Leveraging Orchard’s System Administrator Services for Efficiency & Knowledge Gains
Abstract
Amy Elliott, MLS(ASCP)CM, Lead Technologist at Hiawatha Community Hospital (HCH) Laboratory, shares their lab’s experience upgrading their Orchard Software support to include System Administration services. The proactive and highly responsive boost to support has enabled HCH to use their Harvest LIS to its full potential. The added level of support allows them to focus on their job knowing that their LIS is performing optimally because it is being monitored by their Orchard personal care manager.
Hiawatha Community Hospital Takes a Team Approach to Improve Patient Care
HCH is 25-bed critical access hospital in Hiawatha, Kansas that 3 Rural Health clinics, and a wide range of outpatient services including Surgery Center, Obstetrics, Cardiac Rehab, an active Emergency Department, and a newly added COVID-19 wing. This wide range of healthcare services keeps their laboratory busy, with a staff of 11 providing 24/7 same-day service across three overlapping shifts.
The Decision to Pursue an Advanced Support Level
HCH’s lab team knew that to maintain any information system, there are periodic system checks and maintenance tasks that must be performed regularly to keep the system functioning at its best. Often laboratories simply do not have the time or depth of understanding to perform these tasks. In fact, staffing levels at HCH did not allow a great deal of time for lengthy support calls.
Although the HCH laboratory had positive experiences with Orchard’s standard technical support, they decided to investigate an advanced support level for a more comprehensive approach to LIS maintenance and growth. The lab team wanted to use all of the features of Harvest LIS more effectively and to expand their knowledge base to gain overall efficiencies. Elliott explains their decision: “We wanted someone who knew our LIS; knew how we operated; was familiar with our interfaces, our instruments, and the quirks of our lab.”
Benefits Gained—Personalized LIS Care
The lab at HCH upgraded to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and has been extremely pleased with their upgraded support level. From their viewpoint, the most beneficial aspect of Orchard’s SLA is a dedicated post implementation analyst who knows their laboratory and LIS setup, including customizations, interfaces, and third-party relationships.
In addition, the SLA has enabled Elliott and her team to achieve a greater understanding of their LIS. The lab staff is continually learning how to configure Harvest to their specific testing menu and patient population to improve efficiency. “We use our SLA support to advance our use of the LIS, make our lab more efficient, and to help our technologists perform their jobs better,” says Elliott.
“We gained an extra set of eyes on our LIS and interfaces. We value the personalization from Orchard and the fact that there is one person we can always call when we need help who knows us and will work with our schedule.”
“It is nice to have proactive maintenance with my personal care manager to support me, to bounce ideas off of, and to help us build our LIS in a more efficient way, rather than just calling when we have a problem. We use it more than we ever thought we would.”
“Anything important to us is important to our care specialist. Any project or idea we come up with they are willing to help us make it happen and we just love that,” said Elliott.
Timely COVID Testing Support
As an example, Orchard’s SLA support helped HCH escalate the necessary interface changes to incorporate a new sample type named “swab” for their COVID-19 antigen testing. “We were so impressed that, based on our feedback, the Orchard team quickly completed that interface project, enabling us to be one of the first sites in Kansas to start automated COVID-19 antigen testing. It is exciting to see our feedback heard and translated into positive change,” Elliott reveals.
Orchard’s System Administration Service Level Agreement (SA-SLA) Options
Orchard Software’s SA-SLA program provides administrative expertise to help keep your Orchard products running at maximum efficiency. Orchard’s personal care coordinators can assist in keeping your system up to date and helping you learn more about the features and functionality that can support your laboratory. One of the most attractive components of Orchard’s advanced support level is the individualized attention from a personal care coordinator that knows the “ins and outs” of your laboratory and your system. Below are more of the SA-SLA options:
- Coordinate and assist with maintenance tasks
- Escalate support calls to a Tier II or Tier III Technical Support Specialist
- Provide a personal care coordinator who conducts periodic check-ins
- Provide ongoing training for ordering, accessioning, resulting, and tracking lab data
- Assist in setup of auto-approval functionality to maximize laboratory productivity
- Create and test decision-based rules to optimize workflow
- Assist with data generation to support regulatory inspections
- Build new tests in LIS for EHR, reference laboratory, and analyzer interfaces
- Assist with database configuration
- Troubleshoot and provide support for requested laboratory jobs
Exceeding Expectations & Sharing LIS Knowledge
In summary, Elliott stresses the value they have gained with Orchard’s added support, “The SA-SLA support level has exceeded our expectations. I think we lean on it more than we ever thought we would. We are a “do it-yourself” type lab, but we realize how great it is to have the added support and efficiency.”
At HCH, they have gained a much deeper knowledge about the IT-related tasks that are often neglected yet are necessary to maintain a fully functioning information system. “We didn’t know what we were missing until we had the SLA agreement—IT-related tasks we weren’t focusing on and such, but now I understand what it takes, plus there is the added bonus of Orchard’s expertise when we need it,” explains Elliott.
No Other Vendor with Orchard’s Level of Lab Knowledge & Focus
Elliott and her team appreciate that Orchard maintains a strong lab-focus, fueled by maintaining a significant number of employees with some type of laboratory background or training, alongside a strong work ethic and customer focus culture. “You don’t often find a system that is lab-focused. Most are EMR-focused and lab is an afterthought. Orchard’s system and support is lab-forward, lab-progressive. They know lab and do it well and we love that,” says Elliott. “They know what it means to draw a patient, run a test, run QC, monitor an interface—anything that comes up. When they can offer solutions based on their experience—that lab experience is invaluable to us and not the case with other vendors,” maintains Elliott.
Get Top ROI from Your LIS with Orchard’s Advanced Support
Contact your Orchard Account Manager to find out how we can help you move your service and support to the level that works best for you, and help ensure that your LIS is fully supporting your lab’s contribution to patient care.