Laboratory

import { Steps } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;

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 on lab.read 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 by lab.result.enter and the related fulfil keys.

Caution

The order-versus-fulfil split is hard. Prescribers order tests in the chart or Diagnostics Suite; lab scientists result here. A prescriber’s permissions do not include result entry, so the bench screens never appear in their navigation.

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).
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	Laboratory reporting.

Accession a sample

1. Open Accession. The screen is titled Accession Sample — “Receive, barcode, and route a specimen.”

2. Select the order and specimen, then accession it. The specimen is barcoded and routed to its bench or analyzer.

3. Print the label with Print Label (PDF) or ZPL for a label printer (ZPL = Zebra Programming Language).

Enter results, then verify and sign out

1. Open Results & Worklist. Click a sample in the worklist to open its analytes.

2. 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).

3. 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.

Note

If your facility has turned on two-stage verification, signing out submits the result for senior review (the action reads Release (Verify) and the dialog Submit for Senior Review). It is not released until a second verifier approves it.

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.

1. Open Critical Results — “Flag, notify, read-back, and acknowledge critical values with full audit.”

2. Press Notify Next to take the next pending finding (or open a specific row).

3. 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.

4. Submit. The system records who notified, the channel, the read-back text, and the acknowledgement. The row moves Pending → Notifying → Acknowledged.

Caution

The read-back is the safety control. The loop is only closed when the ordering team has acknowledged the value back to you, and every step is audited.

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.