Surviving a New HIS

A guide to help blood bank leaders

manage successful integration

1.888.MEDIWARE | Mediware.com

Contents
Introduction 1
Participate in the Process 1
Make Contacts 2
Train and Test 3
Solve Problems 3
Introduction
While many hospital blood banks have stand-
alone blood bank information systems (BBIS),
these systems must interface with hospital infor-
mation systems (HIS) and laboratory information
systems (LIS) to send and receive data necessary
for patient care. So when new hospital and/or lab
information systems are implemented, significant
changes can be in store for everyone, including
those in the blood bank.
The process is likely to be stressful, especially in
large organizations with multiple facilities. How-
ever, with effective plans in place, blood bank
leaders can successfully navigate the transition
and ensure their blood bank information systems
integrate flawlessly and contribute to quality
patient care without interruption.
Know what information your blood
bank needs, and take the time to learn
how requests for information will
come to you via the HIS and the LIS.
Surviving a New HIS
Participate in the process
Especially when multiple facilities are involved, HIS
implementation plans may vary, and the steps you
take to manage the integration process will vary
accordingly. Regardless of the scenario, blood bank
leaders should get involved and become important
components of the successful HIS implementation
equation. Here’s what you can do.
1. Ask to participate in the process, and
communicate on behalf of your team
2. Make the right contacts, and stay in touch
throughout the process
3. Train your team on the new systems
4. Ask for live interfaces well in advance, and test
every component thoroughly
Getting involved from the beginning will allow your
blood bank needs to be addressed and will help you
understand how the new systems will interact with
your BBIS. Ideally, you should provide input regard-
ing the design of the blood orders and test sets as
well as the blood documentation. In addition, you
should be involved with the interface development
because you want to be sure that data is able to
pass back and forth between systems.
Processes to which blood bank
leaders should contribute
Clearly, hospital blood bank functions are impor-
tant, but with many details to manage, it’s possible
that those outside the blood bank may not think of
everything that the systems and interfaces need to
manage. Therefore, be the expert and represent
your blood bank’s needs, and get involved with the
design of:
■■ Blood orders
■■ Test sets
■■ Blood and transfusion documentation
ii
 In addition, be sure the ordering process is stream-
lined and user-friendly so that orders are clear,
which will help ensure that the data sent back is
exactly what was ordered. And ask that other ele-
ments be incorporated as well, including:
■■ Blood consent
■■ Guidelines for transfusion
■■ Pre- and post-transfusion lab values
■■ Guidance documents
Make contacts
Two of the most important groups to which blood
bank leaders should reach out during this process
are the nursing informatics team and the hospital
interface team. The nursing informatics team will
be responsible for defining the landing place for
your blood bank information. The interface team
is the group that will make certain that your blood
bank system can interact with the upstream sys-
tems and seamlessly exchange data—in other
words, allow your BBIS to receive data from the
upstream systems and send your data to the loca-
tions established by the nursing informatics team.
Stay in touch with the interface
team
Once you have gotten feedback from the nursing
informatics team, start working with the group
assigned to develop the interfaces between the
various information systems to make sure that
your system will be able to send the information
that users want.
Ensure that the interface team understands what
types of information will need to be sent back
and forth between the blood bank, other facil-
ity systems and patient charts. The information
will include:
■■ Orders
■■ Test results
■■ Blood product details
■■ Billing
And finally, ask about the names of tests because
they may differ among HIS and LIS applications.
To avoid confusion, try to simplify the names and
make them consistent for users both upstream
and downstream.

Talk to the nursing informatics

team
Connecting with this team puts you in touch with
the end users of your information, so start the
conversation by asking what blood bank informa-
tion these users want to see and how they want
it displayed. You’ll also want to know where—on
a tab or form for example—the information will
be displayed in patient charts. This is especially
important later, when systems are up and running, Connect with
because questions will arise and knowing where
and how blood bank data is displayed will enable
the team.
staff to respond accurately.

Surviving a New HIS iii

Train and test
Blood bank staff will need training to understand
the processes of getting orders in, sending data out
and so forth, even if your BBIS is already in place
when the new systems are implemented because
changes upstream may result in changes at the
blood bank level. Therefore, whatever the imple-
mentation plan, take time to make sure everyone Try to maintain consistency, especially in
in the blood bank knows how to use the BBIS—the terms of names of tests and other orders,
names used, the key strokes, etc. Screen shots will across all information systems.
be especially helpful, and you could also request
blood bank access to the patient side of the HIS.
That way, team members can see what nurses see
and can become familiar with the displays. Solve problems
Regardless of how the new systems are imple-
Testing is equally important, so begin testing the
mented, there will be challenges, and there will
interfaces well in advance of the projected “live”
likely be tension and frustration as well. However,
date. Be sure that connections are established
if you have a voice and also make a point to listen,
and the systems can communicate back and forth.
the challenges can be overcome.
Then verify that the ability to order blood is in
place and that billing can occur as well. In addi-
When problems do arise, be constructive and
tion, if your blood bank uses automated testing
try to find solutions. While change is stressful for
instruments, perform tests to guarantee that they
everyone, remember that quality patient care is
work properly and that the outbound results are
the objective, so work together to achieve it.
received as expected.

®
About Mediware
Mediware’s HCLL™ More than 1,500 hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world rely on Medi-

Transfusion software ware blood management solutions.

can work for your Our HCLL™ Transfusion software is the ultimate transfusion management system.
It sets the standard in patient safety with more than 60 built-in safety checks and
blood bank. real-time patient monitoring to proactively alert staff of potential errors before they
happen. It has proven and unparalleled integration with HIS systems, so clinical,
financial and operations teams can all access the data they need to help support
Learn more. fast, informed decision making. For more information about blood banking solu-
tions for your hospital, go to www.mediware.com/bloodbank.

Our thanks to Tina Keefer, product manager for HCLL since 2005, for her help in developing this white paper. Tina has
more than 22 years experience in blood banking, including blood bank manager at a 600-bed tertiary care facility.

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