The national laboratory information system (MedLIS) has gone live in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, although the histopathology laboratory has remained on a separate system.
According to the HSE, it is planned for the system go live at Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, by the end of next year.
“The MedLIS programme, which utilised the Oracle Cerner Millennium Powerchart and Pathnet product, successfully went live in Beaumont Hospital in August and is working well. There have been significant benefits even at this early stage post-implementation,” a HSE spokesperson told the Medical Independent.
“We can confirm that the histopathology module was not part of the initial Beaumont Hospital implementation, but the hospital and the project team are finalising plans around this module. The MedLIS programme supports all laboratory disciplines.”
Beaumont is the first site where MedLIS has been implemented. The next sites due to deploy the system include Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda; Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown; and the regional midland hospitals in Tullamore, Portlaoise, and Mullingar.
“We aim to be live at Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda, by the end of 2025, with other sites to follow. Additional hospitals may also be included.”
Implementation of the MedLIS programme in each hospital is an “in-depth and complex process” which involves not just the laboratory but every part of the hospital that uses laboratory services.
The HSE signed a contract with Cerner in 2015, but rollout has been significantly delayed, most recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2021 cyberattack on the HSE.
The national MedLIS project aims to establish an integrated nationwide laboratory information system that provides healthcare professionals with rapid 24-hour access to up-to-date laboratory data across all sites. The system will allow both hospitals and GPs to electronically order tests and receive results.
The HSE envisages that the MedLIS project will deliver significant benefits to the pathology service, clinicians and local healthcare providers. These benefits include a reduction in test duplication; the wider availability of results to healthcare providers; faster electronic accessing of these results; enhanced clinical audit; and a more comprehensive and robustly stored patient laboratory record.
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