What to look for in a laboratory solutions provider: Insights from Fairview Health

• Start with the problem and patient needs, then ask prospective laboratory solutions providers to help develop options
• Evaluate the total value of partnership rather than price alone, including quality, access, turnaround time, staff experience, and final cost of care to patients
• Treat early interactions as evidence of the provider’s operating culture and look for shared problem-solving under pressure

The clearest sign of a strong laboratory solutions provider is not a promise of partnership. It is evidence that the provider listens, brings the right expertise together, offers workable, tailored options, and stays engaged when a complex problem emerges. Product functionality and cost are essential, but they do not show how a provider will behave after the sale. In this interview, Jina Forys, Director of Business and Strategy at Fairview Laboratory in Minnesota, USA, explains how early interactions can reveal a provider’s organizational culture, and why laboratories should evaluate partnership through patient outcomes, shared accountability, and problem-solving under pressure.

Start with understanding the total value of the solution, not just what the product does. In our laboratory, we are always considering what new tests, instruments, and software could help us serve care teams and patients. We must take into account multiple factors when weighing any new solution. We have to analyze what it might enhance in terms of quality, access, staff time, efficiency, or cost of care to patients.

I often reduce the decision to a simple question: “Is this worth that?” A new test may increase the laboratory’s direct cost while shortening an inpatient stay or giving a care team a more timely answer. Another option may reduce cost but offer less access or a longer turnaround time. The lab should put the alternatives side by side, make the tradeoffs visible, and involve the care team in deciding which result is worth the investment.

Functionality comes first. The product or service has to do what the laboratory needs it to do. If it cannot meet the core requirement, the rest of the conversation is beside the point.

When more than one provider can meet the functional need, the evaluation becomes broader. Cost matters, but price alone does not show what the laboratory will receive for that investment. Peer feedback can also save time and prevent avoidable problems. I call colleagues and ask how the provider performs in practice, especially when support is needed.

A true partner helps the laboratory solve its problems. Many companies say they want to be a partner, but sometimes “partnership” only means that they want the lab to buy a product. I define it differently. The laboratory and the solutions provider share a customer: The patient. The provider should use the capabilities available to it to help the lab deliver for that patient.

That support may involve service engineers, technical specialists, workflow consultants, contracting teams, or other experts working together behind the scenes. The laboratory should not have to navigate the complexities of the provider’s organization before it can get help. The value comes from having a provider as a partner that can effectively coordinate people around a problem, solve it, and help the lab to meet its goals.

The evaluation period contains small but useful signals. How quickly does the provider answer a difficult question? Does the representative have access to technical and operational support? Does the provider ask what the laboratory is trying to accomplish, or immediately return to a standard sales message?

During one evaluation, I asked two prospective providers how they could support a specific goal. One provider became curious, checked with colleagues, and returned with several options we could refine together. The other told me that I did not really want what I had requested and that it would never work. The contrast showed more than two different answers. It showed how each organization approaches a customer’s problem.

Invite the solutions provider into the problem before prescribing the answer. I try to say, “Can you help me solve this problem?” rather than, “I need you to give me option A.” The provider may know of options B, C, or D that still meet the laboratory’s needs and are easier or more sustainable to deliver.

This approach is most useful for complex solutions involving instruments, software, workflow changes, and multiple technical dependencies. A straightforward kit purchase may remain transactional. A major technical implementation benefits from creativity, negotiation, and a willingness on both sides to share what they know.

Partnership becomes visible when several organizations could blame one another, but instead work together. In one case, our laboratory faced a difficult analyzer issue that might have involved the instrument, the water system, the connection between them, or our own maintenance practices. The analyzer provider’s service and technical teams worked with our laboratory leaders and the water-system provider to follow the evidence and escalate the issue as needed.

That problem could easily have become a cycle of finger-pointing. Instead, each group contributed its expertise and kept patient needs in view. We solved the issue because the participants treated diagnosing the problem as a shared responsibility. That is the kind of operating culture in a potential partner that a laboratory wants to identify before making a large investment.

Look for observable behavior, not the word “partnership.” The strongest green flags appear in how a provider responds before the contract is signed and how it structures accountability afterward.

For me, a red flag appears when a provider protects its sales message or organizational position instead of engaging with my laboratory’s reality. A single slow answer is not cause for alarm, but repeated behaviors can reveal how the relationship will feel when the stakes are higher.

Ask prospective providers to show how they solve problems, not just how their products perform. Give them a realistic scenario, and watch who they involve, how they handle uncertainty, and whether they return with options that reflect your laboratory’s constraints.

After implementation, make the partnership measurable. Shared service goals, regular reviews, and a common view of performance will help both organizations to see gaps and work on them together. The goal is to have a provider as a partner that helps the laboratory do its job better and shows a commitment to supporting the laboratory’s responsibility to its patients.