West Side hospitals using LabsNow Plus

Four hospitals in the Puget Sound region are using new software developed in Spokane that helps gather and distribute critical patient information.

The same product, called LabsNow Plus, is also being tested by several doctors in the Spokane area.

The product was developed by Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML), a full-service medical testing laboratory and a subsidiary of Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Using the new online tool are Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Tacoma, St. Clare Hospital in Federal Way, and St. Francis Hospital in Auburn. All four are part of PacLab Network, a joint venture to provide hospitals with medical lab test results. Providence and PAML own about 40 percent interest in PacLab Network.

Matt Maynard, PAML’s chief information officer, said the product helps doctors get relevant and detailed patient information quickly.

“It’s an important issue for patient safety,” Maynard said. “Doctors and hospitals recognize that getting the right patient information, all of it and not some of the information, is extremely important.”

An emergency-room or on-call physician in a hospital normally wouldn’t have access to lab tests that were done on a patient in their physician’s office or at an outpatient laboratory. This can cause a delay in a diagnosis and treatment while tests are repeated, Maynard said.

LabsNow Plus, using high-speed data networks, gives a quick and detailed report on a person’s inpatient and outpatient lab tests performed at facilities served by PacLab or PAML. LabsNow Plus is being provided free, said Maynard. “It’s a matter of patient safety. But this is also a way for PAML to differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” he said.

Maynard estimated developing LabsNow Plus cost just over $1 million. Roughly half that cost was shared by Microsoft, which assisted in the development.

The Redmond, Wash., software and technology company saw the PAML application as a good fit for its new .Net Web services products, said Microsoft spokeswoman Wendy Corley.

Initial testing of the software shows that emergency-room physicians find it useful, according to Maynard. Added Dr. Stephen Marshall, Overlake’s Emergency Department medical director: “The benefit of using LabsNow Plus enables me and my staff to provide faster diagnosis, less duplication and save money for the patient.”

Maynard said a number of Spokane-area doctors are testing the LabsNow Plus software and others will be adding it. It’s also being reviewed by Spokane and North Idaho hospitals. “Kootenai Medical Center is working right now on evaluating it,” he said.

The software is password-protected to ensure that access to patient data is secure. It’s easily loaded onto a clinic’s or hospital’s computer system and essentially performs as an added feature to a Web browser, Maynard said.