Lab-to-lab orders

What lab-to-lab orders are

Lab-to-lab orders are used when another laboratory is involved in the work. Your branch may receive samples from a partner lab, send tests to another lab, or manage pricing and communication through a partner account. The goal is to keep outsourced work traceable without losing the patient, test, sample, price, and result context.

This page is separate from ordinary patient orders because partner details, external references, and special pricing matter. It is still branch-scoped and permission controlled.

Partner account setup is managed separately in Admin > Organization > Partner Labs. Create or update the partner account there before operations staff use it in live lab-to-lab orders. This keeps administrative setup, portal users, pricing defaults, and processing destination rules away from the daily order queue.

Source lab information

The first section records the partner and operational contact:

Field	Purpose
Partner Lab	The active partner account used for pricing and reporting.
Source Lab	Name of the sending lab when different from the partner account name.
Contact Person	The person to call about the order.
Contact Phone	Phone number for operational follow-up.
Contract Account	Partner contract or account reference.
External Reference	The partner's order or request number.
Scheduled Date	Expected pickup, receipt, or processing date.
Status	The current lab-to-lab workflow state on edit.
Notes	Operational instructions or partner-specific comments.

Always capture the external reference when the partner provides one. It makes phone calls, invoices, and report matching much easier.

Patient snapshot

The patient snapshot stores the patient details received from the partner: name, phone, email, sex at birth, date of birth certainty, date of birth, neonatal birth time, and external patient reference. It is called a snapshot because partner requests may not always map to a full patient profile in the same way as a direct branch order.

Choose Unknown / Not Recorded or Unknown date when the source lab did not provide verified data. Choose Estimated date only when the supplied birth date is explicitly approximate. Do not invent a sex or birth date to complete the form. Estimated or unknown demographics stop age- or sex-specific reference ranges from being selected automatically; only a configured all-age, all-sex range remains eligible.

Record birth time only for a verified newborn with an exact birth date. Changing the date certainty to estimated or unknown clears birth time. Check spelling and verified identity details carefully because the final report preserves this snapshot even if the patient's main profile changes later.

Requested tests

The create page uses the same compact Test menu as ordinary order entry. Use the catalog type and category filters or search by test name or code, then choose Add. The selected-tests rail stays beside the catalog so you can review every test, profile, culture, or package without leaving the page. Use the quantity box on a selected item when the partner requested more than one.

Choose the partner lab before confirming prices. The order total and pricing breakdown update from the branch, scheduled date, quantity, and the partner account's default lab-to-lab pricing list when one is configured. Expand a pricing row to review the original price, applied price, discount, rule, and pricing note. Resolve any duplicate-test warning before creating the order.

Partner details, the patient snapshot, notes, and the create action stay in the right-hand order workspace on wide screens. On smaller screens the same sections stack vertically; no order fields or catalog controls are removed.

If a lab-to-lab order is already linked to a clinical order, test changes are disabled in this resource. The linked clinical order becomes the source for test, sample, and result changes. This prevents two competing records from disagreeing.

Status flow

Lab-to-lab orders can move through:

1. Requested
2. Quoted
3. Approved
4. Received
5. Processing
6. Reported
7. Closed

The order can also be cancelled from any non-cancelled state when allowed. Once cancelled, it should not continue through the normal flow.

Use statuses to communicate the real partner stage. Do not mark an order reported just because the sample arrived. Reported means the partner-facing result stage is complete.

The list page

The table shows reference number, source lab, partner account, contact, status, total, scheduled date, and creation age. Use the status filter to focus on requested, processing, reported, closed, or cancelled work.

Search by external reference, clinical order, source lab, contact person, or status. This is especially useful when a partner calls with their own reference number rather than your internal order code.

Finance and balances

Lab-to-lab work often affects partner balances and later invoices. Use the partner account, contract account, pricing source, and finance transaction pages together. If the price looks wrong, check the partner's special pricing list before manually editing downstream finance records.

Do not use ordinary patient cash payment screens for partner settlement unless the lab has intentionally configured that process.

Partner account setup

If the partner is missing from the Partner Lab selector, ask an administrator to review Admin > Organization > Partner Labs. The partner account controls whether the partner is active, which default lab-to-lab price list is used, whether the partner can process samples, which sample type codes it accepts, and who can access the partner portal.

Do not create an order against a similar partner just to move faster. Duplicate or incorrect partner accounts make pricing, balances, portal access, and reporting difficult to reconcile later.

Operational handoff

When a lab-to-lab order represents physical samples, keep the sample workflow up to date too. Samples still need barcodes, receipt, rejection notes, routing, transfer tracking, and result release. The partner order explains who the work belongs to; the sample and result pages prove what happened clinically.

When the partner receives the final report, close the order only after confirming reporting, finance expectations, and any required attachments or notes.