The Successful Convergence of Clinical and Operational Thinking in the Lab

The Successful Convergence of Clinical and Operational Thinking in the Lab

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EPISODE NOTES

In today’s healthcare environment, laboratory leaders are required to provide the highest quality services to support improved patient outcomes. To succeed, they must implement scalable medical, analytical, and operational strategies, all while driving and balancing fiscal excellence and responsibility.

In this episode, host Dr Pat Alagia, senior medical director for Women’s and Reproductive Health at Quest Diagnostics welcomes Dr Patrick Mason and Tammy Germini to discuss:

• Laboratory state-of-the-art programs and processes designed to improve quality, efficiency, and significant cost improvement outcomes
• Requirements within the lab to help to achieve the successful convergence between medicine and operations, resulting in scalability of the highest performing tests
• The overall value of laboratory medicine in modern healthcare

Published: May 26, 2022

About our guests

Patrick Mason, MD, PhD, is regional medical director of the Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute in Chantilly, VA.

Dr Mason received his undergraduate, a PhD in Biochemistry, and Doctor of Medicine training at Virginia Commonwealth University. He completed his pediatric residency and endocrinology fellowship at Emory University. Dr Mason remained on the Emory faculty for several years until moving to Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children in 2001. While at Inova, he held a variety of positions, including staff pediatric endocrinologist and director of pediatric research. He held positions as assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at both Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia and was appointed as special volunteer faculty at Development Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Development, and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr Mason joined the Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute in March 2011 and served as the medical director of endocrinology until April 2015 when he became the medical director of the Chantilly laboratory.

Tammy Germini, MBA, MT(ASCP), is the executive director of operations for health systems at Quest Diagnostics where she oversees the implementation of key strategies aimed to balance operational excellence and financial responsibility.

After earning a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, she attended the Moses H. Cone School of Medical Technology and was certified by the Board of Certification of the American Society for Clinical Pathology in July 1995. She received her Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Scranton in August 2017.

Tammy worked for Spectrum Laboratory Network for 15 years as a medical technologist, supervisor, and remote site manager. She then progressed in her career to Geisinger Medical Center where she led the laboratory for 11 years as the director of laboratory excellence and operations director for clinical pathology. Her tenure at Geisinger included oversight of the operations and financial performance for 6 nonprofit hospital laboratories, including the core laboratory for a large health system producing more than 10 million tests per year. Some of her key achievements include participation in the design and transition to a new 115,000 square foot state-of-the-art laboratory building in 2015, successful mergers/acquisitions of 5 hospital laboratories, and successful consolidation of operations into a core lab model.