Integration of a statewide public hospital laboratory system

Louisiana operates one of the largest public hospital and clinic systems in the nation, consisting of nine geographically dispersed hospitals, providing a full range of medical care to approximately 1 million low-income and indigent citizens. For many years, these hospitals were under the auspices of the State Department of Hospitals. In 1997, just at the end of a multi-million-dollar procurement project to install laboratory information systems at several of the sites, governance of the nine hospitals was transferred formally to Louisiana State University (LSU) under a new branch, the LSU Health Care Services Division. As a result of Y2K issues at several sites not originally included in the procurement, the LIS installation had to be expanded while facing a very critical implementation deadline. This article describes the procedural and organizational strategies used to successfully accomplish a major project of reorganization and systemic integration of nine geographically distant and disparate public hospital laboratories while simultaneously installing a new networked LIS at all sites within a relatively short span of 3 years.