Electronic ordering for laboratory tests - pilot underway

(Aotea News, November 2010)

We’re pleased to tell you that a pilot of our new electronic laboratory test ordering system (eLab) is currently taking place in a small number of Wellington medical centres. The pilot sites will provide feedback to refine the new system and ensure it is user friendly.

What is electronic laboratory test ordering?

Under this new system, doctors order tests using an electronic form embedded in Medtech. The patient’s demographics and other necessary information are automatically transferred to the form, and the entire request is transferred to our Laboratory Information System via a secure link.

Patients get a printed request form, complete with a barcode, to take to the collection room where the barcode is scanned and details of the request appear on the computer.

Who can use the system?

Initially the system will be available to Medtech users. We anticipate that in the future the system will be available to other PMS users and also to requesters without a PMS. This will rely on the PMS system supporting the Health Information Standards Organisation online forms standard and HPI.Over time we anticipate that the majority of laboratory requests from primary care will be made using electronic ordering.

What are the benefits?

The key benefit of this system is that once a request has been submitted, our data entry staff do not re-key the request and data entry error rates are reduced. In most cases the request will be imported automatically into our system exactly as you entered it.

The form provides a direct link to the Pathology Test Guide for each test. Relevant information about each test is displayed both on the electronic form and printed request form.

For the future, we are developing functions to view a patients past results and clinical information.

We would also like to include functions for requesting home visits and adding extra tests.

Are there any costs?

There will be no additional charges to referrers using the electronic laboratory order form.

Who built the system?

This is a joint project between a Danish software company, HealthLink and Aotea Pathology.