Gravity Diagnostics, located in Covington, KY, is a fast-growing reference laboratory with a primary focus on toxicology testing. The laboratory has been a long-term partner with Orchard Software, using Orchard’s software and services to continually grow their services and support their mission.
Gravity Promotes Care, Compliance, & Confidence
Gravity Diagnostics is a state-of-the-art CAP-accredited, CLIA-certified laboratory licensed in all 50 states. They perform diagnostic testing for toxicology, pharmacogenetics (PGX), infectious and upper respiratory diseases, and COVID-19. The laboratory’s clients include universities, public health organizations, private practices, Fortune 500 companies, and more. Gravity promotes care, compliance, and confidence with the intent to empower individuals to take charge of their own healthcare destiny. They promise a level of care and client service unmatched in the industry and a commitment to regulatory compliance and integrity. Their level of innovation aligns with Orchard’s, with both companies continually exploring new ways to provide testing solutions and services that improve patient care.
Gravity’s main focus is diagnostic toxicology testing, which provides an integral service to the community as part of the solution to address a nationwide substance use disorder crisis. In 2022, there were more than 100,000 deaths from drug overdoses; 92% were categorized as preventable.¹ More than 48 million Americans reported having a substance abuse disorder in the latest Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report.² These rising statistics demonstrate that the United States faces a substance use disorder epidemic.
Mike Tarwater, VP of Information Technology at Gravity Diagnostics said, “The country is facing a public health crisis. Through our diagnostic technology, data aggregation and reporting tools, we continue to serve our communities by arming them with critical elements needed to address this growing issue.”
Gravity & Orchard Partnered Since 2005
Gravity initially partnered with Orchard Software in 2005 for molecular testing, expanding to include Orchard® Outreach™ and Orchard™ Enterprise Lab™ Toxicology module in 2017 under their new ownership. With the COVID-19 pandemic, their testing volumes rose dramatically, so the laboratory scaled their services to match demand. Orchard’s solutions allowed Gravity to scale up for COVID-19 testing and rescale after the pandemic testing reduced, continually supporting their laboratory volumes and significant growth.
Though COVID-19 testing volumes have dropped, Gravity’s toxicology and other testing types have continued to rise. Most recently, under the direction of Tarwater, Gravity implemented Orchard Enterprise Lab, Orchard Enterprise Lab Toxicology module, Orchard Molecular, and Orchard Enterprise Lab Microbiology module. Tarwater said, “The combination of Orchard Enterprise Lab, Orchard Toxicology, and Orchard Molecular fits what we’re trying to do with toxicology and with PGX testing.”
Gravity Gains the LIS Tools They Need with Orchard
Gravity’s biggest competitive factor other than quality and service is turnaround time (TAT). Orchard’s solutions allow the lab to scale and support the lab’s need for rapid TAT. As a competitive differentiator, Orchard provides superior support and system administration services that allow Gravity to meet its goals.
Tarwater has overseen five laboratories as either VP of Information Technology or Chief Information Officer and has had the opportunity to work with Orchard and many of its competitor solutions.
“Where Orchard Software stands out against its competitors is in its high level of configurability combined with the support and subject matter experts that help us configure our system the way we need to,” Tarwater said.
Improvements in Workflow, Tracking, & Result Reports
Not including other testing lines, Gravity Diagnostics processes thousands of specimens a day for toxicology testing. They have a complex toxicology workflow
that generates a combination of reports, some generated from spreadsheets. Each specimen may require multiple result reports because there may be 50 different drug combinations within a toxicology test. Orchard’s tracking and reporting capabilities are a significant help in generating these complex reports. In addition, having all their data in one common SQL database structure is helpful to support their custom reporting requirements. For key performance indicators, Gravity uses Orchard’s system to help track percent up time, throughput, TAT, and overall cost of the infrastructure.
For molecular testing, the lab tracks several metrics in spreadsheets. With Orchard Enterprise, Gravity anticipates significant workflow and specimen tracking improvements particularly for molecular testing.
“I’m looking forward to getting away from spreadsheets and tracking testing in one system so that I can get a view of what’s in progress and identify where the bottlenecks are in the laboratory,” Tarwater said.
Superior System Administration
Gravity Diagnostics has a strong laboratory and leadership staff but also relies on support from Orchard Software when they need it. Tarwater appreciates the technology and laboratory expertise Orchard employees have.
A Future of Growth and Best Patient Care
Gravity Diagnostics and Orchard Software have myriad opportunities to continue to grow and work together. At Gravity, they have many options to continue to expand their testing (e.g., employment drug screening, PGX as payors begin to understand its value, and infectious disease testing).
“I have to look at shoring up the throughput, bandwidth, and scalability of my systems as we continue to grow our toxicology business. And that’s really one of the benefits of working with Orchard—that we can do that,” Tarwater said.
From an IT perspective, Tarwater must ensure that the laboratory information system solution can support whatever direction they decide to take their laboratory without the need to replace the entire infrastructure, and this need is met through the partnership between Gravity and Orchard.
References
- Drug overdose death rates. NIH. Updated May 14, 2024. Access August 13, 2024. https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.
- 2023 National survey on drug use and health (NSDUH) releases. SAMHSA. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health/nationalreleases/2023.