TECHNICAL FIELD

The present specification generally relates to a system and method of organizing a laboratory and, more specifically, a system and method for laboratory physical plant structure

BACKGROUND

Typically, community-based laboratories are separate operational entities and often in separate locations from medical clinics, typically being in separate building and owned by separate entities. In some scenarios, bloodletting is often done within a clinic but is then shipped to a centralized laboratory for processing. In a community-based setting patients typically visit a laboratory approximately 1-2 weeks prior to a clinic appointment in order to allow time for processing and information to be sent to their practitioners to be reviewed at their clinic appointments. This creates the need for two separate visits for laboratory investigations and then subsequent clinical assessment by practitioners. This aforementioned process is inefficient for the patients and does not allow for immediate same-day results to be used in clinical decision-making. Typically decisions are made based on lab work obtained 1 to 2 weeks prior to the clinic visit. In addition, if the patient forgets to do their lab work, it is often a less impactful clinic visit, with the need to subsequently do the lab work after the clinic visit and follow up on the results without the patient present to be fully informed of their status.

Barriers to having laboratory investigations done on the same visit to the clinical practitioner are multiple. These barriers include the efficiency and processing of bloodletting from patients, remote locations of the central laboratory from clinical practices with bloodletting done and samples being shipped to the central location.

Accordingly, a need exists for an improved laboratory physical layout and process to allow bloodletting to occur within a clinic setting on the same floor to allow for convenience, efficiency and coordination with clinic visits with a separate yet physically connected full laboratory outside of the clinic setting in view of the aforementioned disadvantages.

In the medical field, it is standard to have a primary care physician office fully separate and spaced apart from any specialist physician. As is standard, a patient will first visit a primary care physician and then, if required, be referred to a specialist. The patient must then make an appointment with that specific specialist, often many months later. If desired, the patient must then make a separate appointment with another specialist for a second opinion.

As a background in one application of medicine, vascular healthcare is examined. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in North America and has become a public health epidemic. Cardiovascular disease and the associated risk factors are linked to an increased risk of morbidity and mortality and are also responsible for escalating healthcare costs. Traditionally, if a primary care physician thinks that a patient should be examined by a cardiologist, the patient is referred to a cardiologist and must make an appointment with the cardiologist's office, often at an entirely different location. When a second opinion is desired, as is often the case, the patient is again responsible for making an appointment. This system delays healthcare delivery to the patient, is time consuming, inconvenient and very costly. Separate EMRs (electronic medical records), and poor information sharing adds to the dysfunctional delivery of care. The current system is highly disjointed and inefficient for practitioners and patients alike.

Typically, a high risk vascular patient must visit several different specialist physicians (cardiologist, endocrinologist, nephrologist, etc.), medical laboratories, imaging facilities, a pharmacy, and their primary care physician. Usually, each of these encounters occurs at different locations and together comprise basic healthcare. The clinical information from each of these separate encounters is not readily available to the individual healthcare providers and is almost always not available to the patient. This process results in the patient being less involved in their healthcare decisions. The patient is further burdened with the responsibility of coordinating multiple appointments (and time away from work) to manage their health.

Accordingly, improved approaches are needed within healthcare systems to address this epidemic and improve patient education, attendance, and adherence to strategies known to improve health outcomes while limiting financial burden. As such, a need exists in an improved medical clinic design, enhanced by an improved clinic layout and multispecialty care and integrated technologies suited to optimize the patient's time in clinic, healthcare involvement and overall health outcomes.

SUMMARY

The present laboratory physical plant structure and corresponding method disclosed herein improves the time and efficiency of processing of laboratory samples. One embodiment includes a physical arrangement of the bloodletting stations and sorting of specimens including two levels wherein sorting and collection occurs on Level 1 and Processing occurs on Level 2. A lift or other transportation system between the levels is utilized to quickly process and move the samples being collected and tested.

A medical facility comprising a building, the building including a plurality of four segregated specialty areas, each of the specialty areas positioned in the outer four corners of the building, the specialty areas bring a laboratory, an urgent care facility, a pharmacy, and an imaging center, the laboratory having a first level and a second level, the first level configured to collect samples from patients to be tested, the second floor configured to process the samples collected on the first level, a transportation system connecting the first level to the second level, the transportation system configured to transport samples collected on the first level to the second level for immediate processing of the samples on the second level thereby enabling expediting processing of the samples collected on the first level of the laboratory of the medical facility.

In some embodiments, the transportation system is a lift configured to move samples. In some embodiments, the transportation system transports reusable supplies back down to the first level after processing. In some embodiments, a plurality of lifts are provided in the laboratory enabling communication between the first level and the second level. In other embodiments, the transportation system is a elevator configured to hold only samples and supplies.

These and additional features provided by the embodiments described herein will be more fully understood in view of the following detailed description, in conjunction with the drawings.

