An Interview With Phil Shugart, President

By Lori Sichtermann

Phil Shugart

In the 10 years since its inception, Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp has grown from a reagent company offering only generics to a chemistry systems company that provides hospitals and independent laboratories with general and esoteric tests, service, technical support, and chemistry analyzers. Today, the Brea, Calif-based company markets more than 100 chemistry tests and fully supported chemistry systems to laboratories worldwide.

Clinical Lab Products recently spoke with Phil Shugart, president of Carolina Liquid Chemistries, about the state of the chemistry market and the importance of efficiency in laboratories.

CLP: What needs does Carolina Liquid Chemistries satisfy within the clinical diagnostic market?
Phil Shugart: Carolina has efficiencies in production and operations that enable us to offer quality chemistry products with an economical and technical advantage. What this means is that we can develop a cost-efficient plan for laboratories to get the most out of their equipment, depending on the individual needs of the facility.

Another advantage we offer to the market is the way we package our reagents. Carolina reagents are packaged specifically for individual chemistry analyzers. By doing this, we provide a technical and ease-of-use advantage by eliminating the need for general bulk reagent containers to be transferred.

CLP: The company offers a number of products over a broad area of technicalities. What have been the benefits of diversifying in such a way?
Shugart: Our product diversification allows our company to better display the benefits of an entire solution for laboratories. We can look at a lab’s total needs in terms of their volumes, throughput and mix of tests; and then offer them the easiest, fastest, most accurate, and most economical total package for the best solution. We offer a lot of products, which gives us the chance to look at a lab’s total needs instead of just a specific segment.

CLP: What new products are on the horizon?
Shugart: We’ve recently ventured into the area of laboratory automation. Later this year, we plan to introduce a work cell that is comprised of a 1,200-test-per-hour chemistry analyzer and a 200-test-per-hour immunochemistry system. This new work cell will have a wide range of menu items, increased speed, and ease-of-use that is superior to systems available in the market today. Additionally, our work cell will be part of a larger total lab automation system.

CLP: The company states that its strength is in providing excellent technical support. What kinds of support does Carolina Liquid Chemistries offer the clinical diagnostic market?
Shugart: We have a lot of products, and all of them have to work. It’s like a three-legged stool. If one of the legs is not working, the stool doesn’t stand up.

Among the things that set us apart from others in the industry is that we take pride in our customer service. For us, the idea of taking care of the customer starts before we pick up the phone. When a customer calls Carolina Liquid Chemistries for technical assistance, an actual person answers and immediately connects the customer to a technical specialist.

We recently conducted our own survey in which we called the top 10 diagnostic companies. All of them have answering machines that require prompts, which take you somewhere else that requires another prompt. In the end, what the customer ends up getting, more often than not, is an answering machine.

Somewhere along the way, it became the industry norm to make a customer wait on the phone for at least 1 minute before he or she is helped. Then there is the possibility that the customer may have to wait for a call-back from the company if the problem cannot be handled by the person who took the call.

Having knowledgeable people readily available to help customers when they call is just one way we differentiate ourselves from others in the industry.

CLP: What have been the benefits of providing such attentive support?
Shugart: Laboratories today have very strict time constraints, even when things are running smoothly. But when they need assistance, the clock is ticking; and doctors are waiting for the results. In these kinds of situations, laboratories need very responsive technical support. I believe that with the kind of support we give, we get a higher level of customer satisfaction.

CLP: Where do you see Carolina Liquid Chemistries in 5 years?
Shugart: We always have new products coming out. However, our strategic plan remains focused in the chemistry and immunochemistry market with intentions to expand into the realm of total laboratory automation. We’ve set the groundwork, and we are proceeding on schedule. In the next 5 years, we’d like to become a major player in comparison to the world’s top five diagnostic companies. We have our head well above water, and I think we’ll get there.

CLP: Where do you see the clinical diagnostic industry heading?
Shugart: I think chemistry analyzers on the market today are technologically the same as they were 10 years ago in terms of such things as throughput and ease of use. This has given rise to laboratories accepting refurbished analyzers. Also, a lot of labs keep their analyzers after the system’s lease expires. Laboratories are holding onto their equipment longer because there hasn’t been a big technological leap in the realm of chemistry analyzers for quite some time. Over the years, all the market has seen is some minor changes to the software and exterior color.

As a trend, I think that combining chemistry and immunochemistry into one platform is a true step forward, because it eliminates sample splitting; results come from one lab interface; and only one system has to be maintained. This is a trend that has been going on for a while, and it’s going to continue in a way that will forever change the industry.

CLP: What challenges has Carolina Liquid Chemistries experienced, and what has the company done to overcome them?
Shugart: Every lab that I know of is doing more tests each year than they did during the previous one. We all hear a lot about cutting costs, and everyone’s workload has increased. However, budgets and staff are not increasing at the same rate, which means laboratories have to do more with less.

By having fewer people and less money, labs have to be more efficient by streamlining their workflow and spending their reagent and capital dollars more wisely. To aid in these efforts, we’ve developed products and priced them so that no matter what lab our reps visit, they can offer an alternative that will allow that lab to be more productive.

CLP: What would you like CLP readers to learn about Carolina Liquid Chemistries?
Shugart: Our phone number. We’re constantly looking for better ways to help laboratories improve turnaround time, cut costs, achieve more accurate results, and stay compliant.

Lori Sichtermann is associate editor of Clinical Lab Products.