New Version of Misys Laboratory Enhances Day-to-Day Workflow Efficiencies and Patient Safety
Confronting ever-present challenges managing the medical laboratory technologist shortage, hospitals are increasingly turning to technology to automate their lab operations. The latest version of Misys LaboratoryÔ from Misys Healthcare Systems, was demonstrated this week at the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA) Conference in Chicago. It introduces new enhancements to blood bank and microbiology modules that improve workflow and productivity and eliminate time-consuming manual steps during lab testing.
Generally available to Misys Laboratory clients this spring, new graphical user interface (GUI)-based features in this release include: Blood Bank Quality Assurance (QA) checks that generate password overrides; electronic crossmatch and instrument interfacing toautomate manual testing; customized specimen inventories per lab facility with security levels for viewing and accessing blood products enterprise-wide; streamlined microbiology workflow that includes results viewing from one screen; and enhanced General Laboratory rule-based logic and calculations via new tools for editing and testing.
“Misys Laboratory’s enhanced blood bank electronic crossmatch (the computing of specimen compatibility) eliminates manual testing and frees up a technologist’s time to focus on more complex tests. This enhancement is a great patient safety benefit,“ said Patrick O’Sullivan, assistant administrative director of laboratory at Florida Hospitals of Orlando. The Misys Laboratory information system is installed in all seven Florida Hospital facilities in the Orlando area.
O’Sullivan also found significant improvements using the new release’s instrument interface feature. “With the advent of blood bank testing devices, Misys’ electronic instrument interface automatically transfers patient test data to the laboratory system, thereby eliminating the task of manual data entry.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 29,000 (a 19.3 percent increase) medical and clinical laboratory technologist positions will be created over a 10-year period from 2002 to 2012. Due to this growth, the number of job openings is expected to continue to exceed the number of job seekers.
“We enhanced our blood bank and microbiology modules to concentrate on three primary areas that impact clinical laboratory technologists and outcomes―patient safety, extended multi-facilities usage and automation,” said Debbie Tillman, senior product manager of Misys Laboratory for Misys Healthcare Systems. “This new release is proof of Misys’ R&D efforts to continually develop new system functions that help hospital laboratories overcome the escalating shortfall in qualified staff and tighter budgets.”
Part of the Misys OptimumÔ product family, Misys Laboratory earned a Best In KLAS Award in the laboratory applications category of the “Top 20 Year-End Best in KLAS Awards” Report released Dec. 15, 2004. KLAS also noted that Misys’ anatomic pathology system, CoPathPlus® from Misys, showed the most improvement of any vendor at 23 percent.
About Misys Healthcare Systems
Misys Healthcare Systems, one of the top five healthcare IT companies in North America, develops and supports reliable, easy-to-use software and services of exceptional quality that enable physicians and caregivers to more easily manage the complexities of healthcare. With 25 years of industry experience, Misys currently serves more than 92,000 physicians in 18,000 practice locations, 1,250 hospitals, 600 home care providers and hundreds of commercial laboratories, clinics, managed services and other related organizations. Misys’ family of leading clinical products and Web-based technologies – Misys OptimumÔ solutions – are designed from the ground up to share patient data across all medical care settings. Misys Optimum connects community-based physicians and caregivers to the acute care enterprise, enabling increased efficiencies, better decision-making and improved hospital-physician relations. For more information, visit www.misyshealthcare.com
About Misys plc
Misys plc, the global software products and solutions company, serves customers in the international banking and securities, international healthcare, and UK general insurance industries. Through a wholly owned subsidiary, Sesame, it also provides business process outsourcing services to independent financial advisors (IFAs) in the UK. Misys partners with its customers to deliver outstanding IT solutions to essential industries, and employs over 6,000 people internationally. For more information, visit www.misys.com .
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The Misys name, together with Misys Optimum and Misys Laboratory, are trademarks of Misys plc. CoPathPlus is distributed by Misys under license.
