Addiction Labs Selects Bridge Patient Portal to Provide Patients with COVID-19 Test Results

    DALLAS, TX, October 21, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Addiction Labs has purchased Bridge Patient Portal to provide its patients with a HIPAA compliant solution for viewing COVID-19 test results. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Addiction Labs is lending its laboratory facilities to aid in COVID testing. Bridge Patient Portal provides Addiction Labs with a means to quickly provide patients with their COVID-19 test results in a HIPAA compliant way.

Addiction Labs conducts an FDA - EUA approved PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) test that determines if a patient has an active COVID-19 infection. A test sample is collected via a nasopharyngeal swab from the back of the nose and processed to isolate genetic material. Results can be determined in as quickly as a few hours.

As the need for COVID-19 testing continues to increase nationwide, patients have experienced significant delays in receiving results. Some patients wait more than a week for results, making contact-tracing and containment efforts difficult. The longer a potentially contagious person must wait for test results, the higher the possibility they will infect others. Quickly providing the patient with the results of their test is an important part of keeping the total time from test to actionable next steps based on a confirmed diagnosis down.

One of the challenges with providing test results is that the results must be sent to the patient in a secure and HIPAA compliant way. This generally means that if the test results are to be provided to the patient electronically, the information must be sent to the patient in an encrypted way and efforts must be taken to ensure that the patient is the one viewing the result. This challenge is compounded when a caregiver or third party needs to access the patient's test results. Addiction Labs looks to mitigate the risks associated with delayed results and has implemented a patient portal so that patients can receive their results as quickly and as securely as possible.

Once the lab has processed the results, the patient receives an email stating that they can access their results through the portal. Patients can then log in to the portal to view their results. No PHI (Protected Health Information) is sent via email; patients need to confirm their identity before viewing their results. Lab results are provided to the patient portal via an HL7 ORU (Observation Result) and populates data within the portal as a positive or negative result.

"Bridge Patient Portal has provided our patients a quick, simplified method to obtain their COVID-19 results during the pandemic," said Shannon Myers, Addiction Labs Operations director. "Prior to this technology, we had to manually encrypt every test result and send it to the patients individually by email, which could take hours to complete each day. This technology is truly a time saver and ensures our patients get their results as quickly as possible."

Once lab data access was granted to Bridge and specs were defined, Bridge was quickly able to turn up a functioning lab patient portal for Addiction Labs. This portal is currently used exclusively for COVID testing but can act as a foundation to securely communicate other test results in the future. Bridge hopes to help other healthcare organizations provide quality patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

About Bridge Patient Portal
Bridge Patient Portal is an enterprise patient portal and engagement solution that empowers patients with self-service tools to manage their care better. The Bridge Patient Portal platform is client-branded and ideal for health organizations seeking to replace their existing EHR portals or connect to disparate EHR environments with a single, vendor-neutral patient portal platform available on desktop, iOS, and Android. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Bridge Patient Portal has installations in many of healthcare's leading clinics, hospitals, and health systems nationwide. For more information, visit https://www.bridgepatientportal.com/ or call 800-467-2321.

About Addiction Labs
Addiction Labs is a premium toxicology lab owned by American Addiction Centers. Since 2013, Addiction Labs has specialized in providing laboratory services for Substance Abuse and Mental Health facilities nationwide. Addiction Labs keeps its partners at the forefront of clinical excellence with its deep expertise, agile operations, and precise, high-end technology that translates to more reliable, insightful, and personalized solutions. For more information, visit https://addictionlabs.com/ or call 615-678-5973 or 800-772-0636.

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