![]() ![]() “It was the local guy versus the big national guy. “Basically, you had two laboratories: the original Sonora lab, and Quest Diagnostics,” she explains, adding that they were not only competitors, they were fierce ones. When the joint venture was first formed in 1997, the outlook did not seem so positive, Santis says. I think we’re probably one of the best examples of how an integrated laboratory system can and should work, and we’re able to get all sorts of benefits from it.”īut these benefits have mostly come after the implementation of Six Sigma. “There have been a lot of attempts at integrated laboratory systems through the years some have been somewhat successful, and many have not. Santis is the first to admit it’s a complicated model. Overall, the three main laboratories process an average of 17,000 requisitions per day. She adds that the organization also manages Health Diagnostics Laboratory in Phoenix, a lab owned by Cigna Insurance. Under this umbrella, some employees “are assigned to the commercial reference lab Sonora Quest, others are assigned to the hospital labs, and still others have system responsibilities that extend to both sides of the business,” Santis says. SQL is part of a laboratory network called Laboratory Sciences of Arizona LLC (LSA), which manages the six hospital laboratories for Banner Health, and all employees of these various pieces-currently numbering about 1,900-are officially employed by LSA. “We represent Quest Diagnostics on the commercial reference side we have our for-profit commercial operation, which is Sonora Quest Laboratories and we also manage and staff the laboratories at all the Banner Hospitals,” Santis explains. ![]() It’s a joint venture between Banner Health, the largest health care system in Arizona, and Quest Diagnostics Inc, the nation’s largest clinical testing provider. And it doesn’t happen overnight.Įven before Six Sigma, SQL was not a run-of-the-mill laboratory operation. It’s equivalent to changing one’s entire philosophy on how business processes should be done. Still, the system is complicated, has a learning curve, and requires investment in time and money. “It’s made such a difference in our laboratory.” In doing so, we have learned that we can also bring cost savings, which allow us to do the things that we need to do,” she says. “It’s about reducing error, and it’s about improving processes. Also, SQL has found a great deal of additional recognition since implementing the system close to 5 years ago. And where it is is impressive: SQL received the 2003 Arizona Pioneer Award for Quality, the first health care organization to win it. Without the system, Sonora Quest Laboratories (SQL), based in Tempe, Ariz, could not be close to where it is today, says Joyce Santis, MBA, HCM, the company’s COO. It is not a specific company’s product but a nonbranded program that can be applied to any organization. But Six Sigma, as many organizations inside and outside of health care are finding out, is a quality-management system that has the very real goal of making work processes as perfect as possible. Add to it that it involves people who work up to earning Green and Black Belts, and it seems even more fantastic. It sounds like it could be the speed of a spaceship in your average science fiction novel. ![]()
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