The Rapid-Deploy, Complete Program for COVID PoCT: Making History Now
Two well-known universities in Louisiana have quickly and effectively ramped up complete testing management programs to protect their students and staff, as well as meet other testing challenges with spectacular results.
Both universities have teamed up with LabLynx, Inc. to roll out the COVIDLiMS Solution Suite and were live and operational within 2-3 weeks. The unprecedented implementation time was crucial, because they were up against a deadline this summer to provide safe conditions for retuning students in August/September.
In the case of one university, they signed a contract with LabLynx in July, were live by the end of the month and processed 15,000 tests in two weeks. Prior to resumption of classes, on-campus students were put up at a local Hyatt hotel and they set up an isolation dorm for any on-campus students who tested positive. All students and staff were tested before they returned to classes – about 10,000 people in 8 days!
Originally, they only planned to complete the initial testing. However, they then began testing once a month and are now expanding to weekly testing. They are now processing about 1,200 tests per hour. The LIMS is supporting both their public health workflow and internal testing.
Additionally, the second university has been doing testing for the local State Health Department for some time and was asked to move into COVID testing when the pandemic arose in Spring 2020, primarily for nursing home residents. For them, the system was live and operational in three weeks.
At both universities, paper has been eliminated and instruments are interfaced so there is no opportunity for data entry mistakes. The biggest single improvement, according to the project lead, is the Physician Portal (myLabCare) and C-SIC kit so that testing orders are self-entered rather than written down and sent along with samples. Instead, the portal or SIC kit print out barcoded labels that are affixed to the samples and scanned into the lab, streamlining the process.
Additionally, submitters can monitor their orders’ status and access reports themselves via the portal. The cumulative effect of all these improvements has greatly reduce errors and sped up TAT as well as doubling throughput. They have gone from processing 600 tests per day to about 1,200.
The LabLynx solution is unique in several ways, making it a standout answer for the extraordinary challenges presented by coronavirus point-of-care testing for all organizations. While at its center is a laboratory information system (LIS or LIMS), it is distinct in offering a full set of components that together provide an integrated yet configurable, quickly deployed program. These elements include:
All of these components sit on LabLynx’s advanced Next Generation Informatics platform, sciCloud.net®.
To learn more about how you as a lab can provide a complete coronavirus – and potential future health challenges – sample collection, testing and reporting management and monitoring solution now, contact LabLynx, Inc. at sales@lablynx.com, 866-LABLYNX (522-5969), or LabLynx.com.
