

Work with your conversion team, Epic and legacy vendors to determine a plan, timeline, staffing requirements and budget needs for conversion activities. In addition, anatomic pathology case and specimen tracking conversions introduce additional complexities beyond clinical pathology results conversion, requiring additional planning and execution time. Multiple technologies, strategies and vendors will be employed depending on the volume, age, source systems and scope of your conversion activities. It’s never too early to develop a strategy for data conversion when preparing for an LIS implementation. In addition to instrument integration, an integration strategy and planning will be needed for satellite labs, POCT, Reference Labs, outreach EMRs and other interface needs. Discussions will also occur during the implementation related to reflex testing, autoverification, quality control and other needs that relate to middleware decisions and functional abilities. Pre-implementation planning will need to include formation of a strategy for instrument interfacing. A typical lab implementation may include direct Beaker integration, third-party middleware (such as Data Innovations, Dawning Technologies and others) and instrument manufacturer middleware. While it’s technically possible to integrate all analyzers and instruments directly into Beaker, most organizations use one or more third-party middleware providers to interface lab instruments.
#Beaker lab software
Epic and Mediware have an agreement covering the licensing and integration of Mediware’s HCLL Transfusion system with Epic’s Beaker.ĭecisions on the use and integration of Epic’s Blood Product Administration Module (BPAM) and Positive Patient Identification (PPID) functionality will affect the requirements for Blood Bank software and integration.
#Beaker lab install
If possible, you will need to retain your existing Blood Bank vendor or install a new solution in parallel with the Beaker implementation. Blood BankĪ decision on Blood Bank functionality is an important part of pre-implementation planning because Epic’s Beaker does not include functionality for Blood Bank and Transfusion management. In addition, inventories of existing instruments, satellite devices and other hardware (printers, scanners, workstations) will be helpful for pre-implementation planning. A formal plan for rapid decision-making and escalation of issues needs to be developed to encompass both internal laboratory implementation issues and issues needing coordination with the existing Epic governance structure.ĭocumentation on current interfaces, third-party systems and external data sources should be accurate and up-to-date.

In addition, Laboratory Steering and Governance committees may need to be formed, if not already existing. Similar to other Epic implementation projects, project artifacts such as a Charter, Budget, Timeline, Staffing Plan will need to be created. If you and your team are among those making the switch, this is how you should prepare for your upcoming Beaker implementation (short of camping out in Verona for an earlier implementation slot).

Whether it’s because it’s been named #1 in KLAS every year since 2014, scholarly articles about successful implementations like this, this and this, or even just a sense of nostalgia for one of Jim Henson’s fuzzy creations, many organizations have decided to make the switch to Beaker as their laboratory information system (LIS).
