Electronic Laboratory Reporting (ELR) has the potential to be more accurate, timely, and cost-effective. However, the continuing use of non-standard, local codes to represent laboratory test results complicates the use of ELR data in public health practice. Use of structured and standardized coding system(s) to support the concepts represented by local codes improves the computational characteristics of ELR data. We examined the use of LOINC and SNOMED CT codes for coding laboratory tests in hospital laboratory reports. We found that the hospitals more frequently used LOINC codes than SNOMED CT in reporting test results.