Questions About LabPro

Why is a result not on the patient's chart?

Most often it arrived without matching a patient and is sitting unassigned. Look in the practice-wide reports list and use Select Patient to Assign Lab Report. Check for these regularly - nothing prompts you about them.

Why do results fail to match?

The demographics the lab returns did not match your record closely enough - a differently spelt surname, a middle name, a date of birth keyed wrong at the lab. Fix your record as well as assigning the report, or the next result does the same thing.

What does the ALERT badge mean?

The lab flagged a critical value on that report. Work those first.

Which flags are shown as critical?

HH, LL, CH, CL, and > or < for values off the measurable scale. Everything else, including plain H and L, is shown bold without a highlight.

So an un-highlighted result is normal?

No. Plain H and L are abnormal results - they are simply not critical, and they are the great majority of flagged results. Always read the flag column and the reference range rather than relying on the highlight.

What is the accession number?

The laboratory's own reference for the specimen. Quote it whenever you contact them.

Only part of a panel came back. Is something wrong?

No. Labs report tests as they complete, so a panel can arrive in pieces. The status on each line says whether it is final.

Where do we place lab orders?

In LabCorp Link, not in OfficePro. Collection arrangements, priority and the requisition are all handled there, in the lab's own software.

Then what does OfficePro do?

Two things. It gives LabCorp Link your patient's demographics when you search for them by MRN or patient ID, so nothing is retyped; and it receives the results afterwards and puts them on the chart.

Why search by MRN rather than the patient's name?

Because the MRN is what ties the order to the record the result lands on. A patient keyed in by hand, or found by name, is the usual reason a result comes back matching nobody.

Can we receive results for labs we did not order here?

Yes. Results from a hospital or an outside laboratory appear the same way, and are attached to the patient the same way.

Can we see whether a value is trending?

Yes. Where a patient has had the same test before, the test name links to its history.

Why are Fullscript labs separate?

They come from a different source and are listed under Fullscript Labs. They also need each ordering practitioner mapped to a provider, under Fullscript provider setup.

A result is on the wrong patient. What do we do?

Reassign it straight away and check nothing was acted on while it was misfiled. This is a clinical risk, not a filing error.