Today, our class traveled to LabCorp, a prestigious and successful medical testing corporation that is active worldwide. We were given a tour of the Powell building in Burlington, NC, which is the corporate headquarters for Lab Corp and employs 4500 residents of Alamance County, making it the largest employer in Alamance County. Originally, Lab Corp was called Roche Biomedical Laboratories and originally focused on diagnosing disease. However, in 1994, a merger with National Health Laboratories created LabCorp, a now public medical testing facility with a mission to provide a full continuum of healthcare delivery.
LabCorp structures itself around a Five Pillar Startegy that keeps them successful and above their top competitor, Quest Laboratories. The first of these pillars is to deploy cash to enhance their footprint across the nation. In order to do this, LabCorp seeks out smaller, local labs, and acquires these labs to decrease competition. As well as buying smaller labs, LabCorp was able to stay ahead of other companies by acquiring a robotics company to create automated systems to make a more efficient workplace. The second pillar of this strategy is to enhance IT capabilities, which plays a major role in LabCorp’s success. The third pillar is to continue to improve efficiency, as they did with the acquisition of the robotics company as well as creating a large Logistical Branch of the company which owns 12 planes, and other modes of transportation to deliver results as quickly and efficiently as possible. The fourth pillar is providing scientific innovation at appropriate pricing. The final pillar is providing alternative delivery model, which is shown in the logistical branch.
LabCorp’s success also is due to uniformity of their laboratories across the United States. With this uniformity, LabCorp can order supplies by the bulk to provide to all 23 laboratories across the United States. This lessens the cost of supplies and also creates a good relationship with the supply salesman. Another success of LabCorp is their mentality of putting the patient first. What impresses me is that they stick with this mentality even though they have no direct contanct with the patient. Their actual customers are healthcare providers such as doctors, hospitals, and clinical labs.
As impressed as I was with LabCorp’s success and efficiency, I could never see myself working there. As a student in the science field, I was interested in the aspect of medical testing but I was not a huge fan of the work environment. Even though it was surrounded with amazing technology, it seemed like a very secluded atmosphere with little communication with people. Overall, LabCorp is an extremely impressive corporation with a clear goal and a great understanding of how to be a successful national testing facility.
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