Benefits of an LIS

The Benefits of a Laboratory Information System

What are the benefits of an LIS? A Laboratory Information System will pay for itself. When you are paying for a laboratory technologist, you are paying for their training and skills. Consider how much time (and associated labor cost) your lab techs spend performing tasks that don’t utilize their training and skills. Here are just a few things that can add cost and decrease reliability:

Transposing results from an analyzer onto a report or into a patient record.
Delivering the report or faxing the report to the appropriate location(s).
Manually looking up past results and performing other data mining / research.
Keeping track of their activities and which patient records were modified.
Manually typing test orders directly into the analyzers.

All of this and more can be eliminated when you automate the process with an LIS.

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The importance of patient results

It’s a fact that the majority of clinical diagnosis are made based on laboratory results. Incorrect results could lead to incorrect diagnosis. This means that it’s absolutely critical that laboratory results are accurate. How do you eliminate the possibility of human error? Transposing numbers, placing a decimal in the wrong location, entering the information on the wrong patient record are all possibilities when data is manually entered. These are all things that have happened in labs.

A Laboratory Information System will eliminate human error by transmitting numbers directly from the analyzers to the patient record, the final report, and other systems such as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). Results from the LIS are accurate and traceable back to the source.

The Lab Report – Your Lab’s Deliverables

All lab work results in one key product: the laboratory report. This is the document that physicians review to diagnose the condition of their patients. Like the integrity of the results, the integrity (readability, clarity, and accuracy) of the report also plays an important role in the quality of care delivered.

Flags: Any results out of the “normal” range should be flagged to quickly catch the physician’s eye. If the flags are not present, or are a distance away from the result they belong to, or are confusing in any way, the report is lacking the clarity it needs. Again, this could have a negative impact on patient care.

Timeliness: Are some results required right away (stat)? Do you have to wait for the data to be entered into a report before it can be delivered (manual processes)? A Laboratory Information System can provide a variety of ways to get the information out in a timely fashion: interim reports, automatic faxing, automatic e-mailing, and batch reporting.

Formats: There are many ways patient information can be displayed. Lab reports are even being shared directly with patients. A Laboratory Information System can provide various reporting formats and types to accommodate individual needs. Interim reports, final reports, and cumulative summary reports in a variety of formats will enhance the quality and professionalism of your laboratory product.

Regulatory Compliance

A Laboratory Information System will provide multiple ways of meeting compliance requirements: security with password protection, password expiration, automatic user logoff, tracking lab technician changes to patient records, house and track quality control data, and provide the ability to look up specific transactions by operator.

Your LIS can also track when results are at a ‘Panic’ level and not only require the lab tech to contact the physician, but also track all communication attempts. Another fundamental capability an LIS can provide is tracking changes to test normal ranges. Thus, any patient reports reflect the proper ranges at the time the patient was tested.