Role of medical, technical, and administrative leadership in the human resource management life cycle: a team approach to laboratory management.

We believe the team approach to laboratory management achieves the best outcomes. Laboratory management requires the integration of medical, technical, and administrative expertise to achieve optimal service, quality, and cost performance. Usually, a management team of two or more individuals must be assembled to achieve all of these critical leadership functions. The individual members of the management team must possess the requisite expertise in clinical medicine, laboratory science, technology management, and administration. They also must work together in a unified and collaborative manner, regardless of where individual team members appear on the organizational chart. The management team members share in executing the entire human resource management life cycle, creating the proper environment to maximize human performance. Above all, the management team provides visionary and credible leadership.

Baptist Medical Center/St. Vincent's merger.

Hospitals are merging at such a fast pace that there may be no freestanding hospitals in this country by the end of this century. The economics of the times are making it more and more difficult for hospitals to function alone. When hospitals merge, one of the clinical departments involved in integration is the clinical laboratory. This article discusses a merger involving five hospitals in Jacksonville, Florida and how it affected the separate hospital laboratories.