Industry Buzz: Sonic Launches Hospital Lab Initiative

Sonic Healthcare USA, based in Austin, Texas, is attempting to capitalize on a shift in the way health care systems manage their laboratory business, launching a new initiative intended to assist hospitals in reducing their lab costs. Known as “Lab Synergy,” the program has recruited Noel Maring as its new vice president of hospital affiliations. Maring was previously the longtime chief marketing officer for Spokane, Wash.-based PAML. “As health systems move from a focus on inpatient care to systemic clinical integration that emphasizes value over volume, senior management teams are embracing new ways of evaluating and supporting their health system’s service lines,” said David W. Bryant, Sonic’s chief executive officer. “Lab Synergy will provide health system executives with additional tools to cost-effectively manage their laboratories and enable local community hospitals to deliver quality patient care while successfully competing with large national labs that have historically encroached on their business.” According to Sonic spokesperson Nicole York, the company has ruled out acquiring hospital laboratories, which has been a more recent focus of national labs such as Quest Diagnostics. “We would prefer to partner with health systems to maximize our respective strengths,” York said. Instead, Sonic will offer hospitals its access to economies of scale via equipment purchasing and the integration of inpatient and outpatient lab outreach through the installation of electronic medical record systems. York noted that such agreements can staunch the annual 2 percent to 4 percent cost increases most hospitals are facing when operating their own labs. The Synergy program can also increase outreach lab revenues, according to York. The savings and additional cash flow can be deployed elsewhere within the health care organization, Sonic officials said. Currently, Sonic has a Synergy-related agreement in place with 12 hospitals in Hawaii, which York said covers about 42 percent of that state’s inpatient beds. It also has extensive management agreements in place with hospitals in Australia and the United Kingdom. York declined to provide specifics on Synergy’s pricing structure.