The purpose of an LIS is to facilitate workflow, provide tools to monitor the quality of work performed on patients, and provide enduring data retention for laboratory results.

The instruments in a laboratory all serve independent purposes:  to run their specific slate of tests.  The Laboratory Information System is like the conductor, which coordinates the activity among these instruments.  Without the conductor, each instrument functions as a separate unit, printing out its own report according to its own design.

Tests that are performed ‘at the bench’ have results that are hand-written or hand-typed into a word processor.  The LIS organizes this process:  it sends tests to the Chemistry, Special Chem and Hematology analyzer and creates worksheets for the tests that are not performed on these instruments.  SchuyLab produces a single report, and retains an electronic copy of all of these results — forever.

All of the instruments, as well as the off-line and bench tests, have QC performed on them to insure the accuracy of their analysis.  SchuyLab keeps that QC information, as well as the patient results, and allows you to manage the productivity of your lab.  Indeed — SchuyLab can be set to require that the QC is in before any patient results can be Accepted!

When the results are completed and Accepted into SchuyLab, the LIS sends the results to the SchuyNet module for Internet access – or to an EMR or HIS system, which merges it into its database.  SchuyLab also can receive orders from these other sources:  This means that the laboratorians receive their work directly from the doctors, saving time and improving the accuracy of the orders.

SchuyLab’s record keeping meets CLIA requirements — all reports are retained (even partial reports) in the database.