How Laboratory Information Systems Help Lab Operators Overcome Industry-Wide Staffing Shortages

Clinical labs and pathology groups are processing an increased workload of patient samples, and lab managers are faced with the formidable challenge of enhancing their laboratory workflow to meet the steep rise in sample volumes. This rising pressure to deliver is occurring alongside the current problem of widespread laboratory staffing shortages, in particular a shortage of medical laboratory technicians. 

Modern medical laboratories rely on a multitude of internal workflows to run smoothly, including:

• sample 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 demands sophisticated technological solutions. One such solution is a laboratory information system (commonly referred to as a LIS system).   

What Is an Advanced Laboratory Information System and Why Does Your Lab Need One?

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many healthcare institutions to adopt creative approaches to resource allocation and patient care. With some medical labs having to process thousands more samples a day, this was done out of necessity. Lab managers sought immediate lab management solutions to help them handle the massive increase in volume. As an example, they turned to the automation of many lab processes as a way to improve turnaround times and minimize the potential for processing errors.  

Many LIS software packages and laboratory information management system solutions support the automation and digitization of the sample management process. This includes the registration of samples, the tracking of them through the sample analysis/processing stage, and the generation of lab reports. However, most LIS software vendors offer legacy and off-the-shelf packages that are becoming increasingly outdated as the need for advanced solutions and automation remains very high even as the pandemic has receded. With the fast-evolving landscape of healthcare, medical laboratories are forced to either adapt to new challenges presented every year, or suffer the consequences. 

A modern and advanced LIS system facilitates high throughput for a lab, with expedited processes to enable the delivery of error-free test results and lab reports. As an example, LigoLab offers pathology software that leverages the latest technology to completely automate and integrate diverse lab workflows onto a single LIS system platform that also includes powerful embedded modules for laboratory billing (lab revenue cycle management) and direct-to-consumer lab testing. This 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, and partners with its customers to deliver a flexible, configurable lab information system software package, creating a niche in the market with its agile and bespoke medical LIS. 

Mitigating the Laboratory Technician Shortage with LIS Software

A growing concern in the industry is an increasing shortage of laboratory specialists or technologists. Many clinical labs are severely understaffed, with some having witnessed a ten-fold increase in job vacancies. Pathology groups are struggling to hire anatomic pathologists, and are forced to either rely on a floating workforce and traveling technologists, or provide cross-training to their existing staff to cover workflows that do not require an advanced degree. Staffing shortages are heavily impacting lab growth and revenue opportunities throughout the US, and lab managers are faced with the challenge of using their limited staffs to meet the demands of ever-increasing workloads.

As laboratory staff are tasked with an increasing range of duties, many lab managers are turning to their advanced laboratory information systems to help alleviate the rising staff shortage problem and tackle it on an operational level. Advanced lab information systems offer a means of creating automation lines tailored to a lab’s specific needs, allowing lab managers to adopt rules of operation that can be applied uniformly throughout all workflows and ultimately reduce dependencies on manual tasks. Lab information systems can help identify the pain points in a particular workflow and then support the configuration of automated steps that can eliminate the lags typically caused due to reliance on manual interventions. Barcoding of patient samples, for example, has simplified the registration process in many labs, and it also integrates with other workflows to automate the process of tracking specimens through processing and delivering lab reports with test results. Fewer LIS staff are thus involved in the process of monitoring and ensuring the smooth running of the lab sample management system. 

Thus, medical labs are looking toward flexible innovations within the lab information system space, which can comprehensively address the growing needs for automation and reduce the pressure on the limited number of qualified staff available. 

Key LigoLab Services, the Best Laboratory Information System Software

LigoLab’s LIS & RCM Laboratory Platform has comprehensive and advanced automation capability that offers visibility into every step of a lab’s operations. 

Real-time Dashboards

Lab managers have access to real-time dashboards and widgets with the LigoLab platform, allowing them to monitor 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 managers allocate more resources or configure an efficient automation process that improves throughput and minimizes reliance on LIS staff. 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 system technologies, LigoLab delivers an interoperable informatics platform that supports interfacing with multiple lab and hospital modalities. The platform can easily establish connectivity with lab billing systems, hospital electronic health records (EHRs), and other third-party services. 

LigoLab’s proprietary interface engine makes this possible. The engine can electronically interface with EHRs for orders in and orders out, creating an automated solution that offsets the workload of manual order registration and lab report delivery that helps mitigate staff shortages. 

Barcoding and Specimen Tracking

Pathology software workflows with LigoLab are highly configurable, and the LigoLab platform offers barcoding and specimen tracking capabilities for improved patient safety throughout processing. As an example, the lab information system automatically generates just-in-time labels that include unique identifiers for every sample. Lab staff can use the labels to efficiently track the samples from start to finish. This type of automated barcoding system minimizes manual processing errors and decreases dependencies on the lab’s staff. 

Quality Assurance

Most LIS systems integrate a 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 need attention, the LIS system auto-verification process stacks them into a special queue and flags them for the technician to review. 

This not only improves overall lab report quality, but it also 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. 

Customized Lab Reports

In addition to creating an automated environment resilient to staff shortages, LigoLab’s LIS software offers 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 to incorporate images, inserts, diagrams, and rich text with customized color schemes. 

Once the lab report has been generated, the medical LIS can be programmed to distribute it to the tagged consulting physician or department through various channels, including electronic health records. 

Compliance

LigoLab automates compliance verification at every stage, reducing audit risks and revenue loss by ensuring that clinicians work within Good Lab Practices regulations among others (e.g., CAP, CLIA, HIPAA). This not only saves staff time on a daily basis, but reduces the time needed to prepare for inspections and audits.

Extensive Customer Support

LigoLab is fully cognizant 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 managers to fully avail themselves to self service for platform configurations and customizations. Technical support is also readily available to help clinicians when the need arises.

Lab Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)

LigoLab’s integrated LIS & RCM informatics platform creates unique opportunities for customers to create new revenue lines and scale their operations. The LIS and RCM modules share the same database and software infrastructure, eliminating harmful data silos and enabling claims tracking and RCM cycle integration at order inception. 

The real-time monitoring and validation capacity enables error scrubbing through every stage of the laboratory billing process and the prevention of denials downstream. LigoLab’s RCM module is fully automated and compliant with regulations, and requires minimum intervention from administrators to perform administrative tasks and track claims. 

The LigoLab Bottom Line - A Laboratory Information System Solution that Helps Labs Modernize and Grow 

The unlimited interoperability and customization opportunities of the LigoLab platform provide customers with unique opportunities to expand their lab’s business despite industry-wide staff shortages. Moreover, by incorporating highly-customized automation workflows to deliver error-free lab 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.