A2i-HIDs GP eOrdering
Introduction
The GP eOrdering project, under the direction of the MedLis project board and the Laboratory Programme Manager Thomas Walsh, had a successful golive in Navan following a pilot phase in November 2023. The GP eOrdering facility commenced rollout to the remaining GP practices in the Meath area on the 15th of January in conjunction with the laboratory and hospital management at Our Lady’s Hospital Navan and the process is on-going. This was a huge achievement by everyone involved and it is the first phase in what will be a continuous journey in the rollout to other hospitals and GPs across the country as well as developing and improving the process for all users.
Feedback
Feedback from users within the GP practices in Meath has been broadly very positive. They have adapted extremely well to using the laboratory eOrdering facility with some initial support and reassurance. They have stated that the process was user friendly and easy to use. It has the added benefit of a clear record of the orders placed and easy reconciliation of results received against those orders.
The eOrdering process enables GPs to place laboratory orders electronically from within their practice management systems via a link to a site-specific page on the Healthlink portal. The laboratory orders are presented in alphabetical order across several pages with the most frequently ordered available first. The GPs then select the lab orders on screen and commit that order and the message is delivered electronically within minutes to the laboratory system. A laboratory request form is then printed detailing the requests and associated patient and clinical detail information. A copy of this form is saved in each of the GP systems that can be reprinted, and a copy of the order placed is also stored in the GP system. The form and samples are sent to the lab and the request form contains a barcoded order number that is entered into the lab system, and this pulls back a matching patient record or creates a new one and files the request.
Thank you
A big thank you is due to all those that worked very hard to achieve this outcome. In A2i HIDS the Healthlink team including the Development, QA and Support teams had a key role in making the project a successful one so far - well done to everyone involved. Many other stakeholders have been involved in this process including the GP system vendors/ developers, Clanwilliam and Complete GP, MedLis project board and the NPT team, GP Pilot sites and practices in Meath, GPIT team, the National Clinical Programme for Pathology, laboratory system vendors and the staff of the laboratory at Our Lady’s Hospital Navan.
The laboratory staff in Navan continue to promote the roll out to the remaining Meath practices. This change process has introduced a lot of benefits to the laboratory as well. The speed and accuracy of the electronic order and the automatic registration of new patients has been welcomed in an extremely busy central specimen reception within the laboratory. Savings in time and resources have been achieved within the laboratory and this has alleviated the labour-intensive process of manual data order entry. As the GP laboratory eOrders workflow achieves full engagement from all stakeholders then more process improvements can be introduced within the laboratory. Change is never easy, but it was greatly helped by the enthusiasm and willingness of all the people involved to achieve a beneficial outcome. Ongoing optimisation and realignment can deliver that “Transformation” leading to streamlined access to data, increased clinical engagement, improved workflows, and better clinical outcomes. The next phase in the project is to roll the eOrdering facility out to the GPs sending laboratory requests to Beaumont Hospital, University Hospital Waterford, and Galway University Hospital.
Next Step
The laboratories have provided information to Healthlink to complete the laboratory orders build on the Healthlink portal for those specific hospitals. Ongoing building, testing and validation of the process will continue, and it is hoped to have the process rolled out to all three hospital laboratories and their surrounding GP practices by the 3rd quarter of 2024. The next step is to then make it available to more laboratories around the country.
For more information about A2iHIDs, view their webpage here.