Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is a corporation based in the United States that provides clinical laboratory services.

In 1967, Brown founded MetPath, an American company providing clinical-laboratory services. MetPath was acquired by Corning Glass Works for 140 million in 1982 and subsequently renamed to Quest Diagnostics it runs operations in United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico and a laboratory in India. The headquarter is located in Madison, New Jerseys. The company has approximately 43,000 employees. The company has over $7.5 billion dollars in revenue Quest Diagnostics offers access to diagnostic testing services for cancer, cardiovascular disease, infectious disease and neurological disorders.

Kenneth W. Freeman

CEO of Quest Diagnostics from 1996 2004

The results of a recent study conducted at INSEAD rated Freeman the 67th best performing CEO in the world. He increased market capitalization by 10 billion US dollars.

Kenneth freeman accomplishments at quest diagnostics

When Freeman took over the predecessor company to Quest Diagnostics in 1995, the business was part of Corning, Inc. At that time, the lab testing industry faced allegations that it had overbilled Medicare by charging for unnecessary tests. At the beginning of 1997, Corning spun off the business to its shareholders, and it took the name Quest Diagnostics.

Freeman, who had worked at Corning his whole career, led a dramatic transformation of Quest Diagnostics from an embattled company facing massive challenges on multiple fronts into the leading provider of diagnostic testing in the world.

How did Six Sigma come to Quest Diagnostics?

Ken Freeman, chairman of Quest Diagnostics, initiated Six Sigma in a deliberate attempt to raise the bar on quality in healthcare services. In late 1999, a report produced by the National Academy of Sciences 'Institute of Medicine documented tens of thousands unnecessary deaths caused annually by hospital errors. In 1995, Ken spent much of his career in the manufacturing field. Having seen the outstanding results that Six Sigma produced for companies such as Motorola, Sony, and GE, Ken saw an opportunity for Quest Diagnostics to lead healthcare services to a new level of quality.

How Six Sigma Works At Quest Diagnostics, we are driven by customer focus. The Six Sigma method starts by asking the fundamental question: What is critical to our customers? Then rigorous analysis is applied to all processes in the business to assess whether we are delivering what customers require. Each time processes don't deliver, that is a defect. We are passionate about using data to uncover the root causes of those defects and improving our process measures. Our ultimate objective with Six Sigma is to deliver to customers what is critical to them each and every time to strive to achieve "virtual perfection.

What's the typical goal of a Six Sigma project at Quest Diagnostics? The typical goal of a Six Sigma project is a 50% reduction in the number of defects as defined by each project.

What kind of impact has Six Sigma had on Quest Diagnostics? Financial and otherwise? Six Sigma has made a cultural impact on how everyone in the company performs their jobs. Quest Diagnostics has successfully trained 24,000 employees on the basic concepts of Six Sigma and has integrated these concepts into the daily work life of every employee. We expect that Six Sigma will start to realize cost savings and volume growth starting in 2002.

Overall, under Freemans leadership the market capitalization of Quest Diagnostics increased from $350 million at the time of the spin-off to $10 billion-plus when he handed over the reins to his successor in 2004.