Opportunity

The University of Southern California (USC) Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is one of the largest and most prestigious in the country, with nationally and internationally renowned physicians on its staff, including several who have been named to the list of “America’s Top Doctors.” When they decided to open their outreach laboratory and expand their lab services to the community, the department chose XiFin as its pathology Laboratory Information System (LIS).

Solution

It is critical for a successful outreach program to have the right systems in place to support the business. Physicians, pathologists, and laboratory technicians rely on laboratory information systems to manage their workload and streamline the laboratory’s operational processes to be more efficient. Integrating laboratory systems is a strategic investment that enables labs to optimize performance while adopting new revenue opportunities — such as a community outreach business — to stay ahead of the game in today’s challenging and competitive healthcare environment.

A comprehensive, cloud-based LIS will ensure that a lab is always on the latest software version, with the most recent capabilities, no upgrade costs, and no labor to install or manage any updates. It also delivers a powerful engine that automates complex diagnostic workflows, manages specimens, reporting and billing, while incorporating digital pathology capabilities. Through tight integration with internal and external systems, the right LIS increases laboratory testing capacity, shortens turnaround time, creates opportunities for new revenue streams, and ultimately drives the speed and operational efficiencies necessary to stay competitive.

Connectivity is key to providing successful outreach services. An LIS that integrates with EMR/EHRs, medical devices, analytics solutions, middleware, billing, portals, and CRMs is essential.A good outreach program is integrated with client physicians’ EMR systems so that doctorscan order lab tests directly from their EMR. This same interface will facilitate returning the labresults so they can be effortlessly incorporated into the patient records. Sometimes, labs wantto implement a purpose-built portal to facilitate lab orders and results. These portals can beembedded within the LIS or provided by a third-party vendor.XiFin LIS reports synthesize and display all the information that needs to be conveyed, includingmulti-modal tests, graphical charts and diagnostic images, prior test results, and narrativeand graphical interpretations. Reports are professionally branded with USC’s logo and othercustomized information.

Results

The USC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine chose the XiFin LIS to operate its outreach business. Susan McCarthy, Chief Administrative Officer, and her team are very satisfied with the performance of the XiFin LIS. In particular, she noted the value of the ability to manage their laboratory workflow and integrate with their instrumentation. Susan reports that in particular the team appreciates the value of being on a cloud-based solution that is always up to date on the latest version. It is a huge benefit to the organization. In fact, USC was one of the first labs in the country to implement an integrated Leica Cerebro histology specimen tracking and workflow management system fully integrated with XiFin LIS.

USC has been successfully operating its outreach laboratory for the past eight years and XiFin has been their lab information system partner each step of the way.