Orchard Software’s newest product for the lab, Orchard® Trellis™, provides electronic connectivity to more effectively manage a lab’s point-of-care (POC) testing.

Trellis is an orders-and-results-management software program that serves as a simple “review, click, and go” cost-effective bridge for electronically passing orders and results between low-volume POC analyzers/instruments and the EMR.

Whether the POC testing is at a Protime clinic, a pediatrician’s office, a lipid clinic, or any other point-of-care testing facility, the program helps eliminate connectivity challenges and electronically integrates POC results back into user’s EMR.

“With today’s health care challenges surrounding efficiency and accountability and the economic pressures to do more with less, Trellis provides the optimal means for electronic connectivity to more effectively manage your POC testing.” says Rob Bush, president of Orchard Software Corp,  Carmel, Ind.

Trellis can be integrated to Orchard Harvest™ LIS, which allows users to automate remote QC and help ensure accurate billing.

“Because of low volume, remote locations, and limited connectivity capabilities inherent to most POC devices, most POC test results are not being captured in the EMR," says Jeffery Kain, executive vice president. "If they are making it to the EMR, it involves manual entry—a time-consuming process subject to clerical errors.”

Features include:

  • Flexibility: it is suitable for everything from a small practice needing a simple bridge between the EMR and a few low-volume instruments to a centralized lab within a network of POC locations. When there is a centralized lab among a network of POC locations, there are a couple of deployment options: In a lab with a legacy LIS, the program can provide POC connectivity by linking the POC testing sites directly to the EMR. If there is no existing LIS, it can be used in conjunction with Orchard Harvest LIS to simplify quality control management and make results from POC analyzers easily accessible for analytics or inspection purposes.
     
  • Orders and results software uses the Internet and Web services as the method of connectivity to enable electronic integration with POC testing locations and the EMR. Orchard supports standard HL7 2.3.1 messaging for easy connectivity to users’ EMR.
     
  • Training is straightforward because it is a simple software package for viewing orders, viewing results, and releasing them back to the users EMR. The user interface is designed to be completely contained in a single window, eliminating the confusion of multiple overlapping windows. The application window is divided into three views—the home view, the pending review view, and the released results view.
     
  • Orders placed in the user’s EMR are transmitted into Trellis and appear in the pending review view of the software. As results come from the analyzer, the microscope icon appears to notify users that results are available and ready for review and approval. To review results, users select a patient and click on the results button or double-click a patient name. Once results have been reviewed and approved, they are easily released to the EMR by clicking the release button.
     
  • Efficiency and cost savings are realized in the reduction of time spent manually entering patient results. Greater accuracy can be attained by eliminating the chance of clerical errors. Because results are transmitted electronically into the EMR in real-time, faster turnaround time is accomplished as testing is completed. Providers will have prompt access to the POC testing results for diagnosis and treatment of the patient. 

[Source: Orchard Software]