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I recently participated in an audio conference, provided by The Dark Report titled “New Opportunities for Your Lab’s LIS-EMR Interface: How to Profit From the Big Wave About to Hit Healthcare.”  The “Big Wave” is simply, the massive increase of physicians who will adopt a certified EMR system within the next 5 years.  In 2009, approximately 25,000 practices adopted an EMR, bringing the total physician adoption to  approximately 30% nationwide.  If the stimulus plan reaches it’s goal of 90% adoption by 2015, then adoption is going to more than double, with around 60,000 practices adopting per year starting this year.   But what does this mean for laboratories?

For a physician to get up to $44,000 in reimbursement dollars, available through Medicare, they must prove “meaningful use”.  There are three items on the “meaningful use” checklist that pertain to laboratories for phase 1, and they are:

1. Computer physician order entry of tests, imaging studies, referrals, etc
2. Lab test results- which many are doing or can do right now
3. Reportable lab submission, meaning your lab reports coming into the EMR get reported to a public health agency

Basically lab orders have to be loaded up, set up in that EMR and adopted by the practice and its employees; lab results have to be deployed, and the lab reports will have to be shared with a public health agency.  It’s the first step in this process though that is going to have the largest impact on laboratories as their customers, physician practices,  are going to be demanding integration.   Thus, laboratories can either hope that their LIS will integrate with the physicians new EMR easily (but is IT integration ever easy?), or they can proactively use this opportunity to grow business and strengthen relationships with their practices.   Given that there are currently 11 certified EMR companies and an additional 30 pending certification, it is likely that your LIS will not support them all. You must become proactive!  So what do you do to manage the “Big Wave” about to hit laboratories?

• Labs should reach out to their practices and find out where they are in their EMR selection process.  Ask to be involved in the process, that you are educated in “meaningful use”, and that lab integration needs to be part of their EMR solution
• If you have a third-party partner, such as a middleware company or consultant, reach out to them for advice and guidance
• Do an evaluation of  the physician groups and the type of EMR’s deployed in your area.  When a physician is already using an EMR find out about how their practice uses it and what the strengths and weaknesses are of the system.
• If you have the means, dedicated an internal person to do this marketing research
• Perform internal and external application assessment and readiness
• Know your LIS applications strengths and weaknesses
• Identify IT resources to help with integration to the practices
• Create/maintain common order sets in native systems
• Establish a cross-functional team who will help in strategizing and prioritizing which practices you should and will integrate with and on what time schedule
• If you are a multi-service provider, consider bundling lab and DI as your market differentiators

Overall, be an informed leader in the process and don’t just wait for the “Big Wave” to hit you.

This information was presented by Pat Wolfram, Vice President of Marketing & Customer Services at Ignis Systems Corporation and Ruth Johanson, Information Technology Program Director at Providence Health & Services.   If you are interested in hearing this audio conference you can purchase a CD at The Dark Report, click here to learn more.