Pathology LIMS Change

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Pathology Project Team
Email:
nwangliaft.limsproject@nhs.net

As a user of the North West Anglia Foundation Trust (NWAFT) Pathology service, we are writing to inform you of some upcoming changes as a result of an ongoing Pathology project which will see the replacement of the current Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) with a system called WinPath Enterprise. The LIMS receives pathology orders from ICE order comms, processes results and send reports to downstream systems such as GP systems (SystmOne and EMIS).

The WinPath Enterprise system will be added as a new ‘Trading Partner’ in ICE. A minor configuration change in the GP system is required to enable them to associate Pathology results, received via ICE, with the new Pathology LIMS. The new LIMS provider (CliniSys) will contact EMIS and SystmOne  directly, advising them which GP practices require this change, and they will then lead on making this change. It is not anticipated that you will need to make any changes yourself, however you may be asked to accept WinPath Enterprise as a trusted new Trading Partner when you first receive results. If you do not accept the new Trading Partner, you will still receive and be able to review your Pathology results, but your GP system will not recognise the sender. The project team has tried to minimise the changes that you see when ordering Pathology tests on ICE order comms and on the reports you  receive back into your GP systems. However, this has been a welcomed opportunity to harmonise reporting procedures across the local pathology network, update in accordance with national guidelines and to improve efficiencies in patient sample processing. Therefore, there will be some minor changes to the information requested in ICE for some pathology disciplines and some changes to reporting, such as reference ranges and report comments, have been made. Please be assured that any significant changes will be communicated to users prior to implementation. WinPath Enterprise is due to go live on Monday 30th October and it would be beneficial to do some testing in September-October with both SystmOne and EMIS users to facilitate a smooth transition at go live. If you would be willing to participate in this testing, please get in touch via the above email.

Yours sincerely, 
NWAFT Pathology Project Team