[Histonet] pathology orders

[Martha Ward]

Recently our clinical labs have gone to electronic orders and no longer
receive written or paper requisitions.  The tubes are labeled with
barcodes which contain all the necessary information for them to receive
and act upon the requests.   The clinical labs use one type of computer
system and we in anatomic pathology use CoPath.
We do some tests within our department (Anatomic Pathology) on blood
samples (drawn by the phlebotomists) that is orderable on the floors
through the clinical lab computer system but are resulted by our Medical
Director/Pathologist in CoPath as a pathology report (given a surgical
number).  It is the policy of our  AP department that all specimens must
be accompanied by a written requisition, which I assume is standard
practice among other institutions.
We have recently started having instances where we receive the blood
samples but no requisition.  I have been trying to explain to the
clinical labs our policy and the reasons for it but they keep asking
why, if the order is electronic, we need a piece of paper.
Currently we are accepting print outs of the electronic order from the
computer as our requisition.  So far everyone is trying to remember and
doing a pretty good job at it, but sometimes they slip up.
Are there any other institutions that have a similar situation?  Has
anyone in Anatomic Pathology gone to electronic ordering of specimens?
I would interested in other scenarios like ours.
 
Thanks, and sorry for the length of this posting.
 
Martha Ward, MT (ASCP) QIHC
Molecular Diagnostics Lab
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center