John Muir Health (JMH) located in the San Francisco East Bay includes four facilities sharing the same laboratory information system (LIS) database. Since implementing IMPAC’s PowerPath anatomic pathology system in 2001, John Muir Medical Center’s Walnut Creek campus, JMH has been able to expand the volume of patients it serves without increasing staff.

 “Rarely a month goes by that our volume doesn’t increase,” says Jim Larson, LIS manager; he estimates 14 percent year-over-year growth in recent years. And accuracy has increased since PowerPath was installed because information no longer gets lost.

Improved transcription process
 

Prior to PowerPath, JMH’s transcription process was more manual and slow using networked word processors.

JMH physicians waited for hard copy patient reports and, if corrections were required, the physicians waited a second time to review revisions. Now, transcriptionists enter lab information directly into PowerPath, where physicians can electronically review, edit, and approve reports—promptly and efficiently.

Easy and quick information retrieval

Switching from paper to electronic records was a major change for some lab staff and physicians who had never used computers. “But everyone found PowerPath easy to use,” Larson says.

It also saves time. “Before PowerPath, we would bind paper into books and retrieve the books from storage when needed. Everyone had to wait—and wait—for them. Now, with only a few keystrokes, pathologists and histologists easily and quickly find what they need.”

Impressive flexibility

Flexibility is another key attribute of PowerPath, says Larson. “When we brought in a third physician group, PowerPath was flexible enough to let us develop workflows and reports that satisfied all three groups, allowing us to hook up fairly seamlessly,” he says.

“Since our four facilities rely on solutions from many vendors, the fact that PowerPath can interface to multiple systems was also a critical factor in our decision process. That flexibility will be even more important as we move forward,” Larson says, because JMH plans to import microscopic and gross images into patient electronic medical records (EMRs) as part of its goal to achieve a completely paperless system.