LigoLab’s News and Notes Blog: Let’s Recognize Two of the Fastest Growing Labs in the Country

As we move into April, we at LigoLab would like to take a moment to recognize two client laboratories that rank among the fastest-growing in the country. Let’s take a few minutes to review how they got there and how other independent laboratories can follow a similar path.

Northwest Laboratory Celebrates the Anniversary of its First Reportable COVID-19 Test 

Just over one year ago on March 28, 2020, Northwest Laboratory (now known as Avero Diagnostics) reported its first COVID-19 test result. The laboratory, based out of Bellingham, Washington, has since gone on to surpass 1.6 million COVID-19 tests for patients in 40 states and Canada, providing full-service and a state-of-the-art facility to a wide range of clients while also expanding to nearly 500 employees. The laboratory can handle 25,000 COVID-19 tests per day, all while also providing swift turnaround times of 24-48 hours for patient test results in over 99 percent of the cases.

NWL was the first laboratory to embrace the TestDirectly direct-to-consumer lab testing portal to aid in the collection, processing, and reporting of COVID-19 tests for all of Florida’s 4,000 long-term care facilities in the early days of the pandemic. After completing the statewide screening mission, the laboratory expanded its COVID-19 coverage to include testing services for more long-term care facilities, plus drive-through and walk-up collection sites, hospitals, schools, universities, and even the Washington State Department of Corrections.

With thousands of COVID-19 samples coming into the laboratory daily, NWL also continues to benefit from LigoLab’s customizable rule engine that largely automates client laboratory billing and claims reimbursement through the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) program.

For more details on how it all started and how Northwest Laboratory was able to quickly scale to meet the testing demands of its community and beyond, check out these links:

Northwest Laboratory Leads the Way with its 24-Hour Commitment to COVID-19 Test Results

Northwest Laboratory Reach COVID-19 Testing Milestone

Northwest Laboratory is a division of Northwest Pathology (NWP), which has been providing a wide range of pathology services for northwest Washington for over 25 years. 

Just over six years ago, NWP began a LIS laboratory information system (LIS meaning medical) partnership with LigoLab, and two-plus years ago it switched from its legacy laboratory revenue cycle management (lab RCM) vendor to LigoLab’s fully integrated LIS & RCM Informatics Platform. LigoLab’s all-in-one LIS software solution unites all LIS system and lab revenue cycle management workflows into one powerful software infrastructure that eliminates data silos and enables the lab billing cycle to begin at order inception.

Just months into this new partnership, NWP was already witnessing sizable gains in efficiency, accuracy, and most importantly, net collections. 

To learn how the LigoLab platform leverages integration and lab RCM automation to reduce denials and audit risk for NWP and NWL, we invite you to read the following case study.

Read More:  Leveraging LIS & RCM Integration to Improve the Laboratory Billing Process

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LigoLab LIS System Customer Featured in The Dark Report

A leading all-purpose medical lab has also used LigoLab’s fully integrated, comprehensive, and flexible laboratory information system software platform to support all of its laboratory and financial operations for two-plus years. 

The medical lab was quickly able to pivot and add molecular testing (molecular lab software) to its growing histopathology business just as the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was hitting central Illinois. To learn how the lab’s CEO and team were able to transform and expand the pathology lab into a facility handling 15,000 COVID-19 samples per day, check out this LigoLab case study that was published just days after the lab surpassed one million COVID-19 tests. 

As we write this blog, the lab is just days away from surpassing two million COVID-19 tests as it continues to serve hospitals, long-term care facilities, employers, schools, and government agencies like the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Department of Corrections. 

The lab has also used TestDirectly and TestDirectly.com to support its collection, processing, and reporting of COVID-19 specimens coming from multiple drive-through and mobile testing sites located throughout the state. Back in October, we highlighted the lab’s partnership with the DuPage County Health Department, one of the many partnerships the lab has established with public health agencies to provide fast and accurate testing services.

The lab also recently achieved CAP accreditation with a perfect score and it was among the first labs in the country to detect the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variants.

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LigoLab: Our LIS Laboratory Information System Helps Labs Grow and Thrive

To learn more about LigoLab’s enterprise-grade LIS software solution and how it enables independent medical laboratories to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, scale their operations, and become more profitable, we invite you to schedule your personalized LigoLab LIS software demonstration by clicking on this link: Request a Demo.