I was getting a demo of an EHR software a couple days ago and they were showing me the results area of the EHR. As I looked at the interface for the lab results it basically assumed there was a lab interface with the EHR. I imagine they have some way to manage scanned lab results for someone who doesn’t have a lab interface with their EHR, but I realized at that moment that lab interfaces are now just a standard with every EHR.
Are any EHR users not doing a lab interface?
I imagine there are some exceptions and some stragglers. I bet there are also quite a few places where the lab won’t interface with the EHR software or vice versa. It’s too bad when this is the case, but it’s understandable when an organization chooses not to do it if the EHR vendor and/or lab is charging them to create the interface.
With those exceptions in mind, I expect that most EHR implementations will have a lab interface. I remember on my first EHR implementation implementing the lab interface was one of the best decisions we made. It was hard work making sure that the lab interface worked properly since we had a custom lab interface done, but once we verified that the interface worked properly it was like manna from heaven.
Sure, lab interfaces can have their own quirks and downtime issues, but those times just remind you how nice it is when the interface does work (which should be most of the time).
I love to think that our EHR’s have gotten to the point where they can basically assume granular lab data. This is a very powerful thing and will become even more powerful over time. I’m sure people can point out plenty of issues with the quality of the lab data. I’d still rather we had data to talk about quality versus wishing we had data at all.
The demand for electronic data movement is real. Lab interfaces with EHR provides lower cost, faster delivery of accurate results, and is more easily configured to meet client requests making a reference laboratory more competitive and profitable.
John – Glad you raised this important topic.
Apart from the cost of building and configuring interfaces for all non-interfaced lab facilities, time-strapped IT personnel also need to manage them on an ongoing basis as EHR and LIS systems are upgraded to keep pace with evolving MU standards.
In lieu of building interfaces, Extract Systems’ LabDE software extracts discrete data from faxed or scanned lab results using OCR with a highly customizable, intelligent rule set to accurately capture the full data set. This tool validates demographics, orders, component values, units, reference ranges, flags and footnotes and then exports via HL7 to any EMR/EHR, LIS or specialty management program (e.g. transplant, oncology, etc.) to give near real-time access to structured lab data.
Unless and until the electronic gap is fully closed by EHR vendors and active HIEs, this will continue to be an issue for providers at both the practice and institutional levels.
I’ve mentioned the example of the specialist I know, still on paper records, with one patient in particular now with 11 years of lab results and treatment variations and no viable way to carefully analyze the results of treatments versus those treatments, let alone set off warnings of negative trends that urgently need to be addressed. Plus the doctor’s desire to be published based on his work in the field, something he can’t really do since he has no clear conclusions to work with. He experiments with different treatments on this patient, but can’t really tell if there is at least some improvement unless it is huge and stares back at him while he reads the paper charts!
[…] following is a great response on LinkedIn by Robert D. Coli, M.D. to my post about Lab Interfaces Being an EHR Standard. I’d love to hear your thoughts about what he says in the […]