AC and its ilk are endangering the physician's office lab as our small volume machines can't interface with the ehr directly. To keep up with the Joneses, we manually enter the results so a program can manipulate the data to impress patients adequately.
Also, hospitals buying practices close the office labs to funnel the tests to the hospital lab for greater profits since volume is always the key. But that didn't affect me.
Spotting trends, systemic and non-systemic errors, and keeping lab machines in calibration is not something the average MA or phlebotomist can do. Lab techs are more expensive, maybe less flexible helping do MA tasks. Getting the right staff is essential.
Ten years ago, my lab paid me about $25k/year. Last year, $3k. If you have the space, right staff, and are bored, an office lab is a great convenience for your patients.
