Change Healthcare CareSelect Lab, a product now offered by Optum, is a Clinical Decision Support (CDS) tool designed to help health systems and providers improve the appropriateness of laboratory, pathology, and genetic test ordering. The solution integrates directly into the Electronic Health Record (EHR) workflow, providing real-time guidance to clinicians at the point-of-order entry, which is critical for influencing ordering behavior and reducing unnecessary costs.
Key Benefits and Value Proposition
- Cost Reduction: By identifying and intervening in low-value or inappropriate test ordering, the system helps reduce wasteful spending on laboratory services.
- Improved Patient Care: Ensures that ordered tests align with the latest evidence-based clinical guidelines, which are sourced from leading medical specialty societies and respected content sources like the Mayo Clinic.
- Administrative Efficiency: Streamlines utilization management and authorization processes, reducing the administrative burden on clinical staff.
Main Features and Capabilities
- Real-time Clinical Decision Support (CDS): Delivers guidance directly within the EHR workflow, without disrupting the provider's ordering process.
- Evidence-based Content Library: Utilizes a robust, curated library of clinical guidelines for a comprehensive menu of lab, pathology, and genetic tests.
- EHR Data Orchestration: Features a real-time, bidirectional data exchange that runs silently in the background, recording and scoring all lab ordering decisions.
- Targeted Analytics and Benchmarking: Provides comprehensive utilization metrics and analytics to identify systemwide misutilization trends, compare provider ordering patterns, and pinpoint areas for strategic intervention.
- Intervention Implementation: Allows organizations to utilize data-driven insights to implement strategic, point-of-order interventions to guide providers toward more appropriate testing.
Target Users and Use Cases
The software is primarily targeted at health systems, hospitals, and multispecialty clinic systems looking to implement or enhance a lab stewardship program. The end-users are providers and clinicians who order lab tests, as well as clinical and financial teams managing utilization and cost control.