Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Lab Stewardship as a Strategic Lever for Health Systems

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Lab Stewardship as a Strategic Lever for Health Systems · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:00
Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
0:02
Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
0:04
the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's great to
0:07
have you on. Today, we're talking about elevating
0:10
lab operations, an important topic. And joining me
0:13
for today's discussion, very excited to have them
0:16
both on doctor Sanjay Nagendra, medical director, Center
0:19
for Esoteric Testing and Atlantic Regional Laboratories at
0:22
LabCorp,
0:23
and Cameron Thomason, national vice president, acute care
0:26
services and vision hospitals and health systems, also
0:30
at LabCorp. Cameron and Sanjay, thank you for
0:32
being here today. It's great to have you.
0:34
Thank you.
0:35
Thanks for having us. It's great to have
0:37
you both. I do wanna kick off with
0:39
introductions
0:40
for those that might not know you yet.
0:43
Doctor Nagendra, we'll start off with you.
0:45
Sure. Thank you. I'm Sanjay Nagendra. I'm a
0:49
hematopathologist,
0:50
and I'm currently serving as medical director,
0:53
at LabCorp Center for Esoteric Testing in Atlantic
0:56
Regional Laboratories.
0:59
And I,
1:00
was one of the,
1:02
helpful in in in one of the cofounders
1:04
of lab our lab stewardship committee at LabCorp
1:07
several years ago.
1:09
Previously,
1:10
before coming to LabCorp, I worked in the
1:12
hospital setting, in large health systems in the
1:15
Midwest and in the Northeast
1:17
where I helped found,
1:18
laboratory stewardship programs there
1:21
and trying to use the momentum here at
1:23
Aliso at LabCorp.
1:25
It's great to have you. Cameron, over to
1:26
you.
1:27
Hi. Yes. Thanks. So Cameron Thomason.
1:30
It's hard to believe when I say this
1:32
out loud, but more than two decades of
1:35
experience in health care,
1:37
I began my career inside of health systems.
1:41
I spent about fifteen years
1:43
in hospitals and health systems, which really helped,
1:46
build a foundation,
1:48
around how financials and the economics and strategy
1:52
really intertwine with clinical operations.
1:55
I started in managed care contracting and financial
1:58
analytics.
1:59
And then at a community hospital, I served
2:01
as the chief of staff for our CEO
2:04
and quickly moved into
2:06
a COO type role where I had all
2:08
non nursing clinical areas,
2:11
14 of our physician practices,
2:13
community health and wellness,
2:15
and that was really formative in my experience.
2:18
So I tell all young folks, if you
2:20
can spend time at a community hospital, do
2:22
it because you wear a lot of hat.
2:24
And I learned a lot about operations in
2:26
the day to day running of a health
2:28
system and how the financials really strategically
2:31
align with clinical priorities.
2:34
From there, we merged with a large system,
2:36
and I got some experience in complexity
2:38
at scale by leading lab and pathology for
2:41
that large academic medical center and five additional,
2:45
community hospitals.
2:46
But today, I'm lucky enough to lead acute
2:48
care services nationally with LabCorp.
2:51
We focus on building and evolving strategic partnerships
2:54
for health systems, really looking at hospital lab
2:57
management and our value add programs
3:00
through data driven analytic.
3:02
And, you know, I try to stay deeply
3:04
involved in health systems
3:06
and the finance community. I'm lucky enough to
3:08
have served as a past president of North
3:10
Carolina
3:11
Health Care Financial Management Association,
3:14
and that really
3:15
helps me to take the lens of value
3:17
and stewardship,
3:19
long term sustainability,
3:21
and health care delivery.
3:23
But, truly, what I really love about what
3:25
I get to do is step back and
3:27
look at the industry friction points
3:30
and design practical solutions in partnership with our
3:33
health systems
3:34
to deliver better outcomes for our patients and
3:36
providers.
3:37
And that really, you know, it really, really
3:40
aligns with our mission at LabCorp of improving
3:42
health and improving lives, and that's what drives
3:44
me every day. I'm happy to share a
3:46
little bit with you guys today.
3:48
Well, it's great to have you both on
3:50
both, certainly a wealth of knowledge in the
3:52
industry and and certainly for this conversation, which
3:54
is very exciting, very exciting for me to
3:56
have you have you both on for this.
3:58
Doctor Degandra, I wanna start off with you.
4:00
You touched a little bit on on your
4:02
role in your introduction and and talked about
4:05
lab stewardship, and I wanna
4:07
start off with just the bare bones definition
4:09
of that. Right? There's a lot of variety
4:12
and meanings and context when it comes to
4:13
lab stewardship.
4:15
How do you define it today, and how
4:17
has that concept evolved from your perspective?
4:21
Great. Thanks for the question.
4:22
So no. First, I'd like to start with
4:24
a broad definition.
4:26
And, you know, lab stewardship is, you know,
4:28
a coordinated responsible management of laboratory resources, processes,
4:32
and data.
4:33
And the goals of it are really to,
4:36
optimize patient care and ensure quality and to
4:39
control costs as a secondary effect.
4:42
The key elements in a laboratory stewardship program
4:45
are appropriate
4:46
laboratory test utilization,
4:49
compliance with regulatory standards, and then with with
4:52
the appropriate utilization, operational efficiency,
4:55
having data driven decision making, and having ethical
4:59
practices and sustainability.
5:02
Now as as that is a really broad
5:03
definition, we can go out and see how
5:05
is it in a commercial laboratory such as
5:08
LabCorp.
5:09
What do we do here? Well, it is
5:11
really about focusing on optimizing
5:14
the test menu for clinically relevant assays. As
5:18
you know,
5:19
assays change over time, and so we they
5:21
need to be updated. Some need to be
5:23
discontinued.
5:24
So avoiding unnecessary
5:26
or redundant test too. So having,
5:29
basically, if if you have a similar test
5:31
in in two panels, then try to combine
5:33
it into one so you don't say the
5:35
information twice.
5:36
You educate clients and health care providers on
5:39
the available test offerings. What are these of
5:42
there's so many tests available these days
5:44
that it's very hard for the clinicians to
5:46
keep up. So we're responsible for really educating
5:49
the clients and health care providers
5:51
on what are the available tests and what
5:53
are their indications.
5:55
And finally, I think that lab stewardship as
5:57
a secondary effect
5:59
is that although you have evidence based medicine
6:01
and we try that, a secondary effect of
6:04
that then is is is really,
6:06
you know, having
6:08
balancing profit profitability with that. Everybody thinks that,
6:11
you know, lab stewardship is bad because it
6:13
does, it it affects profitability,
6:16
but that's not necessarily true because you're really
6:18
fine tuning on on tests. And there's some
6:20
tests
6:21
that are overutilized, and there's some tests that
6:24
are underutilized. And so it's really a balance
6:26
between the two.
6:28
In the hospital setting,
6:30
its scope and definition is is is also
6:33
a little different. It's really integrating laboratory into
6:36
patient peer pathways
6:38
and collaborating with clinicians for necessary online test
6:42
ordering.
6:43
And so we wanna standardize I mean,
6:46
not everything in medicine can be standardized, but
6:48
we can certainly standardize things for diagnosis
6:51
and provide education about prevention of over overutilization
6:55
of tests.
6:56
But that's very important. But there's also the
6:58
underutilization
6:59
of test. Test that they should have ordered,
7:01
but they didn't. So that's also part of
7:03
lab stewardship in the hospital setting.
7:06
Now many hospital,
7:09
providers are aware
7:10
of the antimicrobial
7:12
stewardship committees that are there, and that that
7:14
is one of the first areas of lab
7:16
stewardship that have been used. And and that
7:19
and we've been using data for that. So,
7:21
you know, it starts with that, but it
7:23
expands much further,
7:26
into all the laboratory tests.
7:28
It's management of limited budgets and staff,
7:31
ensuring rapid turn time of critical results. So
7:34
if you're not if you're doing the tests
7:36
that are not important, clinically important, then it
7:38
might be costing you,
7:40
turnaround time for the tests that need to
7:42
be performed. So it makes it it it's
7:44
a really balance of trying to understand that.
7:47
So
7:48
understanding that then, you know, how has the
7:51
concept evolved? And I'm I'm gonna talk specifically
7:53
in the hospital setting that prior to the
7:56
pandemic,
7:56
you know, there was a shift from you
7:58
know, really at that time, we were doing
7:59
basic utilization review. And now we've more shifted
8:02
to comprehensive
8:03
multidisciplinary
8:05
programs.
8:06
And many hospitals have integrated diagnostic stewardship
8:10
with real time analytics and clinical collaboration. So
8:13
that's really important. And, you know, instead of
8:16
talking solely on cost and cost build focus
8:19
committees,
8:20
government structures government structures are now looking at
8:22
evidence based ordering and patient outcomes. And that's
8:25
really what's really important.
8:27
And I think COVID nineteen really accelerated this.
8:30
And, and and really a current focus right
8:32
now,
8:33
with this AI revolution, everything is looking at
8:36
informatics for utilization monitoring, artificial intelligence,
8:40
and decision rules in clinical workflows and sustainability
8:43
initiatives.
8:45
So an overarching goal here as we approach
8:47
2026 for lab stewardship
8:50
is to think of it as a proactive
8:52
system wide approach to
8:54
improving care quality,
8:56
reducing waste, and supporting
8:58
many endeavors such as population health.
9:02
Certainly something that affects
9:04
a lot of different pieces. Right? As you've
9:06
just mentioned, it touches a lot of different
9:08
parts of of operations itself. And and, Cameron,
9:11
I'd love to piggyback off of something that
9:13
doctor Nganndra just said, right, which is the
9:15
optimization
9:16
piece of this.
9:17
We talk a lot about cost pressures in
9:19
health care, unfortunately.
9:21
There was recent reporting that non labor expenses
9:24
rose about 5.7%,
9:26
so almost 6% year over year. And I'd
9:28
love to ask you from your perspective too
9:30
with your operations background as well.
9:33
Why are hospitals now looking at lab stewardship
9:37
as a lever for cost control?
9:40
Yeah. It's a it's a great question. I
9:42
mean, no doubt health health system has faced
9:45
pressures to do more with fewer resources.
9:48
You know, tighter margin, lower reimbursement,
9:51
rising clinical complexity,
9:53
cost of capital increasing.
9:55
So financial
9:57
sustainability
9:59
while improving care
10:01
really becomes that lever that every health system
10:03
is trying to achieve.
10:05
And I think the unique thing about lab
10:08
stewardship is it aims to do both of
10:10
those things.
10:12
I think it's important to understand that lab
10:15
stewardship lab stewardship committees create value far beyond
10:19
the incremental cost savings from reducing overuse or
10:22
inappropriate testing as doctor Nagendra
10:25
mentioned. There's a direct impact on quality,
10:29
safety, and clinical outcomes.
10:31
So if health system leaders can focus on
10:33
a lever
10:34
that helps them control cost but also improves
10:37
quality and safety, it's hard to argue with
10:40
that strategy.
10:41
Right? So optimization in the laboratory alone
10:45
isn't gonna do it. So a stewardship program,
10:47
as doctor Nagendra mentioned,
10:49
also includes having an informed and aligned provider
10:53
community so that they're making the appropriate
10:55
diagnostic stewardship decisions
10:58
at the point of care. And I think
11:00
a common misconception
11:02
is that lab stewardship lives inside the lab.
11:05
It doesn't really live inside the lab. The
11:07
reality is is it's a cross functional
11:10
enterprise approach.
11:12
The lab serves as the steward of the
11:14
data,
11:14
the standards, and the insight,
11:16
but
11:17
cross functional teams are how those programs
11:21
become embedded in the operation.
11:23
You know, alignment with clinical,
11:26
guidelines like choosing wisely and other areas allow
11:30
physicians to, you know, really get behind a
11:33
stewardship
11:34
program.
11:35
An effective clinical decision support,
11:38
can guide best choices without adding friction to
11:41
provider workflows.
11:43
You know, a high performing program
11:46
not only
11:47
looks for opportunities and communicates them, but tracks
11:51
the outcomes beyond cost.
11:53
And then, you know, as the organization
11:56
sees those wins and sees the impact
11:59
on
12:00
improved outcomes and safety,
12:02
you know, there becomes a buy in.
12:05
Data's gotta be accessible and trusted and actionable.
12:09
But when a fully integrated stewardship program becomes
12:12
a lever for safer, higher quality care and
12:15
that also lowers cost, then, you know, the
12:18
health system can really make an impact in
12:20
all areas. And I think it's easier for
12:22
leadership
12:23
to get physicians in other areas of the
12:26
organization behind the effort.
12:28
Yeah. And I know we'll talk about leadership
12:30
here in a little bit too. But, doctor
12:32
Nagendra, I wanted to come back to something
12:33
that you touched on when you talked a
12:35
little bit of how this has evolved. Right?
12:36
You talked about data. You talked about AI.
12:38
Those are certainly things that will impact the
12:40
future here in 2026 and also beyond. And
12:43
and we know that roughly about 70% of
12:46
of clinical decisions are are driven by lab
12:48
data.
12:49
And I'd love to know from your perspective,
12:51
what are some of those tools you think
12:53
health systems
12:54
most need right now to reach the highest
12:57
levels of lab stewardship that they're aiming for
12:59
and and really also support,
13:02
can better community health? What are some of
13:04
those some of those things that you think
13:06
about here for the future?
13:08
Well, there are four key areas that come
13:10
to mind.
13:11
The first is advanced analytics and decision support.
13:16
You know, there's real time utilization of dashboards
13:19
to understand,
13:20
test patterns.
13:21
Test matters not only overall, but by by
13:24
provider too because every provider may have,
13:28
you know, had a background, a different background
13:30
on how to use test to to understand
13:32
that.
13:34
And then these dashboards can also include other
13:36
things like turnaround times and cost metrics.
13:39
The other item is a clinical decision support
13:42
system, and these are becoming more and more
13:44
widely used.
13:45
For example, LabCorp has a,
13:48
clinical decision support known as diagnostic assistant.
13:52
And these types of things are integrated into
13:55
the electronic health record to provide additional insight
13:58
into diagnostic results from outside the health system.
14:01
So, for example, it'll it'll suggest,
14:04
appropriate tests, flag redundant orders,
14:07
all the point of patient care,
14:10
you know, you know, to the point of
14:11
patient care to providers, you know, in their
14:14
in their normal workflow. So it doesn't interfere
14:16
with workflow, but it it's an aid to
14:18
make sure when busy providers are using it
14:21
to make sure that they order the right
14:22
test.
14:23
We also, in the advanced analytics, is predictive
14:26
analytics and using lab data to identify high
14:29
risk patients. For example,
14:31
now we have predictive models, and
14:34
and and we can look by types of
14:36
lab abnormalities to say, are they have an
14:39
increased risk of sepsis or chronic disease for
14:42
protection? Do we need to do other,
14:45
safeguards for these patients? So these are, not
14:48
only good for lab stewardship but also for
14:50
patient safety.
14:52
Secondly,
14:53
we have,
14:55
how we can integrate data, and it's usually
14:58
you using unified data platforms,
15:01
combining lab results with imaging, pharmacy, and social
15:04
determinants of health. For example, there is,
15:08
there are some laboratory tests that can tell
15:11
you rapidly whether you have a certain type
15:14
of illness,
15:15
but it unlike,
15:17
a, infectious disease. But at the same time,
15:21
it it's of no use unless you integrate
15:24
it with pharmacy.
15:25
And so if the pharmacist
15:27
can provide,
15:29
quick,
15:30
antibiotics,
15:31
then it's helpful. So that's why you using
15:33
unified data platforms is very important.
15:37
The other thing is population health. And so,
15:39
lab stewardship can be used, and we and
15:41
LabCorp has a tool called insight analytics
15:44
for population health. And it really what it
15:45
does is aggregate lab data across communities for
15:48
disease tracking. So you can look at it
15:51
and you can see where, for example, hemoglobin
15:54
a one c for diabetes,
15:56
care. Where is it underutilized?
15:58
What ZIP code is it? Where can we,
16:01
look and see to try try to get
16:04
more care to those ZIP codes? And so
16:06
it's a underutilization
16:08
also tool,
16:09
that you could do for population help.
16:11
The third ad is a patient engagement and
16:14
transparency.
16:15
And and it's really not only educating the
16:17
clinician, but also educating the patient.
16:20
So the patient facing portals and and patients
16:23
now act how access quick access to all
16:25
their laboratory data, but it's important for them
16:28
to understand it. And so I think it's
16:30
important for for the portals to have clear
16:33
lab result interpretation
16:36
and education.
16:37
Many patients will ask their providers, can you
16:41
get me this test? Give me that test.
16:42
But it may and then there's pressure for
16:44
the clinicians to order those tests. So educating
16:47
the client to the patient
16:49
too that this is not,
16:51
necessary,
16:52
or what is necessary or not in a
16:54
in a very basic way can be helpful.
16:57
Community outreach dashboards also,
17:00
in aggregated health trends,
17:02
is also important for patient engagement,
17:05
especially with the public health agencies for targeted
17:08
interventions, and that goes along with the population
17:10
health.
17:12
And finally, we talk about
17:14
AI powered diagnostic pathways.
17:17
And and everybody's talked about artificial intelligence now,
17:20
but algorithm driven test selection is really important
17:23
because
17:24
we can look at clusters of tests and
17:26
say, why don't you order this test or
17:28
that test based upon that? And that can
17:30
be much more cost effective than ordering, like,
17:33
a 100 different tests at at one time.
17:35
It'll tell you based upon evidence based medicine
17:38
what types of tests to order.
17:40
And these things are come becoming more and
17:42
more popular
17:44
and will continue to increase and drive, lab
17:47
stewardship in the hospital settings.
17:50
Yeah. Once again, we talk about that multilevel
17:52
impact. That was certainly a a a breakdown
17:54
as to where all of this has impact
17:57
and who is involved. And who is involved
17:58
is a a great transition as well for
18:00
for me too, Cameron. I'd love to come
18:02
back to the leadership piece that we touched
18:04
on earlier a little bit. Right? You mentioned
18:06
the the buy in piece and how important
18:07
it is to have conversations about the impact
18:09
that this can have.
18:11
How could leaders initiate a strong lab stewardship
18:14
program,
18:15
that is also aligned with
18:17
their strategic goals right for the health system
18:19
overall? What are some of those factors that
18:21
are key there?
18:23
Yeah. In in my experience,
18:25
to create a strong stewardship program
18:28
that stays long term
18:30
aligned with the strategy of the health system,
18:32
there's five key component.
18:35
Executive support,
18:36
governance,
18:37
participation,
18:38
data, and communication.
18:41
A successful stewardship program is gonna begin with
18:44
visible
18:45
executive sponsorship
18:47
and clear enterprise alignment. It has to be
18:50
promoted from the top.
18:52
The stewardship must be positioned as a health
18:55
system priority, not a lab only initiative.
18:58
Without that, it's gonna be fragmented
19:01
rather than embedded in the care delivery process.
19:05
Next, high performing programs are built into a
19:07
formal governance structure. So we build a governance
19:10
structure around a lab stewardship
19:13
committee. They're not run as ad hoc projects,
19:16
but they have a clear charter that defines
19:18
the purpose, the scope, the decision rights,
19:22
what the success metrics are, a cadence of
19:25
meetings, all those things that give you that
19:27
North Star to guide the work over time.
19:30
The third is participation.
19:32
So as we've said a couple of times,
19:34
this is multidisciplinary,
19:36
cross departmental.
19:38
You've got to have buy in and participation
19:41
from physician leaders,
19:42
physician champions,
19:44
nursing,
19:46
pharmacy,
19:47
IT,
19:48
quality and regulatory,
19:50
and operations,
19:51
all coming to the table as equal value
19:54
partners to the stewardship program.
19:57
It's a maturity journey. It's progressing, you know,
20:00
from awareness to education to standardization
20:03
and continuous optimization.
20:06
But at the heart is the data and
20:07
analytics.
20:09
The value comes from having accessible,
20:12
trusted, near real time data. The way we
20:15
do that is through our vision analytics platform.
20:18
We really wanna have easy access to utilization
20:22
patterns, variations,
20:24
evidence based opportunities, those sorts of things.
20:28
Because we want that data to be easily
20:30
accessed
20:31
so that the time is spent on finding
20:34
the opportunities,
20:35
prioritizing
20:36
engagement,
20:37
what that change management behavior needs to be
20:39
rather than data extraction.
20:41
And then on the back end, the same
20:43
thing. We should be able to track improvements
20:46
for not only cost savings, but behavior changes,
20:49
quality and safety, timeliness of care, and the
20:52
outcomes associated with the opportunity.
20:55
And then
20:56
consistently
20:57
communicating, this is where the communication comes in.
20:59
You have to communicate those wins
21:01
across the organization
21:03
to accelerate engagement.
21:05
You know, quick wins build momentum, and lab
21:08
stewardship's no different. When it's aligned with the
21:11
strategy,
21:12
governed well, data enabled, and clinically led,
21:16
it can become a part of that operating
21:18
rhythm and the culture of the health system.
21:20
And in that model, the lab serves as
21:23
the trusted partner for the clinicians
21:26
and delivers that safer, higher quality care that
21:29
comes at a more sustainable lower cost.
21:32
So if those five components exist,
21:35
that lab stewardship program can be long term
21:37
aligned with strategy and becomes a part of
21:40
how you deliver care, not an ad hoc
21:43
extra thing that the organization is doing.
21:46
Well, Cameron and doctor Negre, I I appreciate
21:49
you both taking some time, wealth of knowledge,
21:51
from both of you here. What what a
21:53
great episode. I do wanna turn the floor
21:55
over to you, with any final thoughts that
21:57
you might have for our audience here.
21:59
Just anything that we haven't touched on that
22:01
might be important for you to mention, doctor.
22:02
Again, we'll we'll start off with you.
22:05
Sure. Thank you. So I just wanted to
22:07
highlight just real quickly on our labs towards
22:09
the program at, LabCorp Diagnostics.
22:12
And,
22:13
you know, we,
22:14
have, in the last several years, created a
22:17
multidisciplinary
22:18
team,
22:19
which included executive leadership, physicians, scientists, administrators
22:24
to discuss LabCorp's test menu and opportunities for,
22:27
directory improvement. And that could
22:30
be either in discontinuing an obsolete test
22:33
or,
22:35
and or a test that has low clinical
22:37
utility.
22:38
For example, in the last several years, we've
22:41
discontinued
22:41
tests such as red cell folate,
22:45
and a peripheral smear review by pathologist,
22:47
and and many other tests as well based
22:50
upon national guidelines.
22:53
We're also working on panel and algorithmic type
22:56
testing. We have many,
22:58
many tests that have panels and and work
23:01
on cascades
23:03
and to ensure clinical clinicians order the right
23:06
test.
23:07
For example,
23:08
many many clinicians, unfortunately, don't order, the right
23:11
test for iron deficiency
23:13
anemia
23:14
or b twelve. And so we've developed cascades
23:17
so they don't have to worry about that.
23:19
And we just can they can go through
23:20
the, and the cascade goes through, and it
23:22
will order a test if needed.
23:25
And as a lab stewardship,
23:27
concern, if if there were if there was,
23:30
a test that's not needed, it wouldn't be
23:32
done.
23:33
And finally, we continue to educate clinicians on
23:36
the changes,
23:38
through webinars,
23:39
web pages, white papers,
23:42
and talking to hundreds of clinicians,
23:45
yearly
23:46
on, on the changes that we have on
23:48
a one on one basis. So we're doing
23:50
a lot here at LabCorp Diagnostics with lab
23:52
stewardship.
23:54
Cameron, over to you. Anything else that you
23:55
might wanna add here?
23:57
Sure. Just quickly, I you know, I'm in
23:59
the business of building partnerships. So maybe a
24:01
couple of thoughts on what to look for
24:03
in a partner if you're looking to partner
24:05
for stewardship.
24:06
And I really think it the most important
24:08
takeaway is credibility anchored in experience and execution.
24:12
You know, you want a trusted adviser
24:15
who brings a purpose built approach that's done
24:17
designed specifically for your health system.
24:20
Embedded analytics, as I mentioned before, that can
24:22
translate into action and performance improvement
24:26
and really demonstrated
24:28
sustainable
24:29
performance across a long term relationship, not just
24:32
isolated wins. And that's really the philosophy we
24:34
bring to our health systems. We've really been
24:37
working along health systems for more than two
24:39
decades and now have the privilege of managing
24:41
over 200 hospital laboratories nationwide.
24:44
And what I really think makes that powerful
24:46
is not scale for its own sake, but
24:48
the continuous learning and refining operational playbooks and
24:52
sharing those insights
24:53
across our network. We think of that as,
24:55
like, this ecosystem of shared learning where collaboration
24:59
accelerates best practices
25:01
and helps all of us be better together.
25:03
And I think that's really what a partnership
25:05
should look like and how to run an
25:07
effective stewardship program. And when that's anchored in
25:10
a shared mission and culture,
25:12
the strategic partnership becomes more than a program.
25:14
It's a long term partnership focused on delivering
25:18
high quality care and the best possible outcomes
25:20
for patients and communities, and that's really what
25:23
I think we're all looking to do together.
25:26
Well, it's certainly great, to have you both
25:28
on. Again, thank you so much for taking
25:29
some time for us here today. It's fantastic
25:31
to have you on, doctor Nagendra and Cameron.
25:33
And we also want to thank our podcast
25:35
sponsor, LabCorp.
25:36
You can tune in to more podcasts from
25:38
Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at
25:40
beckershospitalreview.com.