Processing and results

This page is for lab staff: team members of a laboratory with Process lab orders and/or Verify and release lab results.

The worklist

Laboratory › Lab orders shows “every lab order you’re allowed to see - your worklist, orders you placed, and results of patients in your care.”

• Groups: All, In progress (Ordered, Specimen collected, In progress), To review (Resulted, Verified) and Released.
• Columns: Accession, Patient, Tests, Status, Ordered. Critical marks orders with critical results.
• Filters: Ordered date, Laboratory, Status, Priority, Tests, Panels, lab payment status, and Mine (Only orders I placed, Only my laboratories).
• The Lab worklist dashboard widget shows open orders in your labs, most urgent first.

Bulk actions

Tick several orders to get Actions for selected orders: Collect, Start, Mark resulted, Verify, Release. Each order is checked on its own. Orders where the action isn’t possible are reported and left unchanged.

With Print on, the bar also has Requisitions and Labels: one print preview with the requisitions, or specimen labels, of every selected order, handy for a batch of samples going out together.

Step by step

Step	Button	Status after	Notes
1. Collect	Collect specimen	Specimen collected	Only for labs with the collection step. Records who collected it and when.
2. Start	Start processing (in-house) or Send to lab (external)	In progress	Optionally enter the External reference number. For labs without a collection step, start straight from Ordered.
3. Enter results	Enter results	(In progress)	See below. Entering the first result also starts the order if it wasn’t started.
4. Complete	Mark as resulted	Resulted	“Confirm that every result has been entered and checked.” Needs every remaining test to have a result.
5. Verify	Verify	Verified	Labs with second-person verification. The verifier must be someone other than whoever entered the results. “Verification is recorded under your name.”
6. Release	Release results	Released	With verification, by a verifier. Without it, by someone who can process. With Release automatically, this happens by itself.

Rejecting a specimen

If the specimen is unusable, select Reject specimen and give a reason, for example “haemolysed, clotted, insufficient volume”. Then Reject and recollect. The order goes back to Ordered for a new specimen. This is only possible before any result is entered.

Entering results

Enter results opens a sheet with one row per test: Test, Result, Reference, Comment. “Press Enter to jump to the next test.” A counter shows “x of y entered”.

Result type	What you enter
Numeric	The value, rounded to the test’s decimal places. It’s flagged automatically against the reference range for the patient’s sex and age: Normal, Low, High, Critically low, Critically high.
Choice list	Pick an answer. Answers marked abnormal are flagged Abnormal.
Free text	Type the finding. Tick Abnormal if it is.
File / image	Upload a file of a kind the lab allows. Optional note.

Select Save # results to save as you go, or Save and mark as resulted when everything is in. “Nothing moves on until you do.”

After saving everything you see All results are entered, then:

• with verification: “The order is waiting for verification by a second person.”,
• without: “Release the results to make them available.”

Files can be opened, downloaded and deleted (“The original stays in the audit record”). Opening files is logged.

Opening a file shows it full screen. Images can be zoomed (Zoom in, Zoom out, Fit) and dragged around when zoomed in, PDFs are shown inside the viewer, and other files offer Download. Previous file and Next file (or the arrow keys) move through every file on every test of the order, with a counter such as 2 / 5. The side panel shows the test, its result status, the file and who uploaded it, with Download and Open in new tab.

What happens on release

“Released results become visible to the ordering clinician, clinicians caring for the patient and - where allowed - the patient portal.” Critical results also appear in the Critical lab results dashboard widget for staff who can see them. Released results can only be changed by correcting or voiding.

Troubleshooting

Situation	Cause
You can’t see Collect, Start or Enter results	You aren’t on this lab’s team, or don’t have Process lab orders.
Verify refuses	You entered one of the results yourself. Another verifier must do it.
Mark as resulted isn’t available	A test still has no result. Enter it or cancel that test.
A file type isn’t accepted	The lab doesn’t allow that kind. See Result files on the lab’s Overview.