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Laboratory Information System Software and its Role in Overcoming Laboratory Staffing Challenges
May 28, 2024
(This is part two of a three-part series of laboratory staffing articles).
Welcome to part two of our blog series on laboratory staffing challenges, where we’re uncovering the root causes of the problem and identifying possible solutions for lab directors and managers to consider.
For part one, we sat down with Dr. James Crawford, Senior Vice President for Laboratory Services at Northwell Health and Professor and Chair of Pathology/Lab Medicine at the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Crawford shared his point of view on topics such as recruitment, compensation, career advancement, and process improvements. Follow this link to review part one in its entirety.
For part two, we turned to Bri Spencer, Molecular Lab Manager at Avero Diagnostics for a deep dive into how the growing lab operation, which specializes in anatomic pathology, clinical laboratory, and molecular diagnostics, is utilizing new pathology reporting software technology and a spirit of innovation to streamline its laboratory workflow management and remove time-consuming and redundant manual processes.
First, here’s a recap of the current situation.
Modern Laboratory Information Systems: The Long-term Solution to Staffing Challenges
As every lab professional knows, medical laboratories play a critical role in healthcare. Nearly every time a patient enters a hospital or healthcare facility, their diagnosis is in the hands of a medical laboratory professional. Unfortunately, the industry is in a precarious situation right now. It’s experiencing unprecedented labor shortages, especially for medical laboratory technologists.
The American Society for Clinical Pathology released a report in 2018 that found an average vacancy rate of nearly 9 percent in almost every lab specialty. In some departments, the rate was as high as an eye-popping 25 percent. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics supported these findings by estimating that the industry needs to increase its laboratory technologists and technicians workforce by nearly 13 percent, almost doubling the needed increase in all other occupations. That means the industry, consisting of roughly 335,500 medical professionals, could soon be short nearly 44,000 workers.
The good news is that there are modern laboratory information system software (LIS abbreviation medical) tools that lab directors and managers can use to help. In part one of our series, we identified that a modern laboratory information system (LIS system) should be part of any long-term pathology lab management solution to the staffing crisis by making medical laboratories more efficient and less reliant on manual steps.
LIS system software solutions like the LigoLab LIS & RCM Laboratory Informatics Platform help manage all aspects of diagnostic testing for medical labs. LIS systems serve as the driver of laboratory data, supporting the patient and the specimen lifecycle as it’s inputted into the LIS system, and then tracked, processed, and reported on. These LIS systems also enable lab directors and managers to build rules and deploy automation that helps compensate for knowledge loss and employee turnover.
As Spencer shared below, that’s exactly how Avero is overcoming some of its staffing challenges.
How Avero Leveraged its Lab Information System to Simplify its Molecular Lab Operations
Avero had already chosen to partner with LigoLab and use the LigoLab platform to support laboratory operational and financial operations when the pandemic hit. It was also an early adopter of the LigoLab’s direct-to-consumer lab testing patient portal, called TestDirectly, an application that played a critical role in helping the lab streamline its services during the COVID-19 outbreak. The full-service lab had to scale its molecular PCR testing capacity very quickly to meet pandemic-driven demand. In fact, at the height of COVID-19 waves, the lab was processing a daily throughput north of 20,000 specimens.
Learn More: Leveraging LIS System & Lab RCM Integration to Improve the Laboratory Billing Process
“For our COVID-19 testing program to be successful, we had to be extremely accurate and our turnaround times had to be incredibly fast,” said Spencer. “But we were up against staffing shortages and extreme demand. As such, manual order entry and follow-up chokepoints had to be removed and replaced to accommodate the demand.”
According to Spencer, Avero would not have been able to quickly scale up and meet the molecular testing demand without LigoLab’s agile pathology reporting software and all-in-one LIS system, which offered a wide range of configurations to accommodate new clinical laboratory workflow. It also featured a proprietary interface engine that maximized connectivity and enabled the lab to quickly add new analyzers and robotics to boost throughput.
Another key was the introduction of TestDirectly and TestDirectly.com direct-to-consumer lab testing via a web-based patient portal that seamlessly connected patients to a digital process that eliminated paper forms and removed the accessioning bottleneck with online patient self-registration and scheduling. The portal also automated report delivery with email and text notifications sent directly to patients and other stakeholders. Most importantly, the portal enabled Avero to manage a huge daily capacity without sacrificing testing accuracy or turnaround times.
Learn More: Highlighting the Versatility of the TestDirectly Direct-to-Consumer Lab Testing Portal
Innovation and the Adoption of New Laboratory Information System Technology to Meet Unprecedented Demand
By leveraging pathology reporting software via LigoLab’s LIS system and direct-to-consumer lab testing portal, Avero was able to process thousands of molecular PCR tests daily, and well over a million cases in the pandemic’s first year, and all this was accomplished with an incredible 98 percent of cases reported to patients and stakeholders within 24 hours of the lab’s receipt of the specimen.
This would not have been possible without a true spirit of innovation behind the Avero-LigoLab partnership, and a flexible and supportive informatics platform to manage everything from patient self-registration and scheduling of tests to specimen collection and laboratory processing, to report delivery and laboratory billing for services rendered.
“During public health events like the COVID-19 pandemic, time is a critical factor,” added Spencer. “Patients, healthcare workers, and public health officials all need to know in real-time what’s happening during an outbreak. That’s nearly impossible to do with manual processes, and that’s another reason why technology adoption is a must for today’s labs.”
The decision to implement new technology at the height of the pandemic was a risky one, but it paid off for Avero Diagnostics. Throughout the pandemic, the lab served as a trusted testing partner for several drive-through collection sites in multiple states. It also partnered with public health departments and other government agencies like the Florida Department of Health and the Washington State Department of Corrections. Additionally, it also supported organizational testing for employers, school and university systems, the entertainment and production industry, and more.
Final Thoughts About Laboratory Information System Software
Although the latest laboratory information system technology doesn’t replace the critical work that highly trained lab professionals perform, it can help ease some of the burden caused by today’s staffing challenges, empowering medical laboratory technologists to spend less time on redundant and manual tasks, and more time putting their unique skills and training to good use and better patient outcomes.
Going even further, if a medical laboratory has plans to scale faster and become more profitable, it must operate more effectively by automating core processes that streamline both operational and financial performance.
About LigoLab
LigoLab is an award-winning provider of innovative end-to-end healthcare laboratory information system software for pathology laboratories, servicing nearly 300 facilities nationwide. As a comprehensive enterprise-grade pathology software solution, the LigoLab LIS & RCM Laboratory Informatics Platform™ includes modules for anatomic pathology, clinical laboratory, molecular diagnostics, lab revenue cycle management, and direct-to-consumer lab testing, all on one powerful and integrated software platform that supports every role, every department, and every case.
LigoLab empowers medical laboratories to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, scale their operations, and become more compliant and profitable.
