We are upgrading our Laboratory Information System (LIS). Here is how it will affect referrers.

From 29 April 2023, Southern Community Labs will be going live with upgrades to its LIS. This is part of a nationwide initiative that will refresh our existing LIS. Not only does this upgrade make for a more robust system, but it will standardise test names, codes, comments, and reference ranges across the country and where appropriate it will implement HISO standards such as NZPOCS and LOINC.

Five main changes

Referrers are not required to take any actions as a result of the LIS upgrade; however, they can expect to notice five main changes when it comes to reporting:

• The cumulation of some results in Practice Management Systems (PMS) will reset with different test codes and/or names.  Cumulation will start again with the new test code and names.  All previous results will still appear in your PMS as usual.  

• There are some comment changes. This is the result of our clinical teams reviewing ALL current comments and selecting the most appropriate comments to bring into the new system.

• In some instances, you will notice minor changes to values, decimal points, and reference ranges. Again, these changes come after a review by clinical staff and have been made to standardise resulting.

• Results for any test Southern Community Labs sends to a referral laboratory for testing (including CHL) will be reported by Southern Community Labs.

• The new LIS does not support the faxing of results.  Faxing is an outdated, unsecure technology. The Ministry of Health recommend discontinuing its use and continued support is not guaranteed by telecommunications providers.  As faxing has not been in place for some time within the region this will not be noticed as part of the upgrade.

Users of Medtech-32 and Evolution will be provided with release notes/installation instructions for “Inbox Screening Mapping Update” by your PMS provider. The update will  re-map inbox screening terms to the new LIS test result codes. The update does not re-map Patient Inbox. Please ensure you follow the instructions for the update and install as required by April 29 2023.

Questions and Support

Examples of changes can be found on our website here.

Any questions can be emailed to: enquiries@sclabs.co.nz