Have you ever wondered how the results of your blood tests make their way so quickly back to the hospital, diagnostic lab, or a doctor’s office? Well, it’s always due to an LIS Portal. LIS means Laboratory Information System and a portal is the virtual window of that LIS. Though lots of technical work is done in the background, it’s the part that doctors, lab staff and sometimes patients see and use.
Let’s cut to the chase; there’s no jargon here…
The Basic Idea
A laboratory information system (LIS) is like the brain of a lab. Records all tests, all samples, all results, and all reports that flow through the lab. This is the inside motor.
The front door of that engine is the LIS portal. Rather than lab personnel or physicians having to wade through systems and make telephone calls, they log into a web page (the portal), and they can see just what they want—test orders, patient results, reports, and billing information—all at once.
To sum up: LIS is the system and the LIS portal is the actual online interaction.
Who Uses an LIS Portal?
An LIS portal isn’t built for just one type of user. Depending on who is to have access, different labs set up different portals:
Physician Portal: Doctors place test orders on their patients and access test results immediately as they are available rather than waiting for a fax or phone call.
Patient Portal: Some labs provide a patient log-in portal where patients can view their own test results when they become available.
Sales Rep Portal: Used by sales teams in Labs to keep track of client accounts, follow up on issues, and to see which practices are submitting samples.
Staff Portal: Internal laboratory staff and administrators use their own version to manage samples, track workflow and report.
All of these portals are unique in some way, but they all are all based on the same primary laboratory information system.
What Can You Actually Do on an LIS Portal?
It’s here where it comes in handy, rather than a pretty dashboard. The features of a typical LIS portal enable users to:
1. Order Tests Online: Doctors can order and submit lab tests without having to fill out paper forms. This reduces the chances of error and accelerates the processing of a sample.
2. Get instant results: As soon as a test is verified and completed, the result is displayed on the portal. No need to wait for a mailing or faxed report.
3. Doctors can see past test results of a patient at a glance instead of one test result. This makes it easy to see trends, such as an increasing kidney function over the past few months.
4. Check Sample & Order Status: Labs and clinics can track the location of a sample in the process—received, pending or tested.
5. Billing and Insurance: Some portals even allow for essential administrative tasks such as insurance eligibility checks, eliminating the need for manual verification by the lab before conducting a test.
6. Communicate Securely: Portals offer a secure and compliant method for transferring patient information between healthcare providers and labs, as opposed to sending it via email or phone.
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The Importance of These Portals for Labs and Clinics
Without an LIS portal, it is difficult to run a lab without a lot of manual work, like printing reports, faxing results, calling clinics to confirm orders, and manually entering data multiple times. That’s slow and leaves room for error.
Once a portal is set up:
- Fast results are delivered to doctors, which is important for urgent tests or tests that have a time limit.
- Less duplication of data entry because data is transferred directly from the lab system to the portal.
- The lab, doctor and, sometimes patient are looking at the same current data.
- Labs can process more of these tests without having to hire additional administrative employees.
Integration Is a Big Deal
Another critical element of LIS portals is their compatibility with other systems, particularly Electronic Health Record (EHR) platforms in hospitals and clinics. Interoperability with other systems, particularly Electronic Health Record (EHR) platforms in hospitals and clinics, is another important factor to consider with LIS portals. The best LIS portal doesn’t stand alone, it must communicate with the software that is already in use in a doctor’s office.
Typically, this is achieved by using common data exchange standards such as HL7, FHIR, etc., which are essentially a language that enables various health IT software systems to share information correctly, regardless of who developed them. A portal that seamlessly connects with popular EHRs can help reduce the need for labs and clinics to upgrade their current systems simply to incorporate it.
Common Challenges
While LIS portals can be useful, they are not without their drawbacks. Typical problems are:
- Integration failures: Occasionally, integration can fail and data do not pass through in the manner they should.
- Learning curve: Staff will require some training to become accustomed to a new portal, particularly if they are moving away from paper-based processes.
- Lab workflows: Each lab is slightly different, and a portal that is ideal for one lab may require modifications in another.
Most of the current LIS portal providers offer customizable settings for the labs to help them solve these problems without having to create custom-built software to help meet every nuance of a lab’s needs.
Is an LIS Portal the Same as an EHR?
This is a common misconception and it is recommended to sort it out. An EHR (electronic health record) is a patient’s complete medical record, including visits, medical diagnoses, prescriptions, and more. An LIS portal is more narrow, because it deals with laboratory data – such as test orders, lab results, etc.
In many situations, the two are intertwined. The doctor might access the patient’s lab work directly from the EHR, as the LIS portal is feeding the data into the EHR automatically.
Final Word
The LIS is nothing but a web portal that is used to link the laboratories to the doctors and the hospitals or, if required, to the patients who need the lab data quickly and accurately. It automates and securely delivers information instead of the slow and dated method of sending reports by fax or calling for updates.
For every lab or healthcare provider looking to reduce delays, minimise paper and provide faster access to test results for doctors, a reliable LIS portal is no longer a luxury but a necessity to run a modern, efficient lab.
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