Setting up laboratories
You need Manage laboratories, tests and panels for everything on this page. Set things up in this order: specimen types and tests in the catalog, then laboratories, then each lab’s offerings and team.
A new clinic starts with common specimen types and a ready catalog of about 100 widely used tests, each with its LOINC code, specimen, conventional unit and standard adult reference ranges: blood count and differential, coagulation, glucose and HbA1c, kidney, liver, lipids, electrolytes, iron and vitamins, thyroid, infection screening, urinalysis, stool, cultures, and dental X-rays (OPG, periapical, bitewing, CBCT). Edit or deactivate any of them, and set a lab’s own unit and ranges on its offering where they differ. Panels are yours to build. The catalog is only added while it’s empty, so a clinic’s own tests are never touched.
1. Specimen types
Section titled “1. Specimen types”Specimen types are what a lab needs from the patient, such as blood (EDTA), serum or urine. On Catalogs › Lab tests & panels, open the specimen types list and select Add specimen type.
2. Tests
Section titled “2. Tests”Catalogs › Lab tests & panels is “a test in the shared catalog. Laboratories choose to offer it and set their own prices.” Select Add test. The form has three steps.
Basics
Section titled “Basics”| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Required, for example “Haemoglobin”. |
| Code | Required. “Unique across the catalog.” |
| LOINC code | Optional. “The international code for this test, used when exchanging results.” |
| Description | Optional. |
| Specimen | “What the laboratory needs from the patient”, or No specimen. |
Result format
Section titled “Result format”Choose the Result type:
| Type | Use it for | Set up |
|---|---|---|
| Numeric | A measured value. | Unit, Decimal places (“Results are rounded to this many decimal places”), and Reference ranges (below). |
| Choice list | One of a fixed list, for example Positive / Negative. | Options: each with a Key and Label. Tick This option is an abnormal result where relevant. Start from a common set (Negative / Positive, Non-reactive / Reactive) or add your own. At least two answers, each with a different key. |
| Free text | A written finding. | Staff type it, and can mark it as abnormal. |
| File / image | An X-ray, scan or external report. | Staff attach a file. A short note is optional. |
Also set the Turnaround time in hours: how long results usually take.
Reference ranges (numeric tests): “Add a range so results are flagged as low, high or critical automatically.”
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Sex | Any sex, Male or Female. Add male & female ranges creates both. |
| Age from / Age up to | In days, months or years. Leave open for all ages. |
| Low / High | The normal range. |
| Critical low / Critical high | Limits that make a result critical. They must lie outside the normal range. |
| Display text | How the range is shown on reports, if different. |
“The most specific range for the patient’s sex and age is used when a result is entered.” Meddesk checks your ranges: “The low value can’t be above the high value”, “Critical limits must lie outside the normal range”, “The starting age must be below the ending age.”
Review
Section titled “Review”Check everything and select Create test. Turn a test inactive later to stop it being ordered: “Inactive tests can’t be ordered.”
3. Panels
Section titled “3. Panels”A panel is “a group of tests from the shared catalog, ordered together”, for example a full blood count. Select Add panel:
- Details: Name, Code, Description. “How the panel is named on orders and invoices.”
- Tests: add tests and drag them into the order they should appear in.
“Each laboratory sets its own price for this panel.” Select Create panel.
4. Laboratories
Section titled “4. Laboratories”Laboratory › Laboratories › Add laboratory. “Start with the essentials. Tests, workflow, billing and team are set up on the laboratory’s page afterwards.”
Identity: “How the laboratory appears across the clinic and on printed documents.”
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Name | Required. |
| Code | “A short internal code, e.g. HEM.” |
| Accession prefix | “Capital letters and digits - accession numbers look like PREFIX26-000123.” A preview shows what they’ll look like. |
| Type | In-house: “Tests are performed in your clinic.” External reference lab: “Specimens are sent out and results come back from another lab.” |
Contact: Phone, Email, Address, “printed on requisitions sent to this laboratory.”
Select Create laboratory. You see “Laboratory created. Now choose the tests and panels it offers.”
The laboratory page
Section titled “The laboratory page”| Tab | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Overview | Set the Workflow, Result files and Billing (each opens its own dialog), and Edit details. |
| Tests & panels | Choose what this lab offers and on what terms. |
| Orders | Every order sent to this lab, with lab fee and payment status. |
| Team | Who works here. |
| Statement | What the clinic owes this lab and has paid. |
Workflow: “Turn on only the steps this laboratory actually needs.”
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Specimen collection step | Orders must be collected before processing. “Turn off for imaging or tests without a specimen, such as X-rays.” |
| Second-person verification | “Results must be verified by someone other than the person who entered them.” |
| Release automatically | “Results are released as soon as they’re verified”, or, without verification, “as soon as every test has a result”. |
The How an order moves through this lab diagram shows the resulting steps.
Result files: which files staff may attach to results (Images (JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF), PDF documents, DICOM imaging) and the Maximum file size. “Files are stored privately and are never publicly reachable.”
Billing: “Whether the clinic is charged by this laboratory for the tests it runs.”
- The clinic pays this laboratory: “Each lab order gets a laboratory fee from its tests’ lab costs. The clinic pays these fees to the laboratory from Finance, one order or many at once.”
- The lab fee becomes due: When the specimen is sent (“even if the order is cancelled later”) or When results come back.
- “This is only what the clinic pays the laboratory. Patients are still invoiced as usual.”
Turn a lab inactive to stop new orders: “Inactive laboratories can’t receive new orders.”
Tests & panels (offerings)
Section titled “Tests & panels (offerings)”Tick the catalog tests and panels this lab performs. For each test, open its offering page to set:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Price | What this lab’s test is billed to the patient for. It’s the default on invoices. |
| Cost | What the lab charges the clinic. Used for the lab fee when the clinic pays this lab. |
| External code | The lab’s own code for the test, printed on requisitions. |
| Turnaround | This lab’s usual turnaround. |
| Custom reference | This lab’s own unit and reference ranges, if they differ from the catalog’s. |
Panels have their own price, cost and external code. A lab can only offer a panel if it offers all of the panel’s tests.
Select Manage team and add the people who work in this lab. “Members who can process orders see this laboratory’s worklist.” Each member also needs Process lab orders and/or Verify and release lab results in their role.