I have often said that order reconciliation is an area where EMR's could provide significant added value. In the old days, reconciliation often meant a notebook with a list of orders, by patient and by date, which would then be crossed out when the result was received and reviewed. An EMR should be able to mimic that process with far less work. Of course that may be easy to say, but hard to implement.
At first glance, it would seem that it shouldn't be too hard. For example, Monty, imagine if you could turn on a feature that would automatically create a future reminder every time you create an order. That should be a simple thing for AC to do, and it would allow your process to work, but with significantly less effort. Nancy, you say that there is no single interface that allows your labs to be entered in granular fashion, and that is true. The common entry point though is your sign-off screen. Additions to that screen (such as a "reconciliation button" and/or a list of outstanding orders on that patient, to be matched and reconciled against the incoming result) would allow for a relatively easy process.
AC is moving past MU and PM, and onto version 8 which will include significant improvements to the weaknesses of the current program. This is an area that is ripe for development. I am not sure how high it is on the developers priority list, but I will suggest (via the Clinical Advisory Board) that it be given some attention.
