Simpler Lab Workflows Coming to Central, North Regions
May 27, 2021 | 1 min. to read
The process to implement Epic Beaker as the single lab information system (LIS) and SoftLab for blood bank workflows continues across Northwestern Medicine. On July 24, the Central and North Regions will go-live, following the West and Northwest Regions that already use Beaker and SoftLab. When implementation is complete, pathologists and technologists can more efficiently perform lab workflows within the same integrated Epic system used by NM physicians and nurses.
Key benefits of an integrated lab information system
Improved lab ordering workflow in inpatient and ambulatory settings
Improved Add-On workflow
Improved ability to identify patients and track specimens with bar code scanning
Consistent blood bank workflows
Major changes
Orders and order sets will be consolidated.View a list. Personalization will not carry over. You will need to set up personalization again for the affected orders and order sets.
New lab orders can be placed on previously collected specimens. A yellow banner will appear for lab orders that are eligible to be added to an existing specimen. View a tip sheet.
Specimen labels will look different. Labels for each specimen will be generated in Epic and will have a different format that displays more information than previous designs.
Epic will generate packing lists that are required to be included with courier logs, replacing a manual process.