colLABoration: The Orchard Software Blog

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​As the contribution of point-of-care testing (POCT) continues to gain traction in response to value-based care, its oversight has proven to be complex and challenging. In order to gain the full benefit that POCT offers to improve patient outcomes, programs need to be well-managed and standardized across a healthcare organization (HCO). The knowledge base of laboratory professionals makes them well-suited to oversee POCT to ensure its quality, and simultaneously can increase their visibility and overall contribution to the care team.

Orchard Software received the 2019 Overall Top-Rated Laboratory Information System Vendor rating from Black Book Research with a score of 9.56 out of 10. Black Book is an unbiased, vendor-agnostic rating system that specializes in healthcare-related market research. 

When a natural disaster occurs, such as September’s Hurricane Dorian that devastated the Bahamas and proceeded to do more damage all the way up the eastern coastline, it highlights the importance of emergency and disaster preparedness to mitigate the impact of a disaster and restore disrupted laboratory operations as quickly as possible.

Point-of-care testing (POCT) brings its own set of challenges in regard to regulatory compliance. Those laboratories that are inspected and certified by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) are likely quite familiar with the CAP checklists for different laboratory areas and departments. For a great refresher and summary of CAP inspection priorities for POCT, review the Whitehat Communications webinar, CAP is Coming – What do I do now? given by Kathleen David, MT(ASCP), POCT Manager at TriCore Reference Laboratories.