With around 760 beds, Marienhospital Stuttgart is one of the largest hospitals in Stuttgart. The hospital has been a satisfied Mesalvo customer for over 15 years and has long used the LabCentre Laboratory Information System. As one of the first pilot customers, Marienhospital Stuttgart has now also launched the LabCentre Practice Portal, aiming to increase referrer satisfaction and strengthen relationships with referring physicians.
The project is led by Dr. Matthias Orth, Head of Laboratory and Medical Director of the Institute for Laboratory Medicine, who is also a member of the Mesalvo Laboratory Advisory Board. In this role, he collaborates with other Mesalvo customers to advance the modernization of the LabCentre Laboratory Information System and shape future product developments.
Health Information and Its Special Protection
The mere thought of connecting hospital IT with external systems, such as a practice's IT, often causes concern among IT managers and data protection officers in clinics. This is because patient health information is among the special categories of personal data that are particularly protected by data protection laws and regulations. Connecting hospital IT with external practice IT is only feasible with a high level of data protection effort to prevent potential security breaches. In the inpatient sector, Marienhospital Stuttgart and the affiliated group practice for nephrology, cardiology, and diabetology have successfully used the LabCentre Practice Portal, considering data protection, to transmit orders to the hospital's internal laboratory and subsequently access the results. The LabCentre Practice Portal, a web-based referral portal for laboratory orders, enables shorter turnaround times for laboratory analyses by eliminating the need for order entry in the laboratory, thereby improving sender loyalty.
One of the biggest challenges at the beginning of the project was integrating a web server into the hospital's highly complex IT landscape and its legally mandated security requirements. Marienhospital, with around 2,000 employees, operates numerous IT systems, but the Mesalvo web server was the first to be installed outside the hospital. Mesalvo has created a platform-independent solution with the LabCentre Practice Portal, using personalized logins and appropriate access rights, which satisfied the hospital's data protection officers despite high data protection requirements.
Complex Initial Situation and Legal Requirements in Germany
One of the biggest challenges at the beginning of the project was integrating a web server into the hospital’s highly complex IT infrastructure and complying with the legally mandated security regulations. Marienhospital, with around 2,000 employees, operates countless IT systems, but the Mesalvo web server was the first one installed outside the hospital. Mesalvo developed a platform-independent solution with personalized logins and access rights that satisfied the strict privacy requirements of the hospital’s data protection officers.
The project's complexity was further increased by the diversity of billing methods and health insurance providers in the outpatient sector. These include statutory health insurance, private health insurance—which uniquely lacks patient numbers—and selective contracts (available only in Baden-Württemberg). Additionally, Germany has no central patient ID or digital insurer identifiers. Thus, all patient data must be available when placing an order. Orders also cannot be sent digitally—they must be physically signed by each physician. Furthermore, there is no universal analyte catalog with standardized names, units, or reference values, so different order forms must be used depending on the type of lab diagnosis. This means that even when orders are generated via an order entry system, the corresponding form must also be printed.
High Demands on the Use of the LabCentre Practice Portal in Stuttgart
The LabCentre Practice Portal was developed as a web-based solution, meaning that no installation is required in the group practice. The portal operates on a web server with a modern web interface run by the lab at Marienhospital Stuttgart. It is location-independent and compatible with any browser or operating system. Patient data is automatically transferred from the Practice Management System (AIS) in digital PDF or LDT format. Orders and results are transferred using the LDT format.
“We started the LabCentre Practice Portal with a rather complex group practice focused on nephrology, cardiology, and diabetology—fields that are highly lab-intensive, involving both ambulatory patients with selective requirements and dialysis patients with regular check-ups and predictable lab needs,” explains Dr. Matthias Orth. “There are three locations with five doctors each, who can substitute for each other. Some even have two billing numbers due to both specialist and general practice roles. Additionally, the practices are part of selective care contracts that vary by insurer. They work with many profiles, and some patients are enrolled in multiple selective contracts.”
Immediate Availability of Patient Data & High Usability
Both Marienhospital and the connected practice benefit greatly from implementing the Mesalvo Practice Portal. The team ensured that external referrers from the group practice can transmit orders and access results at any time using personalized logins and role-based access—completely independent of location, platform, or operating system. Each practice staff member receives an individual login, and permissions are configured as they are in the LabCentre system. Initially, all master data is transferred and regularly synchronized. Patient data is automatically imported: as soon as the health insurance card is inserted at the practice, the stored patient data becomes available for order generation.
“You don’t need experience with the LabCentre system—everyone finds the modern Practice Portal intuitive, and the training effort is minimal, which significantly increases adoption in practices,” Dr. Orth praises the usability. “There’s guided order entry, a cumulative results view, and a status-based order list.”
Final lab results are clearly displayed in the portal. Practice staff can choose whether to view results in their Practice Management System or directly in the portal. A practical search function is available for all tests. Another key benefit is immediate feedback on selected tests. In the past, a selected profile might not include all expected tests, leading to confusion and follow-up questions. In contrast, the Practice Portal clearly shows which analytes are included in each profile.
Excellent Solution for Group Practices with Multiple Referrers
“The Practice Portal is very well suited to complex group practice setups,” says Dr. Orth. “Even if patients see different doctors, the system recognizes returning patients, so they are not re-entered each time. Each physician in the practice is set up as an individual referrer, whether working under specialist or general care contracts. This functionality is essential and works flawlessly with the implemented LabCentre Practice Portal.”
Optimized Login Thanks to Stored Certificates
Another project requirement was login via individual certificates. The hospital’s data protection officers required automatic logout after five minutes of inactivity to prevent security gaps. However, the referring physicians requested the opposite—ideally, being logged in for weeks without repeated login prompts. A compromise was achieved through the use of certificates. These allow login without repeated two-factor authentication, as long as the certificate is stored on the physician’s device. This enabled fast and simple login from a limited number of authorized computers.
Faster Order Entry and Easy Reordering
Doctors can now generate orders independently in the system, eliminating the need for practice staff to handle order creation and label printing. Orders and barcoded labels are printed directly in the practice.
The advantage: faster order entry and digital transmission directly into the Marienhospital Laboratory Information System. Reordering is also easy—provided the sample has not yet been processed in the lab. Gone are the days of reordering via fax or email.
Remote Access to Lab Results and Reduced Turnaround Times
Complete patient and order data are immediately available in the lab system. Referring physicians can log into the portal from home or on the go to check whether their patients’ results are available.
“One of the biggest advantages of the Practice Portal is the reduced turnaround time for samples,” says Dr. Orth. “Manual order entry for about 30 patients used to take up to an hour in our lab. That time is now saved—samples are simply received, scanned, and processed immediately. That hour saved means staff in my lab can leave an hour earlier,” says Dr. Matthias Orth, Laboratory Director and Medical Director of the Institute for Laboratory Medicine.
Photo Credit: Dr. Orth – Photographer Kai Abresch / Corporate Communications Marienhospital Stuttgart
