As the central reference laboratory for New England, UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, deals with 4,000 to 5,000 specimens daily and 8.5 million lab tests annually. With lab work volumes of this size, it would be impossible to deliver results as quickly and accurately without automation and connectivity among the hospital networks.
Boston WorkStation integrates their Laboratory Information System (LIS) to enable specimens to be automatically run through a bar-coded recognition. That information is uploaded into the LIS, and tests are automatically processed and reported out to the appropriate physicians. Additionally, physicians can easily access the lab results from anywhere through the Web-based reporting system, as long as the patient is registered.
With Boston WorkStation implemented in the laboratory, physicians can have results in their hands within an hour from the specimen's arrival in the lab. The ability to report results in real-time not only significantly cuts reporting time from days down to minutes but also reduces the number of employees to half of what was needed at the facility using a manual process. This is a change that is vital to realizing optimal patient care while maintaining costs at a minimal level.