The Best Laboratory Information Systems: Software Solutions for Clinical and Pathology Labs

Why Do Laboratories Need Laboratory-Specific Information Systems?

Every modern laboratory, anatomical and clinical, wants to grow and thrive, but that goal is easily hindered by outdated, non-integrated Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) that fail to meet the needs of rapidly evolving laboratory environments.

What is LIS? 

LIS is a healthcare software that has become a common part of the information infrastructure of advanced healthcare systems, busy medical laboratories, and hospitals. 

Inside labs, it manages the data flow of laboratory information management, including various lab processes, such as recording, updating, and storing patient-related data, along with sample tracking, and reports management.

LigoLab offers comprehensive and enterprise-grade laboratory information systems software, the cornerstone of which is its powerful and flexible LIS & RCM Operating Platform that includes a laboratory information system module designed to improve laboratory processes and data management for pathology groups, clinical laboratories, and molecular diagnostics laboratories.  

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How Does LIS Software Work?‍

LigoLab’s information system platform comprehensively manages a laboratory’s data needs by connecting and integrating all departments and lab processes on one united lab information software infrastructure with a common database. This removes information silos and ensures clinical data integrity for every department, enabling laboratories to operate more efficiently, differentiate themselves in the marketplace, scale their operations, and become more profitable.

How does the Modern LIS Differ from the Legacy System?

Legacy LIS systems often lack the flexibility, automation, and interoperability needed to fully support technical operations, improve patient outcomes, expand lab testing services, and increase collections of individual laboratories. Common LIS problems that create pain points and prevent growth include:

• Issues with reliability and performance
• Insufficient functionality (lacking modules and features)
• Lack of scalability (current LIS system can’t keep up with demand)
• Difficult to configure (requires external vendor support)
• Legacy report formats and delivery options that don’t cater to customer needs
• Inefficient workflows and time-consuming manual processes
• Specimen handling and tracking workflows that lack a robust chain of custody, uniquely barcoded specimens, and verification and specimen security check-points
• Information on processes, bottlenecks, and compliance is difficult to access
• Need for intradepartmental and external (EMR/EHRs, APIs, instruments, state registries, billing services) interoperability.

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What’s the Difference Between LIS and Laboratory Information Management Systems?

A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) caters to non-clinical laboratory settings, such as a research environment. LIMS is designed to deal with big and complex data generated by large-sized industries. LIMS-generated data is typically used in maintenance, operations, and product development decision-making. LIMS is more expensive and complex to configure than LIS. LIMS and LIS have different regulatory bodies to comply with.

LIS is custom-designed for clinical settings and patient care. With LigoLab’s LIS software solution, healthcare users enjoy a future-ready and scalable platform that’s infinitely configurable to meet the specific needs of the customer, no matter the size of the lab. The module can quickly adapt to add more physicians and/or laboratory personnel, interfaces, and services as LIS laboratory operations expand. Users benefit from improved operational workflows, reduced labor costs, and increased revenue and profit by:

• Managing all departments and operations on one LIS lab system with no data silos
• Automating complex processes and reducing manual entry touchpoints
• Market differentiation to expand services and acquire new business
• Maximizing interoperability and efficiency
• Eliminating human errors and lost specimens by embedding automation and quality assurance protocols in workflows
• Producing fully customizable reports 
• Providing multiple options for report delivery
• Monitoring quality control to quickly identify, troubleshoot, and resolve problems
• Improving lab testing turnaround times
• Obtaining easily accessible business analytics (dashboards, stats, dynamic reports) from every department in real-time

Additionally, when paired with LigoLab RCM, laboratories gain the ability to start the billing cycle at order inception with the support of verification, eligibility, and scrubbing components that increase clean claim submissions, revenue, and accounts receivables, and decrease claim denials and compliance risk.

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Upgrade and Enhance Critical Areas with LigoLab’s Laboratory Information System Software

From accessioning, to specimen handling and tracking, to reporting and collections, the LigoLab LIS & RCM Operating Platform both supports and tech-enables all departmental processes at every stage.

Real-Time Order Validation

LigoLab makes it possible to access the accurate information needed for a smooth and productive billing workflow at order entry. That’s where data verification and scrubbing components are shared by both the LIS and RCM modules, and real-time patient and payer data verification, coverage lookup, and eligibility tools are seamlessly integrated into a live queue-facilitated workflow that provides a high level of transparency and prevents claim rejections and denials.

• Demographic check, address validation, insurance discovery, and eligibility verification at order inception
• Bidirectional synchronization with third-party services (mailing companies, clearinghouses, NPI Registry, payment processors)
• Automated ICD and CPT coding and TC/PC splitting
• Real-time data processing workflow queues for heightened visibility
• Detailed statistical reports to monitor trends and KPIs
  

Additionally, LigoLab supports the management of client contracts by providing extensive functionality and customization for client billing, including options like unlimited fee schedules, discounting, special pricing, capitation, incremental pricing, and automatic travel and transportation pricing.

Specimen Management and Patient Safety  

Error-free specimen management is vital for all medical laboratories and should be expected from any laboratory information system. The LigoLab platform assigns each specimen a unique identifier, ensuring the chain of custody and security of the specimen and virtually eliminating lost or misplaced orders by:

• Integration with all barcode printing and etching hardware 
• Automatic generation of a unique identifier for every specimen and document
• Full traceability of specimens with an awareness of the next step in the workflow
• Users can track both beginning and end times for processing
• Automatic detection of duplicate patient profiles at order entry 

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Highly Customizable Lab Reports 

LigoLab allows users to create fully customizable and intelligent lab reports with the platform’s high-performance reporting and distribution engine that features rule-based formatting and uniform presentation. The report generation engine supports the full rich-text capability (format, size, colors, highlights, tables, bullet points, etc.), as well as images, diagrams, annotation, macros, conditional rules, dictation to text, and CAP cancer protocol templates, plus automated distribution that fulfills the customer’s preference. Delivery options include provider portal, outreach software, EMR/EHR, fax, secure email, in-house printing, PDF drops, APIs, IVR, SMS, and remote print server.

• Standardized report structure based on industry trends 
• Custom template format for client satisfaction and co-branding
• Integrated reports for time-saving efficiency
• Cumulative reports for patient safety and continuity  
• Automated distribution based on customer preference
  

Remote Access for Orders and Results Retrieval

Medical practitioners and laboratory specialists can now leverage the LigoLab Connect feature that enables remote interaction between the client and the laboratory. Users can receive and search for reports, pull cumulative charts, fax out of the system, and gain access to all patient-related scanned documents.

• Free and easy to install with unlimited licensing for downloads
• A secure internet application that serves as an extension of the business
• No third-party outreach or middleware software is needed
• Can be laboratory branded with company logos
• Reduce incoming customer service calls with self-service tools for inventory management and access to scanned documents
  

Direct-to-Consumer Portal

The TestDirectly Direct-to-Consumer Web Portal (D2C) is the latest addition to the LigoLab platform. The portal removes the manual order entry and follow-up bottlenecks and creates a streamlined electronic workflow for specimen collection, lab testing, and reporting that boosts testing capacity and improves turnaround times.

• Integration with all LIS laboratory and RCM billing systems resulting in efficient laboratory management reporting
• Increased testing accessibility that opens new revenue streams
• The patient self-registers and schedules the collection appointment
• Support for live insurance eligibility checks and HRSA submission
• Specimen barcoding and tracking support
• Report delivery via email, SMS, portal, or interface 
• Automated result notification for patients via email and/or SMS
• Real-time results and analytics for the patient, provider, employer, and public health
• Support for drive-through and on-site sample collections, and back-to-work and organizational testing

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Maximum Interoperability 

LigoLab’s lab information software platform features an open architecture and a best-in-class interface engine that functions with maximum interoperability, enabling LigoLab LIS to connect to a majority of analyzers (over 500 different instrument types), EMRs (connected with every certified Electronic Medical Record and Electronic Health Record [EHR]), and third-party services with ease. This includes internal networking (LIS/RCM) as well as connections with external networks of healthcare organizations, such as billing services, the Tumor Registry, and state reporting agencies. 

LigoLab’s proprietary interface engine supports all standard interchange protocols, including API, HL7, X12, XML, Flat File, and ASTM, and more. 

LigoLab’s LIS System Automates Complex Processes and Reduces Human Intervention

LigoLab designed its rule engine to give users the ability to substitute inefficient and manual laboratory processes with conditional rules and actions that can be built without custom scripts, and that fire when certain conditions are met. These rules and actions are strung together as decision support trees by the automation engine that resides within the LIS system. 

• An agile platform that automates laboratory processes so that laboratory staff may be reassigned to more productive roles
• High-visibility and real-time workflow queues for clinical data
• Flexible rule engine for optimal automation
• Multi-layered workflow management control 
  

Regulatory Compliance That’s Not Labor-Intensive

To minimize compliance risk, LigoLab offers a variety of specialized tools that reduce both audit risk and revenue loss without being labor-intensive. Users can effectively operate within the guidelines of CAP, CLIA, HIPAA, and other regulatory bodies to mitigate compliance concerns and avoid penalties. 

• Compliance-conscious workflows and reports
• Ad hoc data query capabilities
• Support for all established regulatory protocols
• Compliance verification at every stage 
  

A Safe and Secure LIS Laboratory Platform

LigoLab offers advanced security and privacy features that protect both laboratory and patient data.

• Automatic log-off for user inactivity 
• A robust and searchable audit trail that logs every activity
• User permission and visibility control

Comprehensive and Flexible SaaS Solutions for Your Laboratory

Dealing with multiple software vendors, systems, middleware, and interfaces in your lab is more than just frustrating, it’s costly. These legacy arrangements lead to information silos, inconsistent data, inefficient workflows, and ultimately less profitability. 

Fortunately, there is a cost-effective alternative for lab operators that are tired of the finger-pointing and understand how an end-to-end solution that covers all laboratory departments can be a game-change for their operations and finances. 

As a comprehensive and enterprise-grade SaaS software solution, the LigoLab LIS & RCM Laboratory Operating Platform™ includes modules for AP, CP, MDx, RCM, and Direct-to-Consumer, all on a single integrated infrastructure that’s infinitely configurable and that supports every department, role, and case.

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