PathNet
The Industry-Leading Pathology
Information Management Solution
Cerner Ireland Ltd. / 6th Floor, The Point / 37 North Wharf Road / London W2 1AF / United Kingdom / Tel: +44 (0) 20 7432 8100 / www.cerner.co.uk
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Why Cerner?
Improve care, control costs
Cerner is a global supplier of healthcare solutions. Working together with more than 8,000
clients worldwide, we are solving healthcare’s many challenges by making sure the right people
have the right information at the right time.
PathNet enables you to make informed clinical decisions, improve care and control costs by:
Our in-depth international knowledge is tempered by local experience. For more than 20 years,
Cerner has been providing person-centric and knowledge-driven solutions to the NHS and
private sector clients in the U.K.
Wherever Cerner operates and whatever solutions we provide, our aim is the same: to connect
the appropriate people, knowledge and resources at the appropriate time in order to achieve the
optimal health outcome. This document is your introduction to how your pathology department
can benefit from Cerner PathNet.

Reducing errors through the automation of clinical and management processes and full
integration of the entire care record
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Managing limited resources efficiently so laboratory staff can focus on critical tasks

Re-engineering care processes through integrated electronic medical records
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Gaining compliance with national standards
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Enhancing the experience of patients, leading to greater satisfaction and efficiency
Introducing PathNet
PathNet® is the only suite of
applications that is fully integrated
with Cerner Millennium® — the result
of a £275 million development
programme to create solutions built
around a single, unified architecture.
Our technology enables patientspecific data to be entered, retrieved
and disseminated to and from
virtually any point in a health care
system.
The PathNet suite offers
comprehensive, unified solutions to
meet your pathology needs — now
and in the future.
The suite includes general
laboratory, microbiology, cellular
pathology, blood transfusion,
cytology, human leukocyte antigen,
cytogenetics and molecular genetics
functions.
Cerner first introduced Cerner
Classic™ PathNet to the U.K. health
care sector 21 years ago, and Cerner
Millennium PathNet, eight years ago.
Meets national standards
We continuously refine PathNet to
meet national standards and
guidelines for relevant bodies such
as the Pathology Modernisation
Programme Board under the Institute
of Biomedical Sciences guidance.
PathNet also complies with the
British Society for Clinical Cytology’s
guidelines and the Guidelines for
Blood Bank Computing.
Cerner continues to invest and
enhance PathNet for our clients as
new clinical and management
information needs emerge and
working practices evolve and
change.
Enhanced and secure viewing of
pathology results via electronic
delivery ensures rapid availability to
both general practices (GPs) and
hospitals.
Results can be attached to reports to
improve clinical diagnostic capability
for targeted intervention.
Key Benefits


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Improve the quality of
patient care through
verification of key patient
demographics, test
results and operational
QC controls
Maintain and elevate
patient safety
Increase staff productivity
Additionally, your laboratory can
send results to GPs through:

The nationally approved PMIP
solution

Any third-party GP order
communications

Cerner’s integrated GP order
communications solution,
WebConnect™.
PathNet enables your staff to see
clinically relevant data when and
where its needed most.
migration of your site or multiple sites
to a paperless working environment,
in line with requirements.
Thanks to a unified architecture and
Oracle relational database, PathNet
enables any authorised viewer to
access test results.
Tools such as electronic result
reporting, referrals, order queries and
order communications for pathology
are already part of the PathNet
solution.
For example, a pathologist can view
clinical information while reviewing a
surgical case. A blood bank manager
can view haematology results while
performing a crossmatch — all without
having to log in to a different module
or reselect the patient.
With PathNet, these benefits will be
applied across all of your core
pathology departments: general
laboratory, microbiology, cellular
pathology, blood transfusion, cytology,
HLA, cytogenetics and molecular
genetics.
Additionally, the solution supports
integrated care provision across the
community. You can share patient
information with authorised users to
eliminate variations in care.
A comprehensive solution
The integrated Cerner Millennium
PathNet solution enables the efficient
Further development is underway to
make sure that later releases of
PathNet continue to deliver real
benefits to clients.
This is part of Cerner’s solid
commitment to deliver a solution that
ensures full guideline compliance,
built with “industrial strength”
technology, including IBM, Oracle and
Microsoft.
By combining our experience with the
NHS and with health care systems
around the world, Cerner is more than
capable of providing a comprehensive
solution.
Just as important, you can be sure
that Cerner will deliver a solution that
works well, not only in its own right,
but also as part of an integrated
information technology environment.
We will provide your organisation a
single seamless service specifically
designed and implemented to meet
your corporate and clinical
requirements, ensuring total
integration with your overall solution.
Implementation, project
management
Every PathNet solution comes
complete with installation and training
services, as well as ongoing support.
From start to completion, you’ll find
that our implementation and project
management capabilities are worldclass.
Highly skilled technical and project
management services draw on
experience from major projects for
both the NHS and other large health
care systems to deliver a complete
PathNet solution with optimum
efficiency.
Our workforce, our financial strength
and our technology — based on a
unified solution built on a single
database — all point to the fact that
you can invest in a Cerner Millennium
solution with confidence.
General Laboratory is the PathNet offering that supports the departmental working practices of
biochemistry, haematology and immunology. General Laboratory offers organisations online
ordering of procedures, as well as the performance, review and verification of results for assays
that are assigned to specific workbenches or to automated instruments.
This function easily satisfies management workflow requirements not only in your laboratory,
but also in the rest of your organisation. PathNet also supports specimen tracking and the longterm storage of results online.
Autoverification
With PathNet, your organisation can
automate all aspects of accession
assignment, specimen collection and
storage processes related to laboratory
procedures, including original
specimens and aliquots.
All result entry functions are fully
integrated with analysers that
communicate with PathNet through an
interface.
The solution generates collection lists
and labels containing the required
information. PathNet automatically
reschedules missed collections and
immediately prints labels for urgent
collections.
All collections are consolidated into the
lowest number of specimens required
to perform the ordered procedures,
minimising the phlebotomy demands
on the patient.
Test routing
Procedures are assigned to a specific
analyser or workbench automatically.
This is based on patient location, test
site calendar and procedures, and can
be routed to backup analysers if
necessary.
These functions create a streamlined
process for reviewing and verifying
results received from an instrument as
well as the ability to track and monitor
repeat results.
Your department can base your
autoverification parameters on your
operating procedures so the system
will automatically flag results that need
special attention.
Previous results and related
procedures can be displayed at the
same time. Laboratories can filter the
information to show a single
workbench, analyser or a view of
multiple procedures across several
testing sites. Specialised functions can
perform WBC differentials and other
counted procedures such as bone
marrow differentials.
The ability to view cumulative results
for a patient from all pathology
disciplines helps laboratories provide
Quality control is an integral part of PathNet’s General Laboratory functions. Users are
immediately notified of rule failures. Levy-Jennings charts and quality control statistics reports
can be produced on demand or automatically on a periodic basis.
Microbiology
General Laboratory
Specimen collection and storage
Improve quality control
an informed view of the patient’s
overall status.
For ease of viewing, users may present
the information from multiple
parameters on screen using graphics,
providing an immediate visual
representation of trends and changes.
You also can define secondary
authorisation parameters, enabling
your laboratory to establish criteria
based on ordered procedure, resulted
procedure, result values and delta
check failures.
To enhance efficiency, your laboratory
can generate personalised worksheets
for the manual bench areas and for
result entry.
Point-of-care testing also is available,
enabling easy identification of the
patient and the test to be performed,
as well as easy entry of results.
Entering results
Laboratories can enter many types of
results data into PathNet, including
numeric, alpha, calculation, free-text,
textual, date and interpretation. Key
features include:
zPathNet streamlines and supports
both the organisational and the
departmental workflow requirements
of bacteriology, virology, mycology,
mycobacteriology and parasitology.
Automatic no growth reporting
Workcard entry
Based on culture type, the system
selects the appropriate textual
response and appends the correct
time period to preliminary or final
reports for a batch of cultures.
At the workbench, users scan barcoded media labels to load patient
data ready to be entered.
The electronic workcard provides
online algorithms for organism
workup, including the ability to record
culture information such as growth,
biochemical observations and
susceptibility results.
You also can use the workcard to
send reports, order additional tests
and susceptibilities and assign
identifiers for use with automated
instruments.
The system automatically captures
workload and cost data for cultures,
susceptibilities, reports and
biochemical tests.
PathNet can issue large volumes of
preliminary and final reports with
automatic “no growth” reporting
capabilities.
Enquiries and statistical reports
Online enquiries and reports eliminate
lengthy searches for paper
worksheets while providing
supervisors with a quick way to
monitor the progress of bench testing.
The system clearly flags and extracts
abnormal findings to a report.
Antibiograms and statistical reports
can also be produced to specifications
defined by users.
For easy access to data, PathNet’s
microbiology system also includes a
common database that supports the
long-term storage of results online.
This means that microbiology data will
be available quickly and easily
throughout your organisation.
As a result, your laboratory, infection
control department and other
infectious disease services can
access statistics, antibiograms and
other valuable historical information
related to results for specific patients.
PathNet stores and reports pathology information to accommodate a range of functions within
your organisation, including surgical pathology, mortuary, post mortem, cytology (gynae and
non-gynae) and bone marrow.
The solution streamlines specimen accessioning, processing and tracking.
It also provides patient history review, pathology text entry, support for diagnostic coding,
report generation, case review, case sign-out and case retrieval for research or teaching.
PathNet tracks blood and products from initial receipt to final use. This includes:

Entering products into the inventory
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Modifying, testing, crossmatching, issuing
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Transfusing to a patient
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Return to stock
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Transporting to another establishment or back to the supplier
PathNet fully supports the use of autologous and directed products due to its ability to
track these products on a patient-specific basis. Your organization can improve
specimen management with capabilities such as bar-coded collection labels and
detailed specimen tracking.
Blood Transfusion
Cellular Pathology
Synoptic Reporting
PathNet’s Synoptic Reporting module
is utilised in the United States to
provide cancer reporting to the
American College of Pathology Cancer
Reporting requirements.
Cerner has worked closely with North
West London NHS Trust and the Royal
College of Pathologists to provide all of
the current minimum data sets
required for U.K. reporting of cancer
statistics. Locally defined reporting is
available on a site-by-site basis.
Receiving and Labelling
You organisation can streamline
ordering, specimen receipt and
specimen processing through PathNet.
Defined codes document and report
the acceptability or inadequacy of
specimens upon receipt. As part of the
process, barcoded collection and
specimen labels ensure accuracy.
Users can define all label formats,
including slide labels.
By assigning accession prefixes, the
system manages many aspects of
processing, such as specimen, block or
slide identification schemes.
As specimens are processed, the
system automatically captures
workload and cost information.
Selected text can be copied into the
current report or transcribed into
Microsoft Word (version 7.0 or above).
Word Processing
Imaging
An integrated word processor within
cellular pathology enables users to
quickly enter templates and predefined
text. Access to additional, relevant
patient information — such as other
open cases or pathology history — is
also readily available.
PathNet enables you to acquire or
import digital photographs of gross or
microscopic specimens. You can
include these images in electronic
patient reports.
Patient Testing
Enquiries
Reports
PathNet enables transfusion
departments to perform a variety of
patient testing, including blood
grouping with historical checking,
antibody screening and identification,
antigen testing and Rh phenotyping.
Online enquiries give authorised
users easy access to patient and
product information.
A variety of reports provide managers
with an overview of activity in the
blood bank, such as product use,
units transfused, inventory status,
Users can record testing on product
tests or procedures and can access
patient history within the patient’s
electronic record.
Your organisation can configure the
system to follow local protocols for
safety alerts that flag incompatible
components, request authorisation
and RhD mismatch or alert users to
special transfusion requirements.
PathNet also can issue
uncrossmatched, emergency and
electronically crossmatched units of
blood as well as batch products.
Tags and labels
PathNet enables transfusion
departments to produce and reprint a
range of tags and labels when
needed, including crossmatch,
component and emergency, as well
as pilot labels.
Patient comments and key results —
such as blood group, atypical
antibodies, transfusion requirements
and antigens — are kept online
indefinitely and are also visible as
part of the patient record on patient
screens for transfusion during
crossmatch and issue of products.
Alerts are visible on all patient
screens for transfusion, including
available
specimens,
computer
crossmatch
eligibility,
pending
procedures,
associated
products,
antibody and
antigen status.
expired crossmatches and exception
transactions. Information on patient
result and product corrections are
available too, as well as the capability
to store patient blood transfusion
information as a report offline.