Hospitals are making hard choices right now. During these unprecedented times, it is understandable that priorities are being shifted away from testing these behemoth clinical systems to making facility adjustments for COVID safety precautions.

It is so important though, now more than ever, to make sure these clinical systems are fully tested in order to keep patients safe. There are so many tests being ordered that hospitals wouldn’t have thought to use before COVID that were never tested. There are new products being added to clinical systems, like convalescent plasma, that need to be tested. Also, there are new medications being added like Remdesivir or Hydroxychloroquine. These changes are happening every day. In addition to these myriad of changes due to COVID, the vendors are constantly making changes to their software and changes are constantly being made to the build within each individual hospital.

Do you know the current state of your build — what’s working, what’s not? How can you be sure your clinical system is working at peak perfection? Most of the time, the answer I am hearing is “I have no idea”.

I’ve been reaching out to dozens of lab managers and what I have found is that lab staff are being overworked, many staff have chosen not to return to the hospitals because of underlying medical conditions and fear of contracting COVID, resources are being shifted to other priorities and there are limited resources for testing. Many lab managers have also informed me that hospitals are having to reallocate their financial resources they would have used for testing these clinical systems to other COVID priorities. These managers feel their hands are tied and I feel for them.

This is why I am so passionate about helping our hospital friends and appreciate their dedication and commitment during these crazy times.