LIS Webinar Recap - How to Beat Pathologist Burnout and Combat Staffing Shortages

One down and many more planned.

That was the collective feeling after Suren Avunjian, Petros Martirosian, and I wrapped up a LigoLab webinar on how modern laboratory information system (LIS meaning in medical) solutions can help beat pathologist burnout and laboratory staffing shortages. 

It was said during the webinar and I’ll repeat it here. We’re all excited to bring our audience more webinars that will provide an open forum and help you and your colleagues better understand how implementing modern technologies can help clinical laboratories and pathology practices efficiently scale their operations and drive staff satisfaction. 

We’ve already started planning the next webinar, so stay tuned for more information in the coming days. 

Learn More: A Conversation With LIS System Administrator Kristie Becerra

Addressing Pathologist Burnout, its Causes, and its Consequences 

We opened the webinar by clearly establishing that pathologist burnout and a lack of qualified medical laboratory technologists are two serious interrelated issues that all pathology labs face daily. 

We highlighted a 2020 poll conducted by the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) that showed 71.4 percent of practicing pathologists had experienced burnout symptoms in the past and that nearly 33 percent reported burnout as something that was affecting them currently. 

The poll also identified what was causing so much workplace stress, including the lack of autonomy, bureaucracy related to regulatory and compliance issues, challenges with pathology reporting software like laboratory information systems (LIS software) and electronic health records (EHRs), volatility in the marketplace (mergers and acquisitions), workload, isolation, a lack of qualified staff, and support staff turnover. 

Add all this on top of the constant pressure to deliver accurate case results and short turnaround times and it’s easy to see why the problem exists and how it raises the likelihood of a mistake that could lead to severe consequences for the pathologist, his or her practice, and the patient.  

Learn More: Is Your Pathology Lab Reporting Software System Outdated and Lacking Functionality?

The Role of Advanced Technology and LIS Laboratory Information System Automation 

Next, we heard from Suren, who relayed some sobering numbers showing how serious the problem has become.

“With over 1,000 pathologist job openings on the market, only 500 or so are entering the workforce each year,” he said. “Practicing pathologists are overburdened with case volumes, and the burnout rate is among the highest in the medical field.”

Suren continued by saying pathologist burnout is a multi-faceted issue requiring a comprehensive approach to address it effectively, starting with simplifying pathology lab workflow management. 

“By simplifying pathologists’ daily work as much as possible and adding automation to remove the redundant steps and clicks performed hundreds of times a day, advanced LIS pathology software can significantly impact productivity and, more importantly, job satisfaction.”

Suren recommended a proactive approach shared by the lab and laboratory information system companies to reduce burnout rates and improve overall job satisfaction and staff well-being. 

Learn More: What You Need to Know Before Contracting with a Laboratory Information System (LIS) Company

After that, he updated listeners on the recent steps LigoLab has taken to improve its LIS software.

“We recently hired top UI and UX researchers and designers to continue our commitment to improving the product and the industry,” he said. “We also are conducting extensive lab information system software user research with dozens of pathologists within our client advisory group and laboratory staff to take the solution to the next level. We want to improve the user interface further and reduce the cognitive load on the user base.”

Learn More: Lab Information Systems—Where the Needs are Greatest

Out of the Box LIS System Solutions to Minimize Clicks 

Suren finished his remarks and introduced Petros, who led the audience through a video demonstration of how LigoLab’s LIS system removes redundancy and helps pathologists sign out cases faster. His anatomic pathology software demonstration included basic case scenarios like:

• Sign out with a diagnosis template
• Sign out with a camera
• Sign out without a camera
• Sign out while using dictation software 

Petros closed the anatomic pathology software demonstration by entering a case result and then releasing that case without a single mouse click.

Interactive Q&A and Key LIS System Software Takeaways

Upon the conclusion of the LIS system demonstration, the audience engaged in a Q&A with Suren and Petros. Several follow-up questions were asked, including how the LigoLab Informatics Platform interacts with dictation software, and if a future LIS pathology webinar could dive deeper into how these two laboratory software systems complement each other. 

From there, we closed the pathology lab software webinar with what we believe to be the key takeaways for those who attended.

• The impacts of pathologist burnout and staffing shortages are widespread in the industry.
• Modern pathology software and LIS system automation can streamline and improve laboratory performance.
• An efficient user interface can increase pathologist productivity.
• With the best LIS systems, it’s possible to work and release a case without a single mouse click.
• A viable long-term solution to what’s causing the stress is within reach. 

We also suggested that all attendees share the Petros pathology LIS software demonstration shown earlier with their colleagues.

For those who may have missed this webinar, we've included the webinar recording below.

If you have a topic for a future LIS webinar reach us at Info@LigoLab.com.

If you’re ready to see what difference a modern lab information system can make contact us today to set up a quick call.