Choosing the Right System for Your Laboratory: The Ultimate LIS Checklist

​Having a highly effective LIS is a must in today’s laboratory. An LIS can boost laboratory productivity and efficiency and help free laboratorians for other hands-on tasks. Therefore, selecting the best-fit LIS for your lab is extremely important. Because every laboratory is unique, you must select an LIS that meets the specific requirements of your testing menu and your patient population.

​Additionally, choosing an LIS is not simply a matter of features and functionality. Most LIS companies offer similar features. Your decision runs deeper than that. First, you need an LIS vendor partner with enough foresight and flexibility to be able to change and grow alongside your organization. Second, you need reliable service and support for the lifetime of the software. And third, you must consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) in your organization’s budget.
 
A Simple Checklist
In addition to selecting the LIS appropriate for your type of laboratory and laboratory departments, and beyond a functionality checklist, your LIS should include:

• User-friendly GUI
• High level of flexibility
• Maximum data access
• Advanced auditing and security
• Feature-rich functionality
• Exceptional integration capabilities
• Reliable vendor partnership

 
Along with functionality fit, you need vendor fit—a vendor that will work alongside you to ensure a smooth implementation and will stand by you when changes within your facility occur that affect the system.

More Resources for LIS Selection Guidance
Researching to find the best LIS for your lab is an individual laboratory journey. Below are a few resources that may be helpful to get you thinking through the process and asking the right questions.

The Ideal Laboratory Information System Journal Article
If you need a basic understanding of what an LIS should be able to do, there is an excellent paper in the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine journal. Though the paper is from 2013, the authors do a good job summarizing LIS functionality through the total testing process, which may help you think through how you want an LIS to fit into your workflow.

Pathology Informatics LIS Functionality Assessment Toolkit
For a more detailed look into LIS functionality, the Association for Pathology Informatics offers a comprehensive LIS Functionality Assessment Toolkit. The toolkit includes four parts:

1. Using the LIS Toolkit: A Methodology for Assessing Functionality and Enabling Comparisons Among Competing Systems: A white paper that is a summary of the LIS Functionality Assessment Toolkit, including rationale, background, and descriptions of the toolkit components.
2. Appendix I: LIS Functionality Statements: Eight hundred fifty functionality statements for assessing an LIS.
3. Appendix II: LIS Scenarios: Includes possible scenarios for on-site demonstrations.
4. Appendix III: Total Cost of Ownership Elements: Suggestions for developing a TCO worksheet for an LIS and comparison of TCO between different systems.

We're Here to Help: Download Orchard's LIS Resources 

​White Paper: Total Cost of Ownership for a Laboratory Information System
In today’s evolving healthcare market, it is important to make fully informed investments. Even when you know the up-front costs of an LIS or other IT system, you may not realize the full cost of the product throughout its lifespan. Calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) helps you understand costs that are not as transparent as the initial purchase price, providing a more complete picture that can help you make an informed decision about the LIS that best fits your budget and your laboratory.​

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White Paper: The RFP Process, Explained
A request for proposal (RFP) is a method that companies use to solicit bids or proposals for a service or project. The RFP process intends to provide unbiased, competitive proposals that make it easier for buyers to compare responses between different vendors. If you are considering a new LIS and think a RFP would be of value, download our white paper, The RFP Process Explained, for helpful information. Even if you are unsure whether you need an RFP or not, the paper explains the process, discusses what is typically included, and can help you make an informed decision.

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​Create Your Own RFP With Orchard's RFP Template

Orchard provides an RFP template that can be used to create your own RFP or simply to help you think through the functionality items you might include in your laboratory’s LIS investigation. 
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Downloadable RFP Template

​Our Commitment
Orchard is committed to keeping you informed and being a trusted resource you can turn to for industry-related education. As always, we welcome your feedback. Follow us on Twitter at @OrchardSoftware, and feel free to respond to this post by emailing us at news@orchardsoft.com.
 
Notes

1. Sepulveda, J, MD, PhD; Young, D, MD, PhD. The Ideal Laboratory Information System. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2013;137:1129–1140; doi: 10.5858/arpa.2012-0362-RA.https://www.archivesofpathology.org/doi/pdf/10.5858/arpa.2012-0362-RA
2. Association for Pathology Informatics. LIS Functionality Assessment Toolkit. https://www.pathologyinformatics.org/lis_toolkit.php