Clearview Cancer Institute (CCI) has been an Orchard Software partner for more than 14 years. With aligned goals and a true partnership, both organizations continue to work together to streamline and optimize their laboratory information system (LIS) solution, which allows the CCI lab to provide a superior level of care to their cancer patients.
Comprehensive Cancer Care at CCI
CCI is north Alabama’s leading cancer treatment facility, providing leading-edge treatment and compassionate care to cancer and blood disorder patients for more than 30 years. CCI is a full-service oncology practice with 13 clinics across the state that offer a comprehensive and caring outpatient setting. They provide on-site cancer treatments, radiation oncology, imaging center, genetics, research and clinical trials, and laboratory testing. Patients receive the top level of care and can get every resource they need to manage their treatment at CCI.
The laboratory at CCI offers immediate lab results for cancer patients receiving treatment through their CLIA- and COLA-certified laboratory. Testing is performed for hematology, clinical chemistries, immunoassay, electrophoresis, molecular diagnostics, flow cytometry, and urinalysis. In addition to the main laboratory location, 10 of the clinic sites have laboratories performing hematology and chemistry testing, and two of the remaining facilities have on-site phlebotomists. The bulk of the 1.5 million tests they perform annually takes place in the primary facility in Huntsville, Alabama.
CCI and Orchard Software – Working Together
CCI initially implemented Orchard® Harvest™ in 2010, shifting from an older LIS with limited functionality. As they grew their practice across the state, they transitioned to cloud-hosted Orchard® Enterprise Lab™ in 2020. Genneva Conant, MLS(ASCP), Director of Laboratory Services, has been with CCI for more than 16 years, experiencing each LIS transition.
Conant appreciates that Orchard’s solutions are developed with laboratory expertise and customer feedback, which makes the user interface intuitive and easy to learn compared to other LIS solutions.
“We need an LIS that allows us to grow and develop and make the system our own. And we feel like Orchard provides that. It is important to us that Orchard listens and takes our feedback to heart, and the interaction between the lab system and the end user is much better than other systems I have seen,” Conant said. She continued, “Orchard actually utilizes laboratory scientist expertise to help develop their software and that really shines through because the goal is to build software for the end user with the functionality they need on a day-to-day basis. That’s why we chose Orchard initially and continue to invest in Orchard as our practice grows.”
LIS Benefits Promote Lab Proficiency
CCI’s laboratory requires a high level of proficiency to meet the standards their patients expect and deserve. With Orchard’s LIS solution, CCI’s laboratory continues to improve its overall efficiency, finding new ways to save time and boost lab productivity.
Sample Tracking Saves Time
One of the areas where CCI lab has improved their efficiency is in sample tracking. Prior to Orchard Enterprise Lab, samples received in the lab were stored in refrigerated racks with no easy way to find a sample that was needed for additional testing. Staff would have to look through individual racks and tubes trying to locate the correct patient sample, which was a significant time drain. With sample tracking/archiving within Orchard Enterprise Lab, they can quickly and easily locate a specimen, making that process more efficient.
“Implementing sample tracking was a big time saver in our facility because we have thousands of tubes collected daily. Finding the right one for add-on testing is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Conant said. “Orchard worked with us to get it functioning optimally so that we can archive and track our samples easily, and that was a major improvement.”
Autoverification Rules Improve Turnaround Time for Patients
CCI laboratory improved its turnaround time (TAT) and positively impacted patient care by setting up rules to support autoverification. “We’ve implemented auto approval in our hematology department. For a clinic that’s reporting 400 to 500 CBCs a day, to not have to put eyes on every single one of those samples has been a huge benefit,” Conant said.
Reaping the Benefits of Orchard’s System Administration Team
Conant said that it was a struggle to keep up with all the system updates, resolved tickets, and new functionality prior to having a System Administration (SA) agreement with Orchard. Partnering with Orchard’s SA team has allowed CCI laboratory to focus on their jobs in the lab and know that their LIS is in good hands because they have an SA partner looking out for them.
“I can’t speak highly enough of our System Administration service. It’s almost like having someone working for Orchard in our practice,” Conant said. “That’s how I feel about it because they are able to manage our support tickets and facilitate the communication between my team and the Orchard team. We can present a project and together with Orchard SA we’re able to make it happen, and it’s been huge.”
Autocollection Saves Significant Staff Time
Working with Orchard’s SA team, CCI laboratory created an autocollection process for the phlebotomy team. When lab orders are transmitted from the EHR to Orchard, those orders are autocollected, the phlebotomist’s name is automatically entered into Orchard Enterprise Lab, and the labels are printed.
“Working with Orchard’s SA team, we’ve incorporated an autocollection process that eliminates several clicks from the phlebotomists’ process for every patient,” Conant said. “When you add that up, that’s at least an hour out of the day that each one of my staff members is saving in collecting patient orders and printing labels.”
Cloud Access Improves System Reliability
Transitioning to a cloud-hosted environment has also been a boon for CCI laboratory. The decision to cloud-host their LIS was made to stay up to date and take some of the burden off CCI’s IT team. Conant said that when they do have issues, cloud-hosting is structured so that someone from Orchard sees what’s going on within seconds, communicates, and takes care of the issue.
Easy Access to Metrics for Inspection
At CCI laboratory, they use Orchard’s solution for monthly key performance indicator (KPI) reporting. The lab monitors TAT, critical values, phlebotomy totals, testing volumes, and more. Reports are auto generated, and the data analytics team imports them into the Power BI structure for further analysis. “We’re able to utilize the data from Orchard Enterprise Lab to track our internal metrics and provide that information to our surveyors when our lab is being inspected,” Conant said. “The reporting features are really nice, and we have it structured so that we can get the data we need more quickly. This is another instance of a time saver for my leadership team who is reviewing that data each month.”
A Bright Future, Working Together for Best Patient Care
Looking ahead, CCI plans to continue to grow their practice to meet patient care needs throughout the state and focus on preparing for upcoming FDA oversight of lab-developed tests.
“Our administration plans to continue to grow our practice throughout the state and Orchard plays a big role in that because our LIS has to be flexible enough to continue to grow with us and facilitate anything that we need from instrument interfaces to developing new workflows,” Conant said. With Orchard’s advanced customer support options, the CCI lab can focus on these goals knowing that they have a trusted and reliable LIS partner alongside.
