Laboratory

The Laboratory module is where the lab bench works. Orders arrive from prescribers (raised in the chart or the Diagnostics Suite); the lab receives the specimen, processes it, enters results, and signs them out. Every result release is a signature: you re-enter your eSign PIN (your 6-digit electronic signature, separate from your password) to verify and release.

Who uses it

Clinicians and nurses order tests and review released results. They reach the worklist, order, and reports surfaces but never enter results.
Lab scientists and lab admins fulfil: they accession, enter and verify results, sign out micro and histopathology, and run batches and QC. The bench screens are gated to the fulfilment roles.

Editions

Available in Health Centre, Hospital, Network, and Public Health.

Screens

The order/review surfaces below are reachable by prescribers; the bench surfaces are gated to fulfilment roles.

Screen	Role	What it is for
Lab Worklist	Order / review	The pipeline of ordered tests, left to right through to release.
Order Tests	Order	Order tests directly against a patient.
AOE Forms	Order	AOE questionnaires — the clinical context a test requires at order entry.
Consent	Order	Capture consent where a test requires it.
Accession	Bench	Receive, barcode, and route a specimen.
Labels	Bench	Print specimen labels (PDF or ZPL).
Results & Worklist	Bench	Enter analyte values, then verify and sign out.
Dispatch	Bench	Dispatch released reports.
Batches	Bench	Group samples into analytical runs.
Critical Results	Bench	Notify, read back, and acknowledge critical values.
Microbiology	Bench	Culture, sensitivity, and micro sign-out.
Histopathology	Bench	Histology and cytology sign-out.
Home Collection	Bench	Manage home-collection draws.
Send-Outs	Bench	Refer tests to a reference lab.
QC & Audit	Bench	Quality Control runs and the bench audit trail (QC = Quality Control).
QC Dashboard	Quality	Per control lot and level: in-control / warning / reject counts and the Levey-Jennings trend chart.
TAT Monitor	Quality	Turnaround-time targets and the list of released results that breached them (TAT = Turnaround Time).
Corrective Actions	Quality	The CAPA register — raise, work and eSign-close corrective actions (CAPA = Corrective And Preventive Action).
Cost Per Test	Lab admin	Monitor expected versus actual cost per reportable test and the recipes behind it (CPRT = Cost Per Reportable Test).
Observation Templates	Catalogue admin	Define a result’s identity — name, LOINC, unit, sample, and sex/age reference ranges (LOINC = the international standard lab-test code).
Analyzers	Bench	Manage connected analyzer instruments.
Test Catalog	Catalogue admin	The tenant test catalogue.
Providers	Catalogue admin	Reference and referral providers.
Lab Reports	Order / review	Operational analytics and exports for the lab.
Lab Settings	Lab admin	Module preferences, critical-value handling, access and audit, and result-approval chains.

Work the lab worklist

The Lab Worklist is the bench’s live board. The page is titled Laboratory Worklist and tracks every specimen through its lifecycle, from accessioning to release.

Open Lab Worklist. The Worklist tab lists samples with their patient, panel, department, turnaround time, and status; the readouts across the top count Samples Today, Pending Results, Critical Flags, and QC Checks. Search by sample, patient, or panel.
Select one or more samples and press Print Labels (or ZPL for a label printer) to print tube barcodes, or use Accession Sample and New Test Order to start those tasks.
Click a sample to open its record, then Open In Result Entry to enter its values.

The Critical Results and QC & Audit tabs on this screen surface panic values awaiting call-back and the day’s quality-control checks — both covered in their own sections below.

Order a lab test

A prescriber can raise a lab order directly. The page is titled Order Tests — “Place a laboratory test order with ask-at-order-entry and consent.”

Under Patient & Order, search for the patient and the Ordering Clinician, and set a Priority (Routine, Urgent, or STAT).
Under Tests, search the lab catalogue (for example FBC, U&E, or Malaria) and add the tests you need.
Answer any Ask-At-Order-Entry questions the chosen tests require, then set the Specimen, the Collect option (Now, Scheduled, or Home collection), and Consent under Specimen & Billing.
Press Sign & Send Order. The order is signed and routed to accessioning.

Ask-at-order-entry (AOE) forms

Some tests need clinical context captured the moment they are ordered — the last menstrual period for a pregnancy test, say, or the site of a swab. AOE Forms is where a catalogue admin defines those question sets. The page is titled AOE Management — “Configure ask-at-order-entry question sets per test and modality.”

Browse existing forms, filtered by modality (Chemistry, Hematology, Microbiology, and so on) and by status (Published, Draft, Retired). The Live AOE Forms preview shows the published question set served at order entry for each modality.
Use the AOE Form Builder to compose a new set: name it, choose the Modality, then Add Field for each question — its label, field type, and whether it is required.
Press Save AOE Form to save it as a draft. The questions then appear on the order screen for tests in that modality.

Some tests — genetic, HIV, or research work — require documented informed consent. Consent is where you record it. The page is titled Consent Management — “Consent templates and patient consent capture for laboratory testing.”

The upper panel lists your consent templates with their scope, version, and status; search or filter by scope.
To record consent, use Capture Consent: search for the Patient, name the Test / Panel, and choose the Consent Type (General, Genetic, HIV, or Research) and Language.
Under Attestation, set who it was Captured By and the date, then tick the attestation statement confirming the patient was informed — the wording adapts to the consent type.
Press Capture Consent. It is stored with a timestamp and the capturing user, and attached to the patient record.

Manage home collection

For patients who cannot come in, the lab can send a phlebotomist to them. The page is titled Home Collection — “Schedule home visits with phlebotomist routing and live status.”

Press Schedule Visit and, in Schedule Home Collection, give the patient, area, time, address, and the tests to draw.
For an unassigned visit, press Assign and pick a phlebotomist in Assign Phlebotomist.
Track each visit through the day — the readouts count Visits Today, Collected, On Route, and Unassigned, and each row shows its status.

Print specimen labels

Labels prints the scannable barcodes that identify each specimen tube. The page is titled Specimen Labels and has three tabs: Print, Templates, and Printer Settings.

On Print, enter one or a batch of Sample Barcode(s) and press Render to preview. Then Print Label(s), Open Print Dialog, Download PDF, or Download ZPL for a Zebra label printer (ZPL = Zebra Programming Language).
On Templates, press New Template to design a reusable label — its size, barcode type, and which fields appear — and Save Template. Edit or delete a template from its row.
On Printer Settings, choose the lab’s Default Output Format, ZPL density, and default template, then Save Settings.

Accession a sample

Open Accession. The screen is titled Accession Sample — “Receive, barcode, and route a specimen.”
Select the order and specimen, then accession it. The specimen is barcoded and routed to its bench or analyzer.
Print the label with Print Label (PDF) or ZPL for a label printer (ZPL = Zebra Programming Language).

Enter results, then verify and sign out

Open Results & Worklist. Click a sample in the worklist to open its analytes.
Enter each analyte value. Values save as a draft while you work; use Save Draft to keep them without releasing. Out-of-range values flag automatically (Low, High, Critical Low, Critical High).
When the values are complete, press Verify & Sign Out. The confirm dialog (“Verify & Release Results”) appears. Enter your 6-digit eSign PIN and press Confirm Release.

Once released, the result is visible on the chart and the patient portal, a branded result PDF is generated, and the result cannot be edited without an amendment. To amend a released result, use Amend (Re-Sign) and re-sign with your eSign PIN.

Critical-value read-back (closed loop)

A critical value must be communicated and confirmed, not just flagged. When you verify a result that contains a critical value, it is escalated automatically.

Open Critical Results — “Flag, notify, read-back, and acknowledge critical values with full audit.”
Press Notify Next to take the next pending finding (or open a specific row).
Choose the Channel (Phone, SMS, WhatsApp, or In-App) and type the verbal read-back — what the receiver repeated back to you. The contract requires a minimum read-back length; a bare acknowledgement is not enough.
Submit. The system records who notified, the channel, the read-back text, and the acknowledgement. The row moves Pending → Notifying → Acknowledged.

Microbiology and histopathology sign-out

Use Microbiology for culture and sensitivity work and Histopathology for histology and cytology. Both follow the same principle: enter the structured result, then verify and sign out with your eSign PIN, which releases the report.

Batches, QC, analyzers, and the catalogue

Batches group samples into analytical runs for high-throughput benches.
QC & Audit records Quality Control runs and the bench audit trail.
Analyzers manages the connected instruments (the live device link is the Connect module’s responsibility — see the Connect page).
Test Catalog is the tenant’s enabled subset of the system catalogue, each test routed to a bench or analyzer.

Quality control with Westgard rules and the Levey-Jennings dashboard

Quality Control (QC) proves the bench can be trusted. You record a QC run on QC & Audit with “Record QC Run” — pick the analyte, the control level, and the measured value (optionally naming the lot). Veona evaluates it automatically against the Westgard multi-rules over the control lot’s run history: 1-2s (one point beyond ±2 standard deviations — a warning only), 1-3s, 2-2s, R-4s, 4-1s and 10x (each a reject). The disposition is reject if any reject rule fires, otherwise warning if 1-2s fired, otherwise accept.

QC Dashboard shows, per active control lot and level, the trailing-30-day in-control / warning / reject counts, the latest disposition, any open rule violations, and a Levey-Jennings chart — the standard QC trend chart that plots the last 30 runs as dots by how many standard deviations they sit from the mean (green accept, amber warning, red reject). Lab Scientists can view QC; a Lab Admin can also configure the control lots. The control lots — the target mean and standard deviation per analyte and level — are set up as part of QC configuration; the dashboard reads them.

Full guide: Record a QC Run and Read the Levey-Jennings Dashboard.

Turnaround-time targets and breach monitoring

Turnaround time (TAT) is the minutes from when a sample was received (accessioned) to when its result was verified and released. TAT Monitor has two tabs: “Targets” and “Breach List”. A target is a goal in minutes set per test code or per lab section (e.g. Chemistry), optionally per priority (Routine, Urgent or STAT); the most specific target wins (test beats section, and a priority-specific target beats an all-priority one). Add a target on the Targets tab; remove one with its row control. The Breach List shows released results that exceeded their target, with actual versus target minutes, and the readouts report Measured, Breached, Median and P90 (90th-percentile) minutes for the window. Lab Scientists view; a Lab Admin edits targets.

Full guide: Set Turnaround-Time Targets and Watch for Breaches.

Corrective and preventive actions (CAPA)

Corrective Actions is the CAPA register (CAPA = Corrective And Preventive Action). “Raise Corrective Action” opens one with a trigger (a QC violation, a TAT breach, or Other) and a description; it gets a CAPA number and starts Open. You record the root cause and the action, can set an owner, and move it from Open to In Progress. Closing requires your eSign PIN: “Close Corrective Action” takes the final root cause, the action, and your 6-digit eSign PIN — verified before anything is saved — after which the CAPA becomes Closed (read-only) and the close is audited. Both Lab Scientists and Lab Admins can raise and close.

Full guide: Raise and Close a Corrective Action (CAPA).

Cost per reportable test (CPRT)

Cost Per Test monitors the economics of the bench (CPRT = Cost Per Reportable Test). It has two tabs, “Analytics” and “Recipes”, and is view-only — there is no recipe-builder form on this screen. A cost recipe per test (set up by a lab admin) defines the expected cost: the reagent and consumable items with a quantity per test, a QC allocation (the share of control-running cost each test bears), a wastage percentage, and overhead. The Analytics tab shows, per test, Expected versus Actual cost and the variance percentage, with a “High Variance” pill flagging tests where the gap is 20% or more; Expected comes from the recipe (using the live unit cost of each reagent), while Actual is the real stock drawn for that test’s samples plus the QC cost, divided by the number of reportable results (a reportable test = a result that was released and verified). The Recipes tab shows each configured recipe’s expected breakdown (Reagents, QC, Wastage, Overhead, Total). Only a Lab Admin sees CPRT — viewing the analytics and maintaining recipes; the Lab Scientist does not. Recipe authoring is a lab-admin setup step done elsewhere — this screen is for monitoring, not editing.

Full guide: Review the Cost Per Reportable Test.

Observation templates and reference ranges

Observation Templates define a result’s identity: its name, its LOINC code (LOINC = the international standard lab-test code), its unit, the sample requirements (sample type e.g. Serum, container e.g. SST, volume), and one or more reference ranges. A reference range can be conditional on the patient’s sex (any, male or female) and an age window (minimum and maximum years). When a numeric result is recorded against the template, Veona picks the most specific range matching that patient’s sex and age, shows the normal band (e.g. “12–15.5”), and stamps an interpretation flag — Normal, High, Low, Critical High or Critical Low. Coded or text results show the expected text but are not auto-flagged (the scientist asserts the verdict). The editor has a live preview that resolves the template against a chosen patient and value so you can see which range applies. If a patient’s sex or birth date is missing, a bounded range won’t match and a less specific “any” range is used; editing a template does not re-flag old results (the stamped range and flag are a snapshot), and deleting a template leaves old results’ flags intact but unlinked. Lab Scientists can view a template; a Lab Admin configures them.

Full guide: Set Up an Observation Template With Age- and Sex-Specific Reference Ranges.

Dispatch reports to patients and providers

Once results are verified, Dispatch delivers the finished report to its recipients. The page is titled Report Dispatch — “Deliver verified reports to patients and providers across channels, with delivery tracking.”

The list shows released reports with their patient, panel, recipient, channel, and delivery status; filter by Ready, Sent, Delivered, or Failed, and search by report, patient, or sample.
Select one or more reports and press Dispatch Selected, or use the per-row Dispatch. In Dispatch Report(s), choose the channel — Patient portal, Email, SMS link, WhatsApp, Print, or Provider portal — and press Send Via that channel.
Retry any failed delivery with Retry. The readouts count Ready, Sent, Delivered, and Failed.

Manage the test catalogue

Test Catalog is the lab’s menu of orderable tests. The page is titled Test Catalog — “Tests, specimen requirements, turnaround, and price lists per payer.”

Search or filter by department (Hematology, Chemistry, Microbiology, Molecular, Histopathology) to find a test. Each row shows its code, department, specimen, turnaround, and its self-pay and HMO prices, and whether it is active.
Press Add Test and, in Add Test To Catalog, give the code, name, department, turnaround, specimen, LOINC code (LOINC = the international standard lab-test code), and the self-pay and HMO prices.
Click a test (or Open) to edit its full details.

Only tests enabled in the catalogue can be ordered — it is the single source the order screens read from.

Refer a test to a reference lab (send-outs)

When a test cannot be run in-house, Send-Outs refers it to a partner reference lab and tracks it home. The page is titled Reference-Lab Send-Outs — “Send esoteric tests to a partner reference lab and track them.”

Register your partners first: Add Reference Lab captures the lab’s name, contact details, and address, then Save Reference Lab.
Under New Send-Out, choose the Sample, the Reference Lab, the Test, a Courier, and a tracking number, and send it out.
As the specimen travels and the result returns, update each send-out with Received and Resulted. The readouts count Send-Outs, In Progress, Resulted, and Reference Labs.

Referring providers and commissions

Providers is the directory of the practices and clinicians who refer work to your lab, with their referral and commission tracking. The page is titled Providers & Referrals — “Provider portals with referral, revenue, and commission tracking.”

Filter by type (Clinic, Hospital, Individual, B2B lab). Each row shows the provider’s month-to-date referrals, revenue, commission rate, and amount owed.
Add Provider registers a referring provider with its type, commission rate, and contact.
Settle records a Commission Settlement — the payout amount, method, reference, period, and a note — and History shows a provider’s past settlements.

Laboratory reports

Lab Reports is a read-only operational summary of the bench. The page is titled Veona Labs Reports — “Operational analytics and exports for labs.”

The readouts summarise Samples, Resulted, average turnaround, open criticals, and reports sent, with breakdowns By Status, By Department, and By Priority.
Refresh updates the figures; Open Veona Pulse links out to the cross-module analytics — volume, turnaround, and QC time-series — in Veona Pulse.

Laboratory settings and approval chains

Lab Settings configures how the module behaves. The page is titled Labs Settings — “Configure labs, access, and audit.”

Under Labs Preferences and Critical Values, toggle module-wide behaviour — auto-verify in range, critical alerts, delta checks, reflex testing, and two-stage verification — and set the Critical Read-back SLA in minutes.
Under Access & Audit, set role-based access, audit-every-action, and offline-first options.
Result-Approval Chains defines, per department, the one- to three-step sign-off a result must clear before release. For each step choose either any holder of a role (Lab Manager / Admin, Lab Scientist, or Pathologist) or named people, with a different signer per step, then Save Chain.

Full guide: Set Up a Multi-Step Result-Approval Chain.