Consolidation of the North Shore-LIJ Health System anatomic pathology services: the challenge of subspecialization, operations, quality management, staffing, and education.

Objectives: To describe our experience, both in meeting challenges and in reporting outcomes, of the consolidation of anatomic pathology services in the North Shore-LIJ Health System in February 2011.

Methods: We addressed issues of governance, personnel, physical plant, quality programming, connectivity, and education.

Conclusions: The highly regulated nature of the laboratory industry and the fact that patient care necessarily never pauses require that such a consolidation take place without a break in service or degradation in turnaround time and quality while engaging personnel at all levels in the extra duties related to consolidation.