experts support the highest quality care. It is also the only laboratory in the state to receiveISO15189 certification.

It's rare for a business relationship to span a decade, let alone more than two decades. This long-term partnership highlights Labcorp's ability to support ongoing growth and our willingness to develop flexible solutions that are tailored to meet the specific needs of each of our health system partners.