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From the President’s Desk: Practice engagement resources for all

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January 2019—Excellence in the laboratory can have a powerful impact on the culture of our institutions because we come into contact with so many and so much. Mostly, we just need to do complex things extremely well and make it look easy. In other words, practice pathology.

R. Bruce Williams, MD

The more than 50 pathologists and numerous laboratory professionals in my group practice, Delta Pathology, serve nearly 100 institutions across Louisiana and Mississippi. My job, in addition to practicing pathology, is practice management, and I enjoy it. I like to see how well our team runs. I like knowing that we have our priorities straight—that we put patient safety first and work together to sustain a respectful culture. I am grateful for those things and the good people who enable them.

Of course, practice management and laboratory direction are about more than taking in the productive buzz. Pathology is complex, and managing a practice is balanced on top of that complexity. We need timely, relevant, and useful information about the market for our services, how to best position our groups, and what the market’s pivots may portend. The CAP provides a safe space to examine these things, to view them in ways both creative and pragmatic.

Practice management is more about working with other pathologists while laboratory direction is more about working with medical technologists and other laboratory professionals, but there’s a lot of spillover. It all falls under the greater umbrella of what is now often referred to as practice engagement—something everyone can embrace.

Within the CAP, interest in up-to-date tools and methods has grown with the pace of change in the greater environment. The CAP leadership team is committed to providing resources that will support pathologist productivity, competitiveness, and well-being. While not all CAP fellows are laboratory medical directors or practice managers, this affects everyone.

Practice evaluation and advice are costly when obtained by individual practices. More important, management consulting services designed for the distinct needs of pathologists and laboratory professionals are not commonly available. The CAP Practice Management Committee, chaired by Patrick Wilson, MD, and reporting to the Council on Membership and Professional Development, is coordinating a number of projects to enhance the resources accessible to members. For example, a practice assessment program piloted last year will be fully launched early this year with 10 hours of one-on-one targeted guidance by a CAP practice assessment expert available to the first 50 practices that sign up. Stay tuned for more on that.

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