In 2009, Sunquest Information Systems, Inc. marked 30 years in business.
In 2009, Sunquest Information Systems, Inc. marked 30 years in business. We are proud of our heritage and long-standing reputation as a quality laboratory information solution provider, but what really excites us is the future. Healthcare is on the cusp of dramatic and far-reaching changes. Driven by the rapid adoption of molecular and genetic testing and growing recognition of the importance of personalized, community-based care, these changes will transform healthcare and the people who deliver it.
Laboratory testing accounts for less than 3 percent of healthcare spending in the U.S., while affecting about 70 percent of diagnostic decisions. “Laboratory professionals play a truly vital role in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis,” says Richard Atkin, President and CEO, “Sunquest is proud to be part of the diagnostic laboratory team, and we believe that continuously improving the underlying technologies and processes they use is a valuable mission.”
In sports, winning team strategies are built upon solid fundamentals. The fundamentals of diagnostic testing are best expressed as “The Five Rights of Laboratory Testing™”. Based on medication administration and the Patient’s Bill of Rights, The Five Rights of Laboratory Testing emphasizes the important role that the diagnostic laboratory plays in patient safety and effective healthcare: ensuring that the right test is performed on the right patient at the right time, for the right indicators, leading to the right diagnosis.
Right test: Performing the test that the physician ordered is essential, but ensuring that the requested diagnostic panel is appropriate for the patient’s condition is critical. Physicians can be overwhelmed by trying to keep up with all the new testing procedures. Pathologists and laboratory professionals act as consultative resources and can be relied upon to guide care providers in selecting appropriate tests. Combined with smart clinical decision support systems, they will make a difference, especially as molecular technologies and genetic evaluations are introduced in greater numbers.
Right patient: Life on the floors and in emergency rooms can be hectic. Though mistaken identity does happen – usually due to manual processes hurriedly executed under stressful conditions – it’s becoming a thing of the past. From radio-frequency identification to bar-coding systems, positive patient identification solutions have proven highly effective in preventing these kinds of errors from occurring at the point of care during specimen collection and throughout the entire laboratory workflow, even circling back to transfusing blood products.
Right time: Diagnosis and treatment decisions often wait on time-critical test results. Today, the healthcare system reacts when a patient presents and lab workflow should be built for speed as well as accuracy, with technology ensuring both. The emerging model of preventive and personalized medicine will require information technology to mine lab test data to identify opportunities for proactive intervention. Sunquest believes that the new paradigm will also require strong community support and locally available resources to encourage and ensure patient compliance and provide active intervention.
Right indicators: Delivering the right test results for the right patient at the right time gives physicians, nurses and physician’s assistants what they need: the right indicators to guide their decision making. Full access to prior results and confidence in data integrity will support decisions on follow-up actions.
Right diagnosis: This is a prime directive. Lab workflow and information technology can achieve the level of accuracy and reliability necessary to support this fundamental patient right. Patients should expect that their providers have received useful, actionable information that gives clear direction for therapeutic decisions.
Sunquest believes The Five Rights of Laboratory Testing will be an operating standard for the industry; it’s also a guiding principle behind the development of our laboratory, diagnostic and point-of-care systems. Laboratories are central to hospital operations in modern healthcare, and they will only become more so as predictive and personalized medicine evolves and continues to move to a community-based delivery system. We put these principles in place in part to ensure that tomorrow’s diagnoses and therapies are driven by tomorrow’s technology platforms.
Sunquest Information Systems – www.sunquestinfo.com
