To order lab tests from an external lab, first go to the encounter page of the patient. On the left side panel, click on the Menu area shown below and then “Lab”. This will take you to the “Procedure Order” screen.

To place an external order, you have to enter the information listed below:

Ordering Provider: – This will list down all the names of the providers. You need to choose the ordering provider from the list.

Sending To: – This will list all the external labs/internal labs to which the orders can be send.

Order Date: – It is the time stamp when the order is being placed.

Internal Comments: – These are comments that are sent to the lab. Free text notes can be entered here.

Specimen Collected: – Here you specify whether the specimen for the testing is collected in the facility itself or on site at the external lab.

Priority: – This is to set the priority.

Status: – This gives the status of the labs.

Bill To: – This gives the details as to who should be billed. There are 3 options for billing:

• Patient: – When patient is responsible for payment.
• Third party: – When insurance is responsible for payment.
• Facility: – When doctor’s office will be responsible for the payment.

Patient Instructions: – This is the data that is free texted and it will be given to the patient along with the result.

Diagnosis: – Diagnosis code for a test is entered in here. When you type the first few letters/numbers, the diagnosis starting with those letters/numbers will be automatically suggested.

Procedure: – Here you list the code for the lab procedure. When you type the first few letters/numbers, the procedures starting with those letters/numbers will be automatically suggested.

You can add a new test by clicking any of the “Add” buttons shown above.

If you want to add a new order altogether, you click on the “New Order” marked in the figure above. This will open a new window where you can place a separate set of orders.

You can also remove the order by clicking on the “Remove Order”.

You click on “Save” and the screen is automatically changed to the “Results” screen where you can see the status of the order.

The “Results” screen will be as shown.

To select the external lab like Quest, Labcorp etc. to which you want to send the order, you have to choose the requisite lab from the “Sending To” dropdown shown below

Results

Click the “Results” button to see the result for this particular patient that you had selected when you created this test.

The result screen will show the results of just a single patient at a time.

Batch Results

There are other options like “Batch Results” and “Unassociated Results” that can be selected.

When

selecting the “Batch Results” you get all the results of all the patients and their respective status.

In the top section you have the options to filter out the results on the basis of various different criteria (The “Results” option is also similar, except that it is associated with one particular patient. The “Batch Result” is associated with all the patients).

Explanation of the result screen.

The result screen can be broken into various sections:

Order: – Under the order there are details of the order that is being placed.

• PID: – The patient ID of the patient on which the lab test is undertaken.
• -Order Date: – The date on which the order is done.
• -Order No.: – The unique date on which the order is made.
• -Status: – This column gives the status of the order (Whether pending, completed etc.)

Results and Recommendations: – This section deals with the results and associated recommendations.

• -Name: – Gives the name of the test.
• -Abn: – Gives the details as to whether the test is normal, very low, abnormal etc.
• -Value: – Gives the actual value that associated with the test for the particular patient.
• -Units: – The unit in which the value is given.
• -Range: – The normal range that is acceptable for this test.
• -Status: – The status of the test (whether pending. Final etc.)
• -Comm.: – This is the comments section.

Action: – The section to the extreme right is the action section. It has the following parts.

• -Rev: – This section enables the user to review the tests one after the other. It also allows the user to add any review comments and sign.
• -Lbl: – This give the label which can be put on the sample which is being send for testing.
• -Req: – This will give the requisition that is generated and send to the labs.
• -Res: – This will give the lab result in a PDF format.

Unassociated Results

If there is any error in the result that comes in, and the system is unable to associate the result that comes in electronically from the lab, then the result will show in a field called “Unassociated Results”

You can associate a particular result to the current patient that is chosen on the screen by right clicking on a view file option and attaching the result to the current patient as shown above.

The pull compendium enables the lab interface to update the tests and AOE associated with external labs.

Creating the Lab Providers

You can create a local lab for the user by adding it as an option in the “Provider” tab which is shown below.

If you click on the “New” option that is marked above, you can add a local lab by filling in the details that is shown above.

Name: – The name that you want to give to the local lab.

For internal lab the remaining fields are not mandatory, only the name is needed. If you need to install an external lab, you have to put in the other fields too. These settings will be setup for you by the administrators.

Once you have added the details, you will get the internal lab listed as shown below.

Looking at the procedure configuration.

Click on the “Procedure Configuration” to move to the screen where you can add tests (especially used for the internal lab option).

You can get to the screen to add the tests using the “Add” button shown above. Once you click the “Add” button you get to the following screen.

The “Group” section shown above allows you to group the newly added tests under a particular category.

In the “Order” section shown above, you can add the new tests and the details associated with them. Afterward, you can find the added tests when you select the local or internal lab option in the “Procedure Order” screen.

In the “Result” section shown above you can add any details that you would want to automatically appear in the result entry screen.

Under the “Internal Lab” option, you are able to select the tests you add, as shown below.

When placing the orders in the internal lab, you can record the specimen collection details.

The specimen collection can be recorded in the following screen. Here you can enter all the details of the specimen collected for a test ordered for the internal/local lab. Once the details are entered and you click the “Save” button, the test will be moved to the “Results Entry” screen where you can manually enter the results of the tests conducted in the internal lab.

Once the specimen collection details are saved, you can go to the “Result Entry” area to manually put in the results for tests in the internal lab. The “Result Entry” screen is as shown below. You can enter all the values as needed.