Processing lab orders

Every test a doctor orders during a consultation lands in the laboratory queue as a lab order. Your job is to walk each order down one straight pipeline — collect the sample, process it, type the results, complete it — and the moment you complete it, the patient and the ordering doctor get the report.

How an order reaches you

You do not create lab orders. A doctor raises them from inside a consultation — picking tests from your test catalog, setting a priority and adding clinical notes (see Ordering lab tests). The order appears in your queue immediately with the status Pending, and stays there until you touch it.

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The lab orders queue

Click Lab Orders in the sidebar. Every test ordered by your clinic's doctors is here, newest first, 20 orders to a page with Previous and Next at the bottom.

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Search by order # or patient…

Matches the order number or the patient's name.

All / Pending / Collected / Processing / Completed

The pipeline-stage filter, in pipeline order. There is no segment for Cancelled or External — those orders only show under All.

All priorities / Normal / Urgent / STAT

The priority the doctor set when raising the order.

Reading an order row

Each row carries five things: the order number, the status chip, the priority chip, the patient and test count, and the billing chip.

Order number

Always LAB- followed by five digits — LAB-00001, LAB-00042. It is generated when the doctor places the order and never changes. Quote it to the patient, and use it to find the printed report.

Priority

Normal, Urgent or STAT. Normal is deliberately not chipped, so anything flagged on a row is a specimen that jumps the queue — STAT first, then Urgent.

Billing chip

Unpaid, Paid, Partial or Waived — the payment state of the lab charges. It is information only: unlike the pharmacy, the lab does not block you from working on an unpaid order. Follow your clinic's own policy.

Tests and date

How many tests are on the order, and when the doctor raised it (IST).

The five statuses

Moving an order through the pipeline

1. 1

   Open the order

   Expand the row and click View Details. Everything below happens on the order screen, where the buttons are named after the thing they actually do.

2. 2

   Click Collect Sample once you have the specimen

   This stamps the collection time and assigns the order to you, so the rest of the team can see who is holding it. The status becomes Sample Collected.

3. 3

   Click Start Processing when the sample goes on the bench

   The status becomes Processing. Nobody is notified — this is purely for your own worklist.

4. 4

   Enter the results

   Fill in each test under Test Results and click Save on each one (see below).

5. 5

   Click Mark Complete

   Only once every value is in. Completing finalises every test on the order and publishes the results.

There are two side exits, each offered only where it makes sense. Mark External (on a Pending order only) records that the work went to an outside laboratory. Cancel is offered on Pending, Collected and Processing orders — it opens the Cancel Order dialog, which warns that the action cannot be undone and gives you a Reason for cancellation (optional) box. Click Cancel Order to confirm, or Keep Order to back out. The reason you type shows on the expanded row afterwards, so write something a colleague will understand.

Entering results

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The Test Results panel holds one block per test on the order, each carrying a Done or Pending chip. Fill in the block and click Save for that test; you will see Result saved as draft. Repeat for every test.

Result Value

The reading itself. It is free text, so 12.4, Negative and Trace are all fine.

Unit

Pre-filled from the test catalog (for example x10³/µL). Overwrite it if this particular reading is in a different unit.

Normal Range

Also pre-filled from the catalog (for example 4.5-11.0). Overwrite it when the reference range for this patient differs — age or sex specific ranges, for instance. What you type here is what prints on the report.

Abnormal

Tick this when the value falls outside the range. It is what turns the row on the report from Normal to Abnormal.

Remarks for this result (optional)

A short note about this one reading — haemolysed sample, repeat advised, and so on. It prints under the test name on the report, and the ordering doctor sees it in their portal.

Save

Saves that test's block. Saving again simply overwrites what you saved before, so a typo is easy to fix — right up until you complete the order.

Uploading report files

Use the Report Files panel for anything that cannot be typed into a box — a scanned printout from an analyser, an imaging plate, a signed pathology report. Click Upload Report, pick the file, and wait for Report uploaded successfully. Each file row then shows its name, size and upload time, with a download icon and a trash icon.

• Accepted file types: PDF, JPEG, PNG, WEBP, DOC, DOCX. Anything else is refused.
• Maximum size: 10MB per file. Scan at a lower resolution if a file is too big.
• You can upload as many files as you like to one order.
• Files are private. Only your clinic's admins and lab technicians, plus the patient and the doctor named on that order, can open them.

Completing the order — and who hears about it

Mark Complete is the moment the order stops being lab work and becomes a result. It stamps the completion time, marks every test on the order as done, and pushes the report out.

The Lab Report PDF

Download PDF, at the top of the order screen, produces the clinic's formatted lab report. The button appears once the order is completed — or as soon as you have saved one result or uploaded one file, so you can proof the report before you publish it.

• Your clinic's letterhead — logo, name, address, phone and email.
• Order Summary — order number, status, created and completed dates, priority, ordering doctor, and the doctor's clinical notes.
• Patient Details — name, patient ID, phone, email, age and sex.
• Test Results — a row per test with the test name and code, sample type, the result and unit, the reference range, and Normal, Abnormal, Pending or Cancelled as its status. Your remarks print under the test name.
• Attached Report Files — a list of everything you uploaded, with sizes and timestamps.