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Lab Experiences Improvements in PowerPath since
IMPAC
Acquisition
Dahl Chase Pathology Associates is a large reference laboratory
that serves Eastern Maine Medical Center and Saint Joseph
Hospital as well as 15 other smaller hospitals and clinical
laboratories in Maine. Dahl Chase implemented PowerPath in 2001
after what pathologist Holly McDaniel calls a “rigorous”
selection process. “We were very picky when we chose PowerPath,”
Dr. McDaniel explains. “Although it was not perfect, PowerPath
was significantly better than the rest of the A/P systems
available at that time, and we believe it continues to be the
best system available today.”
Automatic QA Correlation
According to Dr. McDaniel, the lab experienced significant
improvements in process efficiency once the PowerPath system was
in operation. She says that there is almost no interruption to
workflow now that the pathologists can order stains
electronically, sign-out and track cases, and easily edit
transcriptions. While these benefits are notable, the Quality
Assurance Module is the part of the system that has made huge
improvements. “The QA Module of PowerPath automatically picks up
correlations, so we are getting much more data than we did
before. We can thoroughly measure and report the quality of our
process, which is a valuable way to distinguish our practice
against other reference labs. Since hospitals rely on this
information to evaluate reference labs, it is critical for our
business,” she explains.
IT
Considerations & Improvements
It’s not just the clinical component of the system that has been
welcomed by Dahl Chase. From an information systems perspective,
PowerPath also outperforms its competitors, explains Steve
Mellor, IS supervisor. “The far less-demanding maintenance and
the performance increase over our previous system cannot be
beat,” Mellor says. “Our old system would slow to a crawl
sometimes when it would near the 40-user limit, and we would
also have to take it down for drive replacement.” PowerPath’s
SQL platform enables Dahl Chase to run RAID 1+0 arrays without
worrying about drive failures interrupting the system
operations. The site is also able to perform multiple back-ups
while the system is online, which has also been a great
improvement, Mellor adds.
Product Development & Service
Priorities
Although Dr. McDaniel admits that there had been a huge dip in
customer service and product development with PowerPath under a
different management team, she says that she has been impressed
by the marked improvement since IMPAC acquired the product in
December 2003. “IMPAC is initiating big projects and actually
making things happen. The dedicated product management team is
helping to make a good product even better by talking to
customers and truly listening. There’s a positive energy and you
can feel it,” she explains. Dr. McDaniel further noted that a
recent customer support problem was addressed within one hour of
filing the request. “The service representative not only
corrected the error, but contacted me by phone to notify me that
the issue had been resolved.” |
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Holly McDaniel, MD, Pathologist, Dahl Chase Pathology Associates
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[Email
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