SUMMARY:
Currently, there are more than 130 health care institutions providing services in the field of clinical microbiology in the Czech Republic. In the 1990s, these laboratories were equipped with laboratory information systems. Today, many of the laboratories have to make decisions concerning both technological and conceptual innovation of their systems. In 2006–2008, information systems were innovated in clinical microbiology laboratories of the University Hospital Olomouc and Silesian Hospital in Opava, with the Envis® LIMS (DS Soft Olomouc, spol. s r. o.; Czech Republic) information system being implemented. During the laboratory system innovation process, information on all its stages was collected in the two laboratories. After innovation was over, the goals achieved and processes implemented were evaluated. The article focuses on evaluation outcomes from the two different laboratories. Together with the findings it may serve as a basis for necessary decisions on innovations to be made by other laboratories expected to undergo this several-month complicated process in the near future.