Your lab might consider a LIMS,
Your lab might consider a LIMS,but you might also be a fit for an LIS.
Why a LIMS?
LIMS, designed to work with large amounts of data, or batch-processing of samples, are most commonly found with research labs. Your lab also might not need to interface with any instruments. If this isn’t the case, then you’ll want to consider an LIS.
Why an LIS?
An LIS is the lifeblood of your laboratory. The LIS handles all of the information processing in your lab from order entry to report outputs. The LIS also interfaces with your other systems and instruments.
A LIS is designed to process, store, and manage patient medical lab test records. In addition to associating the right test with the right patient, cumulative test results can be examined to investigate demographic and other statistics of importance to the medical community.
Your LIS can accommodate a variety of medical testing needs, from inpatient to outpatient, from hematology to immunology, and now even to molecular genetics. At its core, an LIS provides a highly sophisticated relational database that manages medical lab test records from requests to results.
Every LIS provides a methodology for lab test management. This includes a range of features and functions that perform patient lab test ordering and tracking; interfaces to lab instruments; interfaces to PMS, HIS, EHR, EMR and billing systems; results processing; data storage; reporting; quality controls; and, statistical analyses. Within each of those areas, the LIS has a range of capabilities designed to streamline the patient test management process.