Laboratory data integration into medical record

Laboratory Information System, integrated with the Hospital Information System, has been developed at the G.Pasquinucci Hospital, section of Institute of Clinical Physiology of National Research Council (CNR), specialized in adult and paediatric cardiac surgery. The aim was to automate the testing process from clinical departments to laboratory and back into medical record. Laboratory workflow consists of three parts: (a) test ordering by clinical staff, printing bar-coded ID labels and transmitting orders by network to laboratory; (b) processing test requests and controlling identified specimens by laboratory staff, providing work orders to analytical instruments and validation of results authorizing delivery into the hospital clinical repository; (c) consulting test results in clinical departments by referring physicians through the electronic medical record. This year the system has been used on adult patients processing 135000 laboratory tests concerning chemistry, haematology, coagulation and immunology