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For clinical staff at Mineral Point Medical Center, electronic results delivery doesn't just save time on phone calls or mailing results, it improves care by getting results to providers quickly.
"With WISHIN Pulse providers are able to make earlier diagnoses and compare previous results easily," said Christy Pethel, Director of Nurse Informatics and IT at Mineral Point Medical Center. "The electronic lab results populate directly to the patient's chart...This flow has speeded the result-advising time from next-day to the same day."
Pethel spent 28 years as Director of Nursing before transitioning into her role with IT when the organization converted to an electronic health record (EHR). When she started in her new role, Pethel aimed not only to speed up and improve workflow but to better manage other resources as well. "One of my primary goals at that time was to operate as efficiently as possible while attempting to minimize the use of paper," Pethel said.
Since 2014 WISHIN has been delivering more than 500 lab results (equivalent to more than a ream of paper) per week from SSM Health laboratories (primarily Upland Hills Health and St Mary's) to Mineral Point Medical Center. Before electronic results delivery the organization relied on the time-consuming process of receiving and manually entering or scanning results from paper faxes sent by the labs.
Quicker delivery to providers also means quicker delivery to patients. "Once the provider reviews the results, they are forwarded to the primary nurse for advising. Patients are also [then] able to view their results on our Patient Portal," Pethel said, adding that patients report satisfaction with the timely delivery.
Results Delivery as a Core HIE Service
Results delivery - including results for laboratory, pathology, and radiology tests - is a core HIE service and is available to any lab, hospital, or provider participating in WISHIN Pulse.
Results delivery is especially valuable to:
- Clinics, nursing homes, or other providers that send their labs to a local hospital to be performed and do not share an EHR or Laboratory Information System with the lab that performs the tests.
- Hospitals or clinics that send lab orders to the external reference labs like Dynacare or Quest and need an electronic way to bring those labs back into their EHR.
- Hospitals that perform labs for local providers that need a secure, automated way to deliver those results back to the provider.
It isn't necessary to incorporate the lab results into the recipient organization's EHR; the lab results can also be delivered to an inbox in WISHIN Pulse where a physician can access and/or print them. If you're still sending or receiving lab results via fax or courier, WISHIN can save you time and money by automating the delivery of those results electronically.
Contact us to learn more at wishin@wishin.org or (608) 274-1820 |
