CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
Robb
Robb (Sutter Health): The fear is that some of the priorities we have set now for projects will be accelerated. The meaningful use project had been set for a certain timeline; then it was needed sooner. It’s hard to respond to that kind of thing, as well as other things that just come up. For instance, the AUTO12-A standard is supposed to be coming up. That means we’ll have to do a systemwide upgrade, which is good; you should do those once a year. But we didn’t know about that until we started seeing articles.… We’re planning out to 2017—to inject that into all the other plans is awkward, especially when it only impacts the laboratory, and other people have billion dollar projects going on. The biggest fear is that the lab’s priorities will not be recognized.
Splitz
Splitz (S&P): The fear in the LIS world is that we’re being forced to accept LISs that may not be fully functional because it’s the right financial move for the hospitals, not the lab. Nowadays, all the funding for lab systems, IT systems, and clinical systems runs through the CFO and CIO. So the big fear in the industry right now is we’ll have CIOs and CFOs selecting systems that are the right financial choice for the institution but do not provide the functionality that the lab needs to have clinical patient safety [standards] met. The ownership, power, and decisionmaking have moved outside the laboratory to a level in the organization that does not understand what is done in a laboratory department.
[hr]Questions and answers compiled by writer Jan Bowers.