Information for GPs & Clinicians – Laboratory Information Management Migration

Milton Keynes University Hospital Pathology Services to migrate to new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)

Milton Keynes University Hospital (MKUH) will be migrating to a new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) on 16 June 2025.

You may notice some small changes to the pathology results interface you use in the run-up to this date. You can find an updated list of changes here:

Requesting Blood Results: 

• From Wednesday 11 June to Friday 20 June, we will be operating a reduced service. During this period, please only request urgent results.
• From today until 17 June, please do not pre-book any blood tests that you required after 16 June. Instead, mark these as a task on your system to book any time after 17 June once the new system is in place.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. We would usually book an appointment in our own system and add a request form on ICE system in preparation for that appointment. Will there be a period where we will not be able to add ICE requests?

ICE will still be available. We are hoping you would be able to help by not requesting any bloods on ICE that don’t need to be taken until after 17th June 2025. All bloods that are going to be taken before the 16th of June are fine to carry on as normal. The reason being that when a request is done on ICE it sits on our system waiting for the bloods to be done and then it links it with the request. When we upgrade the system, this won’t be pulled across so we would need to input it all manually.

2. When we take the bloods, we access the ICE system to create the labels etc and check the bottles required for the test – will there be a period where we will not be able to access ICE to print these forms?

ICE will still be available

3. The bloods are processed in MKUH lab, recorded in your system and then they are fed through into our clinical system (SytmOne). These are drip fed throughout the day. – will there be a period when the results are not coming through into our clinical system?

The results will still come through it just might be a little bit slower over that week

4. We occasionally view results via ICE when they have not loaded into our clinical system – will there be a period when the viewing of results is not available?

They will still be available.

5. If we have ordered bloods already, do we need to cancel them and rebook?

Any bloods that have been requested and due to be taken before 16th June is fine, no changes need to happen.

If you see a patient in clinic between now and the 17th June and you would like them to have a blood test but not until after the Go live date we are asking if you don’t request this on the system until after that date.

E.g. Mrs Jones comes into clinic today and you would like her to have a blood test in July 2025. Please could you put a task on your system one under the patient to remind you to request this after 17th June 2025.

6. What is the reason for the bloods being requested after Go Live?

The reason for this is as soon as you request for bloods to be done it sits on our system in pending. When the bloods are taken and then arrive at the lab the bloods are matched to the request. When we upgrade these won’t be pulled across, which means all the bloods will then need to be put in manually at MKUH.

There is no need to cancel any bloods that have been requested. We appreciate there will be some that have already been requested, and we will input those in manually. We are just asking for your help for the future ones.

7. Why only order urgent bloods and what time frame?

During the upgrade things will slow down which is why we are asking for some help with only requesting urgent bloods for that short period of time.

8. Is it not possible to transfer the unfilled requests over in bulk to the new system? Our phlebo relies on requests that have been made 2 or 3 months earlier or have been made by a consultant at the hospital?

Unfortunately, not. We have to put all new requests onto the upgraded system to ensure the results are then reported correctly.

The old system is going to be decommissioned. If it is requested in the old system in can only go back to the old system. There is no possibility that we can transfer the requests to the new system. Oxford went live with this system a few weeks ago and this was highlighted as one of their challenges. They have a significant number of requests; they are now having to manually enter on the system which is causing a lot of delays for them and the GPs.

We are trying to mitigate this as much as possible to ensure limited reduction in service.

Any requests that are made now and not being carried out until after Go Live will need to be manually put into the system at MKUH.

9. Can you still see that bloods have been requested on ICE if they have already been requested?

Yes. This will not change.

10. Is the interface going to look the same?

Yes

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If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer Barker, Senior Project Lead ([email protected]).