January 16, 2024
Dear Providers,
This Saturday, January 20, St. Joseph’s Health migrates to Epic’s Beaker Lab system and the Trinity Health standard blood bank solution, Wellsky. Moving to these platforms will improve patient care and provide for more efficiencies within TogetherCare for everyone. St. Joseph’s Health will also use Bugsy for discrete microbiology results where infection preventionists will transition from using various third-party analytics software to using TogetherCare for all infection tracking and reporting.
As announced earlier this year, we are divesting our co-ownership of Laboratory Alliance of Central New York (LACNY) and expanding laboratory services at the Hospital. This project expands our Anatomic Pathology area by 1,600 square feet, which will allow us to better process the approximately 45,000 pathology and cytology specimens that originate at our facilities every year. The project is designed to optimize work processes and enable faster delivery.
EMPLOYED PHYSICIANS
For inpatients, the lab ordering process for physicians should not feel any different. When physicians enter information in Beaker, St. Joseph’s Health Hospital Lab will come up as a default lab.
Laboratory testing from St. Joseph’s Physicians practices that is currently being sent to LACNY will be re-directed to the St. Joseph’s Medical P.C. Laboratory or to the St. Joseph’s Health Hospital Lab. We will continue to update preference lists to be available at Go-Live. When physicians enter information in Beaker, St. Joseph’s will come up as a default lab, but may need to be adjusted by patient location. Patients needing blood draws will be directed by the ordering office to the most appropriate site for their testing needs.
Please note: Dr. Austin Tsai and our St. Joseph’s team will be working on ambulatory preferences this weekend, as nothing can be built pre-Go Live. Ambulatory providers are encouraged to NOT place new lab orders this weekend during the transition. Ordering medications, prescriptions, and imaging is not affected.
Primary care providers, make sure to follow Jennifer Brewster’s preference list. Primary care providers are urged to attend an informational meeting on the Wave 8 Beaker Implementation on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, at 7:30-8:00 a.m. Led by Dr. Austin Tsai and Michelle Lapoint, topics include: ABN Updates; Updates of preferences; Miscellaneous Tests. A Microsoft Teams invite will be sent out.
NON-EMPLOYED PHYSICIANS
The new laboratory will use the Epic EMR for all specimen collection, documentation and reporting of results. Providers and offices who send patients to St. Joseph’s for procedures through the Pre-Admission Testing Process can expect to receive test results back to them via fax transmission using the fax numbers on file for the ordering provider. Existing PAT processes involving provider notification of positive cultures will remain intact and will not change. After January 20, if your office experiences problems receiving results, please call our Help Desk at 315-448-5607 to open a support ticket. Please include the provider’s name, appropriate fax number and any other details at that time.
Additionally, St. Joseph’s Health will send all test results to HealtheConnections, our Regional Health Information Exchange Organization (RHiO) so if your office currently leverages this method of result retrieval, you will continue to do so post January 20.
Thank you in advance for your patience and support during this transition. We appreciate everyone who worked hard to make this expansion possible.
Sincerely,
Meredith A. Price, CPA, FHFMASenior Vice President, Acute Operations
St. Joseph’s Health
Julianne Himes, MS, PA-CSenior Vice President, Medical Group PresidentSt. Joseph’s Physicians/THMG