In both the inpatient and outpatient setting, we often order labs that are indicated but tend not to change quickly over time. Often, if our patient has had these labs drawn recently, we may not need to repeat it.

We could reduce unnecessary duplicate labs AND increase efficiency if our ordering system (Apex) helped us know when a lab we ordered had been drawn recently and what its last value was. Ideally, this alert system we not require an extra click to OK our orders. For instance, imagine you could split your screen so you could 'manage orders' on the right and see simultaneous 'recent labs' on the left. As you ordered labs, the 'recent labs' view would show the last value in the system for each lab being ordered and the date at which it was last drawn. If a lab had never been ordered, apex could instead display "lab never ordered". This way, you could delete the labs that did not need to be redrawn before signing orders, and quickly see (in one display view) all of the previous relevant lab values. 

This intervention would decrease the duplicate ordering and help us quickly see previous results of labs such as: TSH, hgbA1C, cholesterol, hepatitis serologies, HIV, ESR/CRP, ANA/RF, PTH, etc.