Blog
Say Goodbye to Your Testing Bottlenecks With TestDirectly
May 17, 2024
How can my lab simplify workflows and accelerate COVID-19 test results to meet the growing national demand for more access to testing and faster results?
What can be done to boost capacity, remove testing backlogs, eliminate paper requisitions, improve turnaround times, and better manage patient follow-up?
These are the questions that lab directors across the country continue to ask themselves as they search for a way to effectively address all of the issues that they’ve been facing.
Fortunately, there is a new innovative tool on the market that not only removes the barriers and the friction that cause testing and reporting delays, it also directly links laboratories and collection facilities with patients, physicians, companies, and government agencies for fast, safe, and easy testing.
TestDirectly is a dynamic, web-based portal designed to help laboratories increase their ability to handle more COVID-19 testing while also improving upon the time it takes for patients to get their results. The portal makes this possible by replacing paper requisitions with an electronic workflow that eliminates the paperwork and manual processes that lead to order entry bottlenecks and data entry errors.
Interested and want to learn more?
We can help.
The TestDirectly portal was recently featured in great detail at this year’s virtual Executive War College, with Robert Michel (Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Dark Report) leading a discussion that included LigoLab CEO Suren Avunjian and Northwest Laboratory COO Jennifer Bull.
Executive War College Program Highlights:
During this Executive War College appearance, Avunjian, Bull, and Michel discussed how...
- The idea for a direct-to-consumer portal was born pre-pandemic, and how the direct-to-consumer market continues to grow as more and more people are taking control of their own health and becoming more educated about their options.
- In February 2020 the LigoLab Development team pivoted and began designing TestDirectly as a platform that would cater to COVID-19 drive-through testing.
- Northwest Laboratory, a LigoLab partner lab since 2015, became the first laboratory to implement the TestDirectly into its workflow and how the portal, along with the flexible and comprehensive nature of the LigoLab LIS & RCM Operating Platform helped put Northwest Laboratory into a position to accept a state contract from the Florida Department of Health to conduct baseline testing from asymptomatic patients in the state’s 4,000 long term care facilities located in 67 counties.
- From implementation to go-live, the Northwest Laboratory partnership with Florida produced 190,000 test results in four weeks.
- The TestDirectly workflow supported an AL-powered data extraction tool and crowdsourcing to turn handwritten orders into digital data fields, and how this outside-of-the-box thinking was needed because COVID-19 collection and testing began before TestDirectly was fully operational.
- TestDirectly, LigoLab, and Northwest Laboratory helped Florida achieve its goal despite encountering a few roadblocks along the way, and what lessons were learned that have helped going forward.
- LigoLab and Northwest Laboratory continue to collaborate on a daily basis to identify any parts of the collection, testing, and reporting processes that can become more efficient and more quality-driven.
- Northwest Laboratory is now set-up to handle the testing needs of large organizations, universities, and any other large institutions and how it’s now handling its own drive-through implementations, supported by LigoLab’s development team.
- TestDirectly plans to soon support sample collections from home and add new functionality to the workflow that will lead to even more efficiency in the lab and at the collection facility.
Key Quotes From the Participants:
“Our platform targets and eliminates the barriers that can cause reporting delays and it frees laboratories from having to commit large amounts of time on manual order entry and resources for case follow-up.” - Suren Avunjian, CEO, LigoLab Information System
“At Northwest Laboratory, we’re now also set-up to handle the testing needs of large organizations, universities, and any other large institutions. LigoLab’s support, an out-of-the-box solution, and a strong IT department have made this possible, enabling us to quickly go-live with new drive-through locations and get testing up-and-running in 48-to-72 hours.” - Jennifer Bull, COO, Northwest Laboratory
“One of the real themes that came out of this session was the importance of being a master of informatics and being able to digitize and move data to where it needs to be in a timely fashion. Because of the automation of testing, once it gets to the bench, everything goes pretty smoothly. So it’s everything that happens to get it to the bench and then to get the results back to all the different players that are so important. It’s improving your ability to be nimble in the digital age as a laboratory.” - Robert Michel, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, The Dark Report
To learn more about what was discussed at EWC 2020 and how the fully customizable software that powers both LigoLab and TestDirectly has helped Northwest Laboratory process over 500,000 COVID-19 tests in four months, call 818.395.4659 or visit solutions.testdirectly.com.
To Find Out More About TestDirectly and How it Works, Visit These Links:
TestDirectly Simplifies Workflows and Improves Turnaround Times
Introducing TestDirectly, One of LigoLab’s Powerful Supporting Modules
Florida Turns to TestDirectly and Northwest Laboratory to Protect its Seniors from COVID-19
A Better Way to Collect, Process, and Report COVID-19 Tests:
The TestDirectly web portal is available anywhere at any time and supports any LIS. It helps laboratories quickly move to an electronic workflow that addresses the order entry bottleneck while also reducing data entry errors. TestDirectly supports both drive-through and on-site collections with a workflow that expedites patient data collection, billing operations, report delivery, and follow-up. It enables laboratories to boost capacity and improve turnaround times.
To learn more, call 818.395.4659 or visit solutions.testdirectly.com.
