Hello,
I am checking to see if there is anyone in the forum who is maintaining LOINC within Cerner who could give me advice on forming a maintenance process.
Thank you,
Sam
Hello,
Were you able to form a maintenance process?
Unfortunately, we have not. Cerner does provide LOINC updates that coincide with the biannual LOINC updates, but applying those requires a full update to our system which requires a full validation. In the scheme of things it has been difficult to justify the full validation just for a code update which may or may not have any effect on our current LOINC reporting. We are investigating some possibilities where the updates wouldn’t become such a burden, but nothing has panned out as of yet.
I did hear back from Cerner, where the representative stated “Clients take packages for releases of new terminology in order to update their nomenclature table and have the latest codes available.” I understand Sam’s comment too, that a software change (even for just content) needs to have system validation (most cumbersome).
I had written a tip agnostic of vendors that may help if you are familiar with Microsoft Office or Oracle tools. This will surface possible assays to audit more closely. “Three Easy Steps to a LOINC update” can be found at https://www.hddaccess.com/tips/three-easy-steps-to-perform-a-loinc-update
Similarly, if you have such a local file of all your mappings, the RELMA tool menu has an option to ‘Find local codes mapped to Deprecated/Discouraged LOINCs’. It’s a bare minimum of a version check. RELMA is expected to be retired in 2022; we hope Regenstrief has accounted for all its functionality in the new offering.
Let me know if further assistance is needed.