How ECPC is Leveraging LigoLab’s LIS System to Streamline Pathology Lab Workflow and Expand Laboratory Operations

Dr. Elizabeth Rinehart and Dr. Michael Hitchcock are young, talented pathologists. They represent a bright future for Eastern Connecticut Pathology Consultants (ECPC), a fast-growing practice that provides pathology services, physician office laboratory management (POLs), and advanced diagnostic testing for hospitals, cancer centers, physician office laboratories, and patients throughout southern New England. 

Recently, both doctors, along with Kristen Conley, Chief Information Officer at ECPC, shared what they experienced in 2020 and 2021 - a challenging time that included an aggressive timeline to implement LigoLab’s all-in-one laboratory information system (LIS) platform during a global pandemic and while establishing their “new normal.”

We’ve compiled what we learned from Rinehart, Hitchcock, and Conley into a two-part case study that demonstrates how to effectively execute a business plan and scale laboratory operations with a group of highly motivated physicians and laboratory professionals, and with the support of a responsive and business-savvy LIS company – LigoLab.

In part one of this lab information system case study, we highlighted how ECPC’s partnership with LigoLab began quickly after a phone conversation between one of the practice’s pathologists and a colleague working at another practice in Colorado. Additionally, Conley explained how the call couldn’t have come at a better time.  ECPC was underwhelmed by the usability, flexibility, and responsiveness of other pathology lab management systems put forth by laboratory information system software vendors in the marketplace while searching for anatomic pathology LIS software that best aligned with their business plans.

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

“Before becoming familiar with LigoLab, it felt like whatever decision we were going to make, we would be settling,” said Conley, who jumped at the opportunity to learn more about LigoLab’s all-in-one laboratory information system (with the latest laboratory billing solutions embedded within the platform) and began to have discussions with LigoLab’s CEO Suren Avunjian in late December of 2019. 

To read part one of the study, we invite you to click on the link below. You’ll learn how both modern laboratory information system functions and cost alignment positioned LigoLab as the best LIS software for ECPC. You’ll also learn more about ECPC’s LIS system implementation experience and how LigoLab’s innovative and future-ready anatomical pathology software solution helped fuel the expansion plans for this dynamic group of pathologists.

ECPC Case Study, Part 1: Learn How LigoLab’s LIS System Became the Centerpiece of Change for ECPC, a Thriving New England Pathology Practice

Laboratory Information System Implementation and Training 

In part two of this ECPC/laboratory information system software case study, we’ll focus on the shared experiences of Rinehart and Hitchcock as they transitioned to the LigoLab platform and adjusted to a new and uncertain work environment due to COVID-19.  We’ll learn about their first impressions of LigoLab’s advanced anatomical pathology software module and the elements that helped them provide superior diagnostic patient care in a more streamlined manner with improved turnaround times. Lastly, we’ll get their thoughts on the future of anatomic pathology and what makes them proud to call ECPC their work home. 

Meet Dr. Elizabeth Rinehart and Dr. Michael Hitchcock

Dr. Elizabeth Rinehart joined ECPC in the summer of 2017. She earned her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She concluded her residency and fellowship at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, serving as Chief Resident in Anatomic Pathology during the 2014 academic year. She is board-certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and specializes in gastrointestinal, liver, and pancreaticobiliary pathology.

Like Dr. Rinehart, ECPC is also the first professional home for Dr. Michael Hitchcock. He is board-certified in Hematopathology and in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. Dr. Hitchcock received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and completed his residency at Baylor University Medical Center, where he served as Chief Resident. He completed fellowship training at Baylor University Medical School. He joined ECPC in July 2017.

During our interview, both doctors reflected on their experiences in 2020 and 2021 and the moment when they fully understood how profoundly COVID-19 would affect their personal and professional lives.

White Paper: How Labs Can Achieve Financial Stability During Turbulent Times

Stabilization and LIS System Training During Uncertain Times

“First, there was the anxiety of having a new transmissible infection that was likely to be widespread in a very short amount of time,” recalled Hitchcock. “About work, it was a huge shift. First, we all stabilized and tried to individually stay at one site, rather than provide cross-coverage at multiple sites and multiple hospitals.” 

“We tried to limit ourselves to only one site so that the pathologists weren't potentially cross-contaminating each other,” said Rinehart. “By limiting our in-person interactions, we also limited the potential fallout should somebody contract the coronavirus or have to provide care to somebody who had.”

As one might expect, anatomic pathology case volumes fell toward the end of March and stayed below normal for all of April 2020, but the numbers rebounded quickly in the months that followed. For Hitchcock, this allowed him to educate himself about the virus.

“As all this was happening, questions arose rapidly because everybody was trying to get as much information as they could about the new virus,” he said. “I, for one, spent an enormous amount of time online going through medical journals, webinars, and other literature searches to learn as much information as possible to help us make informed decisions about testing. At that moment, anatomic pathology was somewhat of an afterthought as clinical pathology went into overdrive.”

Thankfully, the pathologists gradually transitioned to more normal operations, enabling Rinehart and her colleagues to, once again, cover multiple sites.

More normal operations were a welcome change for Rinehart, who said that daily interactions among pathologists are critical to providing the best patient care.

“Those interactions are routine, and not just between Mike and me, but with several of our organization’s pathologists throughout the day.  Our communication often goes beyond patient cases into logistical conversations about scheduling and things of that nature,” she said. “Being able to communicate is paramount for our practice, especially with all the different sites and levels of care that we offer. The degree of communication between doctors is quite broad, and it occurs every day.”

In addition to learning more about the virus and its implications, both doctors also used the brief period with lower-than-normal volumes to become familiar with LigoLab’s anatomic pathology LIS software solution, embedded within a new laboratory information system that ECPC had recently implemented.

“I started covering Harrington Hospital in March of 2020, right around the time we implemented LigoLab,” said Rinehart. “Dr. Aneta Rafalowski had already been trained on the LIS software platform and knew the basics of how to sign out cases. I spent an afternoon with her for training and then worked from home the next two days, gradually learning the nuances of LigoLab and its many applications.”

While working from home, Rinehart was able to log in to LigoLab’s training and production environments.

“That allowed me to toy around with creating macros, taking pictures, and creating synoptic tables. I also learned basic keystrokes for creating an addendum, as well as many other tasks, such as corrections, amendments, and creating worklists. I spent those days learning while also trying to stay current with the coronavirus and CDC guidelines and recommendations,” she said. “In terms of being able to sign out cases and utilize my report templates, macros, and things of that nature, I felt pretty comfortable within about a week.”

Hitchcock said it didn’t take him long to develop a comfort level with the elements of LigoLab’s anatomic pathology software module he relies on daily, and he thanked Rinehart for making that possible. 

“It was nice to have a superuser like her,” he said. “When I started with LigoLab, our volumes were already picking back up, so it was important for me to get up to speed and sign out cases in a short amount of time.”

Discover More: Pathology Lab Reporting Software - Enhancing Laboratory Efficiency

How the Lab Information System Helped Streamline ECPC’s Lab Workflow

Both doctors agreed that LigoLab’s anatomic pathology LIS software helped to streamline their workflows. 

“My favorite thing about LigoLab is that I can put in a final diagnosis and it links everything together,” said Hitchcock. “It brings in the microscopic description and the comment, and I can do things very quickly. About 40 to 50 percent of my sign-outs are GI cases, and those are very fast, text-heavy, and highly repetitive for me.”

“I would agree with Mike in terms of quick texts being very helpful. I, too, like being able to link the quick text from the microscopic description to the report comments,” added Rinehart.

As noted earlier, the dip in volumes didn’t last long. Hitchcock credited strong laboratory leadership with developing a plan of action and then executing it. 

“We had to decide quickly how we were going to try to get testing back up again, how we were going to triage materials, and how we were going to isolate patients,” he said. “Once you have a plan and everyone is on board, then you can start to get patients back into your facilities. In terms of patient trepidation, there wasn’t as much as we would have thought.”

Industry Insights: ECPC’s Strategic Leap into Digital Pathology - A Connected Vision for the Future

The Future of Anatomic Pathology Software and LIS Systems

Both doctors also welcomed the opportunity to look into the future of anatomic pathology, a future that’s progressively becoming molecular-based.

“The trends of the last 10 years continue, we get smaller and smaller pieces of tissue, and we try to do more and more,” said Hitchcock. “It seems like each month, a new biomarker comes out, and we need to decide whether or not it has clinical implications. Is it useful? How expensive is it to test for? How much tissue will we need to perform that testing? Of course, cancer is the biggest domain where we concentrate the most effort, and that's driving the decisions we make.”

Hitchcock also pointed to the FDA’s emergency use authorization for remote pathology services during COVID-19 as a development worth watching moving forward.

“This has allowed us to reimagine how we provide diagnostic services. It has opened the door for a lot of new technology, new workflows, and the potential for digital pathology,” he said, while also noting that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to aid pathologists with their diagnoses continues to accelerate at a massive rate. 

Discover More: Best Practices for Preparing Medical Labs for AI Integration in Technical and Financial Operations

What’s Great About ECPC

When asked what they like best about ECPC, both doctors mentioned diversity and important ties to the community.

“We have the private practice aspect while still being community hospital-based, which means we don’t feel like we’re being siloed off in our lab doing our own thing.  We have a broad array of subspecialty expertise, enabling us to provide quality diagnostic services to our patients. We also work with various physicians’ office labs, and by having those relationships with individual physicians and hospital clinicians, we’re able to tie everything together,” stated Rinehart.

“ECPC has had a lot of success and has been going through growth that at times feels exponential, and part of that success comes from being very nimble,” continued Hitchcock. “We are not a behemoth in terms of providing pathology services, but we have a strong outreach program with physicians. We're able to talk with them, find out what they need from us, and then adapt to their needs.” 

“That was a big push for why we wanted LigoLab. Having a modern in-house laboratory information system allows us to respond very quickly to the needs of our clinical colleagues, and thus the patients we serve,” he said. “It also gives the practice an advantage when the hospitals’ LIS systems are sunsetting or being replaced due to a lack of future support.”

Discover More: What To Do When Your Laboratory Information System Is Sunsetting

Continuing ECPC’s Growth and Commitment to Quality

As covered in part one of this series, ECPC has used strong laboratory leadership and its partnership with LigoLab to expand operations and better serve southern New England, all while staying true to its core values. The practice continues to embrace a collaborative approach focused on delivering comprehensive, clear, accurate, and timely results, with unwavering dedication to patient care and around-the-clock accessibility.

To learn more about ECPC, visit ecpclab.com. For detailed information about LigoLab’s all-in-one laboratory information system and laboratory billing informatics platform, contact a product specialist or explore the useful links below.

Discover More: Why Integrated LIS System and Lab RCM Software is a Catalyst for Growth

White Paper: Why a Comprehensive Digital Platform Outperforms a Traditional Lab Information System‍