LIS system for a small clinical lab: the record, the workflow and the software

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An LIS system is the laboratory information system a clinical laboratory keeps: the patient, the order from the clinician, the specimen with its accession, the tests and results, the review and release, and the report back to the clinical record. LIS systems in a large hospital are procured over a year; a LIS system in lab use at a small clinical or pathology practice is the same record at a scale one manager runs. The LIS system laboratory record differs from a testing lab's LIMS by the patient and the order, and laboratory LIS systems carry the CLIA requirements around them. This page is about what the LIS information system and LIS lab software must keep for a small clinical lab, and the free results review sheet on this site works its review load from the lab's own numbers with no account.

The record an LIS information system keeps

Patient identity, the order and who placed it, the specimen with its accession and collection time, the tests with their method and instrument, the results with their reference ranges, the review and release, and the report delivered to the clinician. Each link is a question a clinical lab is asked: which specimen, which order, who released it. CLIA describes the requirements a laboratory testing human specimens must meet; the record is how a small lab meets them.

The LIS laboratory workflow, in states

Ordered, collected, received, in testing, awaiting review, released, reported: seven states with a time and a person each. The review load, results a week times minutes to review over the reviewers' hours, is the figure a small clinical lab feels first, and the results review sheet on this site works it: 400 results a week at three minutes is 20 hours against 24 available on the worked example.

Choosing LIS lab software as a small practice

One screen with the patient, the order, the specimen and the results on it; the clinical interface the practice's physicians use; the audit trail; the export; the year's price at today's volume and at half as much more. Limslane Pro keeps the sample record and works the sheets' figures; the clinical interface is the practice's own decision, and the sheets stay free.

Questions people ask about lis system

What is an LIS system in lab use?

The clinical laboratory's record of the patient, the order, the specimen, the tests, the results and the report, with the review and release between. The free sheets on this site work its figures.

How do laboratory LIS systems differ from a LIMS?

By the patient and the order: an LIS reports to a clinician about a person; a LIMS keeps a sample for a client. The specimen record is common to both.

What figure should a small clinical lab work first?

The review load: results a week times minutes each over the reviewers' hours; the free results review sheet works it from five figures.

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