Case study:
Medical Diagnostic Laboratory

“I have worked with other IT employees for over 20 years and cannot express how much joy it is to work with a team that always has a solution.”

— Denise Wilson, COO of Medical Diagnostic Laboratory

Specialized Medical Lab IT Services Boost Efficiency and Client Trust for Medical Diagnostic Laboratory

Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (MDL) is a medical lab with over 130 users, located in La Verne, CA.

Denise Wilson, COO of MDL, said, “I first started working with Toro Tech Solutions at my previous laboratory, West Pacific Medical Laboratory. I was very impressed with their knowledge and work ethics. When I left West Pacific Medical Laboratory and joined Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, I couldn’t wait until I could get Toro Tech to come and join the team at Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.”

The following solutions that Toro Tech has provided to Medical Diagnostic Laboratory represent just a small part of the total picture of IT services for medical labs we provide on a day-to-day basis.

The Challenge

Prior to working with Toro Tech Solutions, Medical Diagnostic Laboratory experienced several technical roadblocks and inefficiencies that prevented them from performing at optimal levels.

Reporting of STAT orders was inconsistent and often late.
Before Toro Tech, MDL had to manually check for pending results or use the outdated and inefficient reporting module that their LIS offered.
MDL did not have any EMR interfaces in place with any of their clients. The previous IT personnel did not have the knowledge or skill set to facilitate these integrations.
MDL acquired a new molecular UTI instrument that gives patients results in 24 hours. This machine detects all specific organisms in the sample and gives suggestions on which antibiotics to use to treat the infection. However, to get the results report in the PDF format that doctors expect, a connection to a third-party API needed to be established.
MDL needed an efficient, streamlined method of tracking daily accessions and requisitions.

The Solution

Toro Tech immediately began implementing solutions to these problems. Because of our years of experience in providing specialized IT services for medical labs, we had the expertise and resources in place to update MDL’s IT processes to meet their needs.

Along with providing MDL with an in-house IT presence, help desk support, and remote monitoring of all IT assets, Toro Tech has also provided the following custom solutions:

Introducing a STAT-Tracking System (JOVI).

Toro Tech Solutions developed a STAT-tracking software called JOVI that utilizes two or more monitors set up in the laboratory and client services. The monitors display the STAT orders that lab assistants and accessioners input into the JOVI software. The software tracks the STAT orders using color-coded markers that indicate how long the sample has been in the lab. These color-coded markers also apply to the client services department whose job it is to call clients when the results have been reported. The software also tracks the employees who enter the orders, making them accountable. Orders entered can only be edited by administrators.

Creating a Pending Results Program.

Toro Tech Solutions developed a program that allows the user to fetch all pending results for any given day or date range. It is an amazingly simple and easy-to-use program that MDL utilizes every morning. An automated report can also be emailed every morning.

Facilitating with MDL’s LIS system provider for more efficient fulfillment.

Toro Tech Solutions began fulfilling MDL’s client’s requests for EMR interfaces by working closely with MDL’s LIS system provider. We have facilitated over 100 EMR interfaces for MDL from start to finish, working with EMR companies such as Practice Fusion, Athena Health, eClinicalWorks, Medgen, Elation, and Aprima.

Creating an API PDF retrieval program.

Toro Tech Solutions created a program that communicates with the API to retrieve PDF reports in bulk and within a few minutes. Using the data exported from the molecular UTI instrument, Toro Tech successfully created a process to automatically match up patient results to patient demographics from the LIS databases. Once the data is matched up, the information is sent to the API and converted into a PDF report that is easy to read and color coded.

Introducing an Automated Daily Accession Count.

We implemented software to create an Automated Daily Accession Count for MDL, which now allows them to bypass the time-consuming manual search for data. Instead, they now receive an automatic daily report, which can be sorted according to numbers for individual sales reps, patient service centers, clients, and more.

The Results

Medical Diagnostic Laboratory has increased efficiency and greater client trust due to the improvements to their IT systems provided by Toro Tech Solutions. The results of the solutions described above include:

STAT reporting is more efficient.

With the addition of the JOVI software, STAT reporting and tracking has seen a dramatic improvement. Accountability for misplaced samples, delays in reporting, and general errors has gone up, giving supervisors and managers a better insight into the workflow of the lab.

Reporting for the pending tests is now completed on time.

Lab managers and supervisors are now able to get the pending results list for any given period on demand. The ability to generate this report on demand has helped MDL with prioritizing and tracking the results that are pending.

Clients have more direct access to results, and clients searching for a provider are noticing.

With the expansion of electronic medical record software, sending patient results directly to the EMR portal is crucial for many physicians. The interfaces Toro Tech Solutions has facilitated for MDL’s clients has been instrumental in MDL’s ability to acquire new clients looking for the same service.

MDL now has the capability to send molecular UTI reports.

The reports are printed and faxed directly to the clients. The ability to perform and report molecular UTIs is a rare service that not many other labs can provide. The reports are archived on a secure server.

Daily Accession Counts give MDL a high-level overview of their business, leading to increased daily specimens processed.

Using the automated daily accession counts provided by Toro Tech, MDL can now review how sales staff are performing, where requests are coming from, and any general gaps they can fill in theri business. Using these counts, we have helped labs exponentially increase the number of specimens they process daily.

The best it services for medical labs

Of Toro Tech Solutions, Denise Wilson said, “Their program writing and troubleshooting is above any I have worked with in my 30 years in the laboratory industry. Their ability to extract data from our LIS system has helped tremendously in the growth of the laboratory.”

At Toro Tech Solutions, we are uniquely qualified to provide IT services for medical labs like Medical Diagnostic Laboratory because of the innovative healthcare-specific software we’ve created and implemented.

We’ve been working with healthcare organizations to improve their businesses through IT for a quarter of a century, and we take great satisfaction and pride in working with Medical Diagnostic Laboratory to optimize their IT processes for success.