Quest Diagnostics 2008 Annual Report Download - page 43

and other system conversions, telecommunications failures, malicious human acts (such as electronic
break-ins or computer viruses) or natural disasters.
(o) Development of technologies that substantially alter the practice of clinical test medicine, including
technology changes that lead to the development of more cost-effective tests such as (1) point-of-care
tests that can be performed by physicians in their offices, (2) esoteric tests that can be performed by
hospitals in their own laboratories or (3) home testing that can be carried out without requiring the
services of clinical laboratories.
(p) Issuance of patents or other property rights to our competitors or others that could prevent, limit or
interfere with our ability to develop, perform or sell our tests or operate our business.
(q) Development of tests by our competitors or others which we may not be able to license, or usage of
our technology or similar technologies or our trade secrets by competitors, any of which could
negatively affect our competitive position.
(r) Regulatory delay or inability to commercialize newly developed or licensed products, tests or
technologies or to obtain appropriate reimbursements for such tests.
(s) Inability to obtain or maintain adequate patent and other proprietary rights protections of our products
and services or to successfully enforce our proprietary rights.
(t) Impact of any national healthcare information network and the adoption of standards for health
information technology interoperability that are incompatible with existing software and hardware
infrastructure requiring widespread replacement of systems and/or software.
(u) Inability to promptly or properly bill for our services or to obtain appropriate payments for services that
we do bill.
(v) Changes in interest rates and changes in our credit ratings from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s
Investor Services causing an unfavorable impact on our cost of and access to capital.
(w) Inability to hire and retain qualified personnel or the loss of the services of one or more of our key
senior management personnel.
(x) Terrorist and other criminal activities, hurricanes, earthquakes or other natural disasters, which could
affect our customers, transportation or systems, or our facilities, and for which insurance may not
adequately reimburse us.
(y) Difficulties and uncertainties in the discovery, development, regulatory environment and/or marketing of
new products or new uses of existing products.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
There are no unresolved SEC comments that require disclosure.
Item 2. Properties
Our executive offices are located in Madison, New Jersey. We maintain clinical testing laboratories in major
metropolitan areas and elsewhere throughout the continental United States; in several instances a joint venture of
which we are a partner maintains the laboratory. We also maintain offices, data centers, billing centers, call
centers, an assembly center, distribution centers, and a clinical trials testing laboratory at locations throughout the
United States. In addition, we maintain offices, manufacturing facilities and clinical laboratories in locations
outside the United States, including in Sweden, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the United Kingdom, India and Australia.
Our properties that are not owned are leased on terms and for durations that are reflective of commercial
standards in the communities where these properties are located. We believe that, in general, our facilities are
suitable and adequate for our current and anticipated future levels of operation and are adequately maintained.
We believe that if we were unable to renew a lease on any of our facilities, we could find alternative space at
competitive market rates and relocate our operations to such new location without material disruption to our
business. Several of our principal facilities are highlighted below.
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