How to Increase Productivity of Your Laboratory?

Some of the most ground-breaking discoveries are made in a laboratory. Like any organisation, a laboratory also requires management in order to function and meet its directives. While science is a discipline that can be learnt by scientists, medical professionals and researchers, laboratory management is not something that one can teach the scientists. They learn these things can only be mastered with time and experience.

One can efficiently manage their laboratories with systematic planning, leading, controlling and organisation. By planning, a lab manager is able to categorise tasks and apparatus according to specific experiments and projects.

What is Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)?

It is the job of a lab manager to make sure that the experiments and tests that are being conducted are heading towards the targeted objective. Making a three or a five-year plan for the laboratory setup, ensures that the research and experiments are objective oriented.

Once these objectives have been set and all the mechanisms and devices are in their place, experiment and research can be executed with more proficiency.

But as organisational skills need to be developed with time, it becomes a hassle to manage both –  the research as well as the management. Hence, a laboratory information management software (LIMS Software) is often used even by seasoned lab managers and scientists to streamline their work.
So, what is LIMS Software?

LIMS is a software that helps manage targets and timelines, keep a track of budgets and have a record of all the important observations, patient/client details and research materials.

Hence, using LIMS labware for automating all these processes is not only a smart move, but is also becoming a necessity.

Tips to Manage Laboratory Processes

Here are some smart tips to help you manage your laboratory processes seamlessly with the help of any laboratory information management system:

• Cloud-Based Service Desk

It is the age of cloud computing. It not only makes storage and organisation hassle-free but also helps in keeping documents secure. Hence, implementing cloud-based Library Management System to manage Library and Information Science (LIS) is the need of the day.

Once you get a Laboratory Management Software, the next step is to integrate it with your website. If potential visitors tend to browse your website before visiting the laboratory, it is advisable to make your website responsive.

In addition, creating a team of employees for the management of cloud-based service desk is another step towards creating a cloud-integrated environment for the laboratory. This will help potential customers interact and maintain their records.

Moreover, tools such as customer and patient portals enable users to receive reports and receipts with ease.

• Portability

A significant feature of cloud-based laboratory management system is the freedom of portability. With the help of cloud-based servers, users can access information from any place, without having to worry about physically carrying them.

In addition, it is also helpful to create a mobile app to enable easy access through smartphones. One of the main reasons to do so, is that today people rely on smartphones for almost everything.

Hence, they would also like to access things like lab reports and other documents such as receipts on their phones. Providing a responsive website, an online chatbot portal and a mobile app will take consumer experience and satisfaction to the next level.

• Common ULID

Laboratory management system provides each user a Unique Laboratory ID (ULID) which will help in the allotment of a specific user profile in the database, with all personal and medical information. It will make fetching documents and details much convenient for users.

With the help of this tool, both patients as well as officials are assigned the ULID when they register. With the help of this ID they can visit any of the lab branches across different locations. Moreover, they can also access lab reports online with the help of mobile apps with the help if ULID.

All the patient needs to do, is provide their ULID to the concerned staff, who will log in to the system and update patient’s information such as diagnostic records and lab-test results.

• Effective Discussions

With the help of a good cloud-based LIMS software system, discussions, consultations and ideation for projects, and cases become really convenient. As mentioned earlier, with the help of an online database, fetching data becomes easy and this results in faster exchange of information and lab operations.

• Ease the Implementation & Audit of Quality Indicators

A number of various indicators such as quality, progress and overall task hygiene management are the vital stats of a laboratory. Hence, it is crucial to implement an auditory mechanism which keeps the multitude of different tasks and processes in check.

Factors such as workflow processes, inventory management, patient monitoring, business trajectories and footfalls can be easily tracked with the help of laboratory management system or LIMS Software.

These indicators will help lab managers as well as scientists and professionals develop and make changes in processes for better performance. A good cloud-based laboratory management system will help in the collation and comparison of all these factors while providing access to the results in real time.

Final Thoughts

An ideal lab management software or LIMS Software helps streamline all the laboratory-based processes and helps both employees and patients. It is making managing laboratory processes easy and systematic while also providing new tools and guidelines for the users to adhere to.