AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2010 Awards: Digital Government: Government to Government (G to G)
RECIPIENT:
Virginia - Virginia Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)
The Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS), within the Virginia Department of General Services (DGS), is the first consolidated public lab in the nation, providing laboratory services for local, state, and federal law enforcement, as well as emergency response, health, environment, and consumer protection programs. DCLS is at the core of the commonwealth’s public health infrastructure, linking food safety, disease surveillance and prevention, and environmental health.
Previously, more than 6 million scientific tests were performed annually without coordination. Requests were received on 40+ multi-part forms, each containing 45 pieces of metadata. Data was entered manually into a hundred disparate legacy systems, and lab results were reported on multi-part forms. Data standards were not enforced, query across applications was not possible, and gaps restricted opportunities for efficient business processes.
An integrated, interoperable and comprehensive Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) was implemented in September 2009. Today, test orders are submitted electronically. The results are delivered to partner agencies, hospitals, physicians, and law enforcement using standardized reporting. This data is used for outbreak management, disease treatment and prevention, surveillance, emergency response, and law enforcement. The ability to rapidly and securely disseminate lab results allows key government decision makers to use these data to protect the public’s health, as recently observed during the H1N1 pandemic.
Use of common data standards, integrating lab instrumentation with LIMS, reduction in manual data entry, and integrated audit and management tools meant focus could shift to testing. Quality control and validation ensure compliance with Good Laboratory Practices and regulations. Bar code technology tracks samples. Highly complex workflows and event-driven notifications improve turn-around times and responsiveness. Maintenance and support are simplified through a common architecture. Data resides in a database configured for high availability and zero loss in a secure server environment.
LIMS allowed DGS to realize a one-time savings of $260,000 and a 30 percent reduction in ongoing support costs was enabled. The agency also was able to reduce its operating budget by $672,144 annually, critical in the current fiscal environment.
Governor Bob McDonnell, Commonwealth of Virginia
FINALISTS:
Click on the title to download program submission.
California
Water Information System (WINS):
Improving the Efficiency and Transparency of Water Billing
North Carolina
North Carolina Window of Information on Student Education: Wave Three
OTHER NOMINATIONS:
Click on the title to download program submission.
Arkansas
Arkansas Legislative Tracking
Colorado
Colorado Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (CICJIS)
Iowa
Iowa Criminal Justice Information Systems Project
Illinois
State of Illinois Private Cloud PIM/Email Service
Maine
State of Maine Recovery Act (ARRA) Website & Electronic Reporting Solution
New York
Crime Analysis Centers-Digital Signage Project
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Merit Protection Online Filing System
Pennsylvania
Commonwealth of PA Access to Social Services (COMPASS): Integrated Healthcare Application Exchange
Tennessee
CAAS GIS Web Site
Utah
Utah Criminal Justice
Information System: "A
Robust Service-Oriented
Architecture"
