Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Lab Interface? Anybody Using It?

Hey guys,
Here's another one of my general questions to all out there in AC user land. Has anybody contacted LabCorp, seen their contract, activated the interface, seen how it all works? Answers to any of these questions would be great. I personally didn't like the contract that LabCorp presented to us and so I have yet to move ahead with this. Has anyone tried any of the other options either? Any takers??? Thanks.
Paul

I don't have LabCorp interface, but I tried their so-called "bridge". Bridge makes all demographic data/ICD codes from Amazing Charts go directly to their system when I order the lab. It worked, but it slowed down my network performance a lot, so finally I disconnected the brifge.

What bridge was it without the AC interface? Did anyone ever explain to you why it bogged down your system so? And what about their contract for "their" software. My question is if all the labs use the same software for this interface, and they pay this other software vendor on a per office or doc charge, and it is my patient's choice to go to the lab they so choose so I should have a connection to as many labs as possible, how do they all work this out among themselves and what does this mean to use just trying to record and track our patients results? How does this affect us and our servers????

LabCorp provides me with free lab supplies to draw blood in my office. They brought me a computer connected directly to their server anfd a printer to print their lab. I pay for nothing. We draw blood using their supplies and send it to LabCorp. LabCorp bills the patient. We make no money from lab except for the drawing fee which is nothing. This is a contract. There is nothing in the contract about the bridge. The brigde was a program installed on my main computer which pulled demographic data from Amazing Charts database and sent them through the router directly to the LabCorp computer, attached to my router. LabCorp had to contact Amazing Charts support to installed this bridge. This bridge worked only one way, I didn't get any lab reports to my computer. The lab reports were still sent to the LabCorp computer via dial-up connection paid by LabCorp, and printed out on LabCorp printer in my office. I have a simple pier-to-pier network, and the bridge, constantly pulling demographic data from my Amazing Charts database, slowed it down a lot. LabCorp explained it by the fact that the bridge was set up to pull data upon each change, but it was still slow after they changed the settings, so I simply disconnected it.

Thanks for that detailed answer, very interesting. So, First off; have you tried it again since Jon created the new interface with them? Now I've got a HIPAA type question here that you may or maynot know the answer to. You make mention of the interface "pulling down" new data with every entry and that slowed down your system significantly. But what are they doing collecting data on every patient in your system??? Until you've sent them a lab on any one specific patient, that patient is NOT their patient yet and so they are not entitled to any of their PHI as far as I can tell. This could be seen as a very serious violation, wouldn't you agree?
I find it very concerning that these folks send in these un-informed nobodies in business suits who can't answer questions, negotiate terms and conditions, or explain technical details like you just did. Interesting that they supplied you with a free computer and printer, (Phone line too? Or was that on your dime?) all so that they can collect their demographic data without having to have their employees do it. We don't do the blood draws here on sight. We only collect biopsies, PAP's, peepee and the like and pop it in the pick up box with a form filled out. We let them do their own dirty work. We send our patient to their draw stations in the area and they can collect their demographics then.
Also, getting back to the privacy thing, many of our patients choose to go to other labs in our area, not LabCorp, so once again collecting "ALL" your patient's data on the fly, when they may or may not ever be their patients seems to be a very disturbing thing and someone should investigate this further. This doesn't pass my sniff test, how about yours?
Has anybody else tried this thing yet, now that it is up and running???
Paul

Yes, LabCorp paid for a separate phone line installation and maintenence, computer, printer and all supplies (printer cartriges, paper, needles, etc). The LabCorp rep who set up the system was not able to answer technical questions, so I don't know if they pulled demographic on all patients or just those we sent for lab. Yes, it is very concerning that some data are pulled out of my network and I have no way to control it. We still have free computer, printer and phone line, but now the nurse enters patient's name into their computer and prints out a laber. The results are automatically downloaded on LabCorp computer via dialup connection with LabCorp server using their phone line, and automatically printed out on their printer. I tried this LabCorp interface in December, I don't know if it was the new interface or not.

Now I dealing with another privacy issue. Citrix Access Gateway. I have got an agreement with an outside company to use their digital holter. The holter data will be uploaded from my computer to their server via Citrix, and then donwloaded back to my computer. Well, same issue, how can I make sure they are not collecting data from my network? They inserted something like a memory card into my USB post, which is supposed to remain in place all the time. I can't see this memory card among other storage devices. How can I make sure this is not a spyware? I hever worked with Citrix before.

When we first opened using a different charting software (nightmare? ChartWare?) we purchased 2 of the 3 Midmark Ritter devices hoping to have them interface with our charts. So now Jon has written that interface, and the ladies really like it and so do I. You run the tests and the results post and save right to the "Imported Items" section of the patient's chart. Now the MidMark Ritter stuff ain't cheap but with AC it sure works quite nicely and smoothly. I might recommend if you are running enough Holters to start looking for solutions, that you examine AC's more closely. Now this data is right there on your home machine as part of the AC database and they are backed up as a part of your regular AC back of the 6 critial AC files. No more worries about putting your data and your patients on someone else's server....
Now we're in primary care and so in general when we have patients who are that sick they are also under the care of a quality cardiologist and in general they run and send us thier holter results. I've played with the idea of getting the last device but then we are performing and the patient is being charged twice for a duplicate test. So thus far Nancy has not opted to purchase one. We just run ECG's and Spirometry here in house.

We have had the eLabCorp interface tied into our PM application for about a year now. Works very well as does our relationship with LabCorp. It has become our lab of strong preference. We have not had the slow-down issues described by others, but we have a fairly robust network architecture. We are also trying to learn about the AC-LabCorp interface but haven't been able to find out anything substantive. We are well set up now to generate and track lab requests, but the AC interface seems to permit automatic integration of labs into the pt record, which would be a significant enhancement.

I, too, would appreciate any reports of experience with LabCorp-AC interface.

This Thread seems to have gone "quiet". Just wanted to put it back on the front burner so to speak, so perhaps someone who has actually tried, liked it, disliked it, might post the thoughts and experiences here. Would really like to hear some feedback. Thanks....