What is the point of an Order Entry? - Advantages
Why do you actually need a digital laboratory portal? Or to put it another way: What are the advantages of using our DORNER Order Entry?
The Munich Leukemia Laboratory is a leading international provider of leukemia diagnostics and uses our Order Entry System for electronic order entry and report transmission.
Christian Pohlkamp, MD, Internist, Hematology and Oncology & Head of Cytomorphology:
Dr. Pohlkamp, you have been using our DORNER Order Entry for some time now to offer your senders a convenient digital way to commission you with examinations. What are the advantages for you and your senders?
Christian Pohlkamp, MD: I probably can't even count that on one hand. It has many advantages! It starts with very simple things: For example, there are often problems with the correct transmission of patient data or accompanying documents (laboratory values, etc.). A purely digital transmission of such data is, of course, much less prone to errors than, for example, handwritten notes on an OB certificate. That is a first advantage. Secondly, it is the case that the findings query is of course faster, but that on the other hand the order entry in this digital portal is also significantly simplified and also supported. So, a kind of assistance is provided in this very complex field of leukemia diagnostics.
Do your senders incur any costs as a result?
Christian Pohlkamp, MD: The installation process and use are completely free of charge. The support during the installation process is also free of charge. This means that there are no costs in any form for the sender if he wants to use this order entry system.
When using such portals, medical data is transmitted via the internet. Is this also safe?
Christian Pohlkamp, MD: Of course, we also hear the question of data protection very frequently from our senders. First of all, I have to say that the use of digital data transmission channels, as we have established in our Order Entry, is now much more secure than many methods of conventional data transmission. It is also the case that the patient does not have to consent to the transmission of his or her data. It's also the case that we're not requesting more data than we would receive with the conventional paper-based orders. Nothing changes there. The only thing is that the method of data transmission is modified, namely digital.
And as soon as the data are transmitted, the sender waits for the findings?
Christian Pohlkamp, MD: The orders can also be digitally post-processed and modified. It is certainly also advantageous for the senders if they can track their samples digitally. So if they can look in our lab book (in our digital one) to see in which patients which examinations have progressed and how far. How long does it take until I find out, for example, this or that critical parameter for the patient? In some cases, this is also medically relevant, so that therapy can be planned following diagnostics. In this respect, I think that this digital portal (the order entry solution) will not only help senders, but in the medium term, there is no way around it in an increasingly digitalized world.
