Ordering tests

You need Create lab orders.

Where to order from

Start from	Result
Laboratory › New lab order	A new order. You pick the patient and connections.
A patient’s Laboratory tab	The patient is filled in.
An appointment (or treatment): Actions › Request lab order	Choose Create a new order (“Order new tests, already connected to this record”), or Use existing tests to connect tests the patient already has on open orders (“so one result serves this record too”).

Tip

Order from the appointment whenever the tests belong to a visit. The order is then connected to it, shows in the appointment’s Lab orders section, and is picked up by Generate Invoice.

Place an order

1. Patient: who the tests are for.
2. Connections: “Visits or other records these tests belong to. Each test can be connected differently later.”
3. Laboratory: where the tests will be done. Only active labs are listed. If none, you see “No active laboratory is set up yet.”
4. Tests: “Tests and panels offered by laboratory.” Search tests and panels…, tick what you need. A panel shows how many tests it contains. The Estimated total uses this lab’s prices.
5. Details:
   • Priority: Routine (“Processed in the normal queue”), Urgent (“Moved ahead of routine work”) or STAT (“Immediately, as a medical emergency”).
   • Show in patient portal: “The patient sees the results in the portal once they are released. You can change this at any time.”
6. The Order summary lists what’s missing (“No patient selected”, “No laboratory selected”). Select Place order.

You see “Lab order accession placed”. The order is Ordered. To give the laboratory clinical information (indication, relevant history or medication), use Add note on the order. See Notes. When the lab’s fee is due on dispatch and the lab has no collection step, the fee becomes due straight away.

The order page

• Header: accession number, patient, laboratory, priority and status, with External ref. once sent out.
• Tests: each test with its status and, once visible to you, its result, flag and reference range. A count of abnormal results is shown.
• Specimens to collect: what to take from the patient.
• Notes: clinical information for the laboratory, and anything else your team records on the order. Needs the Notes module.
• Payment: the invoice side (for staff who can read invoices). Payment to laboratory: the lab fee (for staff who can see costs).
• Patient portal: whether it’s shown to the patient.
• Status history, Access log (for managers).

Buttons and the Actions menu

The header shows one button per next step you may take now, and an Actions menu. Only what fits the order’s state and your role is shown.

Button	Shown when	See
Collect specimen	You process orders in this lab, the lab has a collection step, and the order is Ordered.	Step by step
Start processing / Send to lab (external labs)	You process orders here, and the order is Specimen collected (or Ordered in labs without collection).
Enter results	You process orders here, tests are still waiting for results, and the order is collected, in progress or resulted (or ordered, in labs without collection).	Entering results
Mark as resulted	You process orders here, the order is In progress, and every remaining test has a result.
Verify	You verify in this lab, the lab uses second-person verification, and the order is Resulted.
Release results	Verified and you verify here, or Resulted in a lab without verification and you process here.

Actions menu item	Shown when	What it does
Reject specimen	You process orders here, the lab has a collection step, the order is collected or in progress, and no result is entered yet.	Asks for the reason, then sends the order back to Ordered for a new specimen.
Void lab order	The order is Verified or Released, and you have Void and correct released lab results.	Withdraws all its results, with a reason. See Void results.
Cancel order	The order is still open (Ordered, Specimen collected or In progress), and you have Cancel lab orders, or you placed it and it’s still Ordered.	Asks for a Reason for cancellation and cancels every test.
Generate Invoice	You have Create invoices.	A new invoice for this patient with lines for this lab order only: one per test or panel, at this lab’s price, named with the accession number, for example “Full blood count (HEM26-000123)”. Cancelled tests are left out. To bill a visit’s lab orders with everything else, generate from the appointment instead.
Print requisition	Print is on.	The form to send with the specimen.
Print specimen labels	Print is on.	Barcode labels for the specimen tubes.
Print lab report	Print is on.	The results report, with only the results you’re allowed to see.

Single tests have their own controls on each row: cancel a test, correct or void a result, see previous results, change what it’s connected to.

Change what tests belong to

With Edit lab order links (visit, treatment), or as the person who ordered, change which visit, treatment or other record each test belongs to. Changes are recorded in the access log (“changed the linked visit or treatment”).

Cancel

• Cancel order needs a Reason for cancellation. You can cancel your own order while it’s still Ordered. With Cancel lab orders you can cancel any open order.
• The lab team can cancel a single test: “Reason this test can’t be performed”. If every test is cancelled, the whole order is cancelled. A cancelled test’s cost is taken off the lab fee.

Printing

With Print on, the order’s Print lab documents offers the requisition (to send with the specimen, with the lab’s contact details, all the order’s notes and your requisition footer) and specimen labels with barcodes.