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How Laboratory Information Systems Help Lab Operators Overcome Industry-Wide Staffing Shortages
May 6, 2025
Clinical labs and pathology groups are processing an increased workload of patient samples, causing lab directors and managers to face the formidable challenge of enhancing their laboratory workflow management practices to meet the steep rise. This growing pressure to deliver is occurring alongside the current problem of widespread laboratory staffing shortages, including a seriously shrinking pool of medical laboratory technicians.
Modern medical laboratories rely on a multitude of internal pathology lab management workflow processes to run smoothly, including:
- Sample tracking management
- Patient data management
- Instrument integration
- Inventory audits
- Clinical report generation
- Quality assurance
- Compliance verification
The complexity and scale of operations required to run a successful medical lab demand sophisticated technological solutions. One such solution is a pathology lab software commonly called a laboratory information system (LIS system).
Learn More: The Importance of Pathology Lab Software Testimonials from Satisfied Customers
What Is an Advanced Laboratory Information System (LIS)?
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many healthcare institutions to adopt creative new approaches to resource allocation and patient care. With some medical labs having to process thousands more samples daily, this was done out of necessity. Lab directors and managers sought immediate pathology management software solutions to help them handle the massive increase in volume. For example, they turned to automation of many lab processes to improve turnaround times and minimize the potential for processing errors.
Learn More: Laboratory Information Systems (LIS vs LIMS) for Data Management
Many LIS software packages and laboratory information management system solutions from LIS vendors and LIMS providers support adding automation and digitization to the sample management process. This includes sample registration, tracking them through the sample analysis/processing stage, and lab report generation. However, most laboratory information system vendors offer legacy and off-the-shelf packages that can’t keep up with the need for advanced pathology software solutions and automation. With healthcare’s fast-evolving landscape, medical laboratories are forced to either adapt to new challenges on the fly or suffer the consequences.
Learn More: Comparing LigoLab Informatics Platform with Legacy Laboratory Information System Software
A modern and advanced LIS system facilitates high throughput for a lab, with expedited modern processes that deliver error-free test results and lab reports. For example, LigoLab offers pathology lab reporting software that leverages the latest LIS system technology and completely automates and integrates diverse lab workflows. It operates on a single integrated lab information system and laboratory billing (lab revenue cycle management) platform that also features a direct-to-consumer lab testing web portal. When combined, this suite of applications eliminates data silos and laborious staff-intensive tasks throughout all departments, while also minimizing errors associated with the manual processing of large sample volumes.
LigoLab is geared toward addressing a medical lab’s unique needs. It partners with its customers to deliver a complete, flexible, and configurable laboratory information system software package, creating a niche in the market with its agile and bespoke medical LIS offering.
Learn More: Operational Excellence - It’s Possible When Using the Right Pathology Software
Mitigating the Laboratory Technician Shortage with Advanced LIS Systems
A growing concern for labs is the need for more laboratory specialists and technologists, even as the pool of eligible candidates is shrinking. Some labs have even witnessed a ten-fold increase in job vacancies.
Hiring pathology groups are forced to rely on a floating workforce and traveling technologists, or provide cross-training to their existing staff, to cover clinical lab workflows that don’t require an advanced degree. Staffing shortages are impacting lab growth and revenue opportunities throughout the U.S., with lab directors and managers now facing the challenge of using their limited staff to meet the demands of ever-increasing workloads.
As laboratory staff are tasked with increasing duties, many lab directors and managers are turning to advanced laboratory information systems to help alleviate the rising staff shortage problem and tackle it on an operational level.
Advanced laboratory information systems feature automation lines tailored to a lab’s specific needs, allowing lab directors and managers to adopt rules of operation that can be applied uniformly throughout all LIS lab workflow processes (including the laboratory billing process) and ultimately reduce dependencies on manual tasks.
The best LIS software can help identify the pain points in a particular lab workflow and then support the configuration of automated steps that can eliminate the lags typically caused by reliance on manual interventions. Barcoding of patient samples, for example, has simplified the registration process in many labs, and it also integrates with other laboratory workflow management solutions to automate the process of sample tracking from processing to the delivery of lab reports with test results. Fewer LIS personnel are thus involved in monitoring and ensuring the smooth running of the pathology specimen tracking system feature embedded within an advanced platform.
Learn More: How Specimen Tracking Software Improves Efficiency and Reduces the Chance for Diagnostic Errors
Thus, medical labs are looking toward flexible innovations within the LIS pathology space, which can comprehensively address the growing need for automation and reduce the pressure on the limited number of qualified LIS system personnel available.
Industry Insights: The Rise and Fall of CoPath LIS: A Legacy Casualty of the Modern Lab Information System Era
The Best LIS Software: Key Laboratory Information System Functions
LigoLab’s all-in-one LIS & RCM Laboratory Informatics Platform has comprehensive and advanced automation capability that offers visibility into every step of lab workflow management operations.
Real-time Dashboards
Lab directors and managers can access real-time dashboards and widgets with the LigoLab platform, allowing them to monitor lab workflow performance and immediately identify critical bottlenecks impacting a lab’s efficiency.
When a clinical lab workflow lags at any stage, a real-time dashboard and widgets can help lab directors and managers allocate more resources or configure an efficient automation process that improves throughput and minimizes reliance on LIS lab personnel. Improved visibility and real-time monitoring help the lab to curtail redundancy, identify pain points, and efficiently manage resources.
Interoperability
Further addressing gaps in most legacy LIS systems, LigoLab delivers an interoperable informatics platform that supports interfacing with multiple lab and hospital modalities. The platform can easily establish connectivity with billing software for labs, electronic health record (EHR) systems, and other laboratory software systems/third-party services.
LigoLab’s proprietary interface engine creates a lab interface system known for its connectability. The engine can electronically interface with an EHR system for orders in and orders out, creating an automated LIS pathology solution that offsets the workload of manual order registration and lab report delivery while helping to mitigate staffing shortages.
Barcoding and Sample Tracking
LIS lab workflow with LigoLab is highly configurable, and the LigoLab platform offers barcoding and sample tracking capabilities for improved patient safety throughout processing. For example, LigoLab’s healthcare LIS application automatically generates just-in-time labels with unique identifiers for every sample. Lab staff can use the labels to track samples from start to finish. This automated lab sample management system minimizes manual processing errors and decreases dependencies on the lab’s staff.
Quality Assurance
Most pathology LIS systems integrate a quality assurance (QA) report to validate test results generated from an instrument. These are flagged to a lab technologist for review and verification. LigoLab enables an auto-verification process that scans results and validates them against an algorithm for assuring quality control, automatically approving validated results for report generation. When a set of results needs attention, the LIS system's auto-verification process stacks them into a special queue and flags them for the technician to review.
This improves overall lab report quality and automates the process, eliminating redundant tasks and maximizing staff resources. Auto-verification can thus mitigate some difficulties arising from the non-availability of sufficient staff resources.
Learn More: A Detailed Look at How Modern Laboratory Information Systems Fully Support Quality Control
Customized Lab Reports
In addition to creating an automated environment resilient to staff shortages, LigoLab’s laboratory information system functions include unlimited lab report customizations, enabling labs to utilize the report-building template engine to differentiate themselves in an ultra-competitive market. Labs can address unique clinician/patient/doctor needs and build templates that support images, inserts, diagrams, and rich text with customized color schemes.
Once the lab report has been generated, the pathology reporting software can be programmed to distribute it to the tagged consulting physician or department through various channels, including electronic health records.
Learn More: How LigoLab's Pathology Lab Software Supports Lab Report Customization and Client Preferences
Compliance
LigoLab automates compliance verification at every stage, reducing audit risks and revenue loss by ensuring clinicians work within Good Lab Practices regulations (e.g., CAP, CLIA, HIPAA). This saves staff time daily and reduces the time needed to prepare for inspections and audits.
Learn More: Supporting Innovation: How LigoLab Empowers Labs to Develop and Validate Their LDTs
Extensive Customer Support
LigoLab is fully aware of the evolving needs of a clinical lab or pathology group and offers tailored customer support and training to enhance workflow efficiency with automation. LigoLab caters to a range of users and provides extensive training for lab directors and managers to take ownership and handle platform configurations and customizations themselves. Technical support is also readily available to help clinicians when the need arises.
Learn More: Navigating the Future of Pathology: The LigoLab Advantage
Laboratory Revenue Cycle Management (lab RCM)
LigoLab’s integrated LIS system and lab billing modules embedded within its informatics platform create unique opportunities for customers to add new revenue lines and scale their operations. Both modules share the same database and pathology lab software infrastructure, eliminating harmful data silos and enabling claims tracking and RCM cycle integration at order inception - a key to lowering denials and improving the bottom line.
The real-time monitoring and validation capacity enables error scrubbing through every stage of the laboratory billing process and prevents denials downstream. LigoLab’s lab RCM module is fully automated and compliant with regulations. It requires minimal intervention from administrators to perform administrative tasks and track claims.
Digitally Transform and Grow with a Modern Laboratory Information System Solution
The unlimited interoperability and customization embedded within the LigoLab platform provide customers with unique opportunities to expand their lab’s business despite industry-wide staff shortages. Moreover, by incorporating a highly customized automation lab workflow to deliver error-free reports, LigoLab’s pathology lab management solution helps medical labs retain customers (and go after new ones) as their test menus expand and their businesses grow.
On-Demand Webinar: Leverage LIS System Rules, Automation, and Data Analytics to Increase Efficiency and Cut Costs
Still Think All LIS Systems Are the Same?
“If a medical lab thinks laboratory information systems are commodities and all the same, it’s in for a shock,” said Suren Avunjian (LigoLab CEO since jointly founding the company in 2006).
Ready to experience the power and performance an advanced LIS system can bring to your business? Now is the time to contact LigoLab for a brief consultation before scheduling a LIS system software demonstration.
