Outreach, consolidation, and networking: Columbia's approach to successful integration of laboratory services in California.

At the forefront of integrated laboratory services, Columbia Bay Area Healthcare Network's Lab Link provides a unique approach to operating hospital-based laboratories in today's heavily penetrated managed-care environment. Columbia recognizes that a combined strategy of laboratory consolidation, outreach, and networking is essential to compete successfully with commercial reference laboratories for local and statewide contracts. Implementing this model enables hospital laboratories to produce high quality, cost-effective test results while increasing volume and reducing duplication. When hospital laboratories consolidate and network with local and regional laboratories, inpatient and outpatients information is cross-fertilized through a web of information systems. Patients information can then be accessed easily and monitored throughout the continuum of care. The goal of this article is to provide hospital laboratories with a streamlined approach to structuring and delivering services while maintaining a competitive edge in the tumultuous healthcare market. The future of laboratory services within the hospital setting lies in the aggressive use of three elements--consolidation, outreach, and networking--to ensure quality service as well as economic viability.