Central and North Regions Receive Streamlined Lab Workflows July 24​

July 21, 2021 | 2 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

Go live support
At-the-elbow support will be available in lab areas of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Lake Forest Hospital, Grayslake Outpatient Center and Northwestern Medical Group from Saturday, July 24 through Friday, August 6. View a schedule of specific support locations and times.  A Beaker Command Center will also be available by calling 312.925.4357 (HELP).

• Northwestern Memorial Hospital
  • Feinberg Pavilion, 5th and 7th Floor: OR, Core Lab and Anatomic Pathology (AP) areas
  • Olson Pavilion, 2nd and 7th Floor: Specialties and Cytogenetics
  • Lavin Family Pavilion: OR and GI areas
  • Pathology 
• Prentice Women's Hospital, 6th and 8th Floors: OR
• Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • 4th Floor, GI
  • 21st Floor, Core Lab
• Lake Forest Hospital: OR, GI, IR, Core Lab and AP areas
• Glenview Outpatient Center: Core Lab
• Grayslake Outpatient Center: Core Lab and OR/GI areas

 
Major changes

• Orders will be consolidated, reducing regional duplication. View a list. You will need to update personal preference lists, personal order panels and personalized inpatient order sets and ambulatory smartsets to accommodate the order consolidation changes. See the exception below for preference list entries that are defaulted to Normal status.
• Ordering as “Normal,” or releasing orders will no longer print labels: The Beaker upgrade will automatically change all personal lab preference list entries with a Normal status to Future, as the specimen collection workflows will control label printing.
• 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.
• Epic will generate packing lists that are required to be included with courier logs, replacing a manual process.
• Blood ordering workflows will change. View more information.
• 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, as shown below.

View the Beaker for Ambulatory Clinics Reference Guide for more information. And, you can find more go-live resources on the Beaker Implementation page on NM Interactive (log-in required).