Initiate a Lab Order (2024)

Notes:

• If you cannot place orders with your current lab, the Order Entry menu does not appear.

• If a notice appears requesting billing information, you can click the link to launch the application and resolve billing trailers. For more information, see View Billing Information Requests.

• If you are currently accessing Athena Diagnostics (ZBD), you might be prompted to acknowledge that the financial terms are different than they are for other Quest Diagnostics orders. Click Accept if you agree to these terms; you will not be prompted again. Otherwise, click Decline, and then click Continue on the next message. If you decline the terms, you will not be able to place orders with Athena Diagnostics (the Home page appears).

This disclaimer also appears if you are not currently accessing Athena Diagnostics, but you subsequently choose a test performed by that lab (as described in Specify a Test). In that case, if you click Decline and then click Continue, the Order Entry page remains available, but the selected test is not added to the order.

If you accept the terms, and subsequently decide not to accept them, contact the Help Desk to have ordering for Athena Diagnostics disabled for you.

Note: Only patients associated with clients that support order entry can be retrieved.

Notes:

• If you have an active bridge, appears when you click PID in the Search By list. No matter which option you search by, if you have an active bridge and the patient has a patient ID, an attempt will be made to retrieve the patient information from the external system.

• If appears, the patient information will be retrieved from the eLabs database without invoking the bridge. You can position the pointer over this symbol to see why the bridge is currently inactive.

• A bridge automatically becomes inactive after a certain number of failures. If this occurs, the bridge remains inactive until you log out and log back in.

• If your bridge is active, and an administrator enabled this feature for you, you can temporarily inactivate your bridge by clicking the bridge symbol. Clicking it again activates the bridge once more. Unless an administrator inactivates your bridge, it will always be active each time you log in, no matter what state it was in the last time you logged out.

Notes:

• When searching for a patient by name, you can use any of the following formats:

• LastName (such as Doe)

• LastName, FirstName (such as Doe, John)

• FirstName LastName (such as John Doe)

For either name, you must type at least one character. You can also optionally include a space and the patient’s date of birth, including forward slashes (such as Doe 9/21/1958 or Doe,J 9/21/1958).

If the patient’s first name contains a space, you must specify the last name first. For example, to find Mary Ann Doe, you must type Doe, Mary Ann. If you type Mary Ann Doe, the application will assume that the last name begins with Ann.

If the patient’s last name contains a space, you must include a comma after it. For example, to find John Da Silva, you must type at least Da Silva, J. If you just type Da Silva, the application will assume that Da is the first name and Silva is the last name.

• If you type fewer than three characters of the patient ID, only exact matches will be retrieved.

• If you have an active bridge and search by patient ID, you must type the complete patient ID. For some bridges, the patient ID is case sensitive.

If your external system uses a separate identifier (such as a company number) to determine where to retrieve the patient data, you might have to type that identifier first, followed by a hyphen and the patient ID (such as company#-PID).

Tip: To sort the search results, click the appropriate column heading. You can click the column heading again to reverse the sort order.

Note: If you retrieve a patient with an insurance carrier that must change based on the location of the client or facility, a message advises you of the change.

Note: If a connection cannot be made to the external system, a message advises you of this. Click Close to close the Combo Bridge Control dialog box and then search for the patient without using the bridge, or add the patient (as described later in this procedure).

Notes:

• You can make changes on the Bridge Information dialog box before you click OK, or you can change the information that is imported after you click OK. However, any changes are applied only to this application; no corresponding changes are made to the external system.

• For certain types of bridges, a work telephone number can be retrieved from the external system. This number does not appear on the Bridge Information dialog box, but if it uses the correct format, it is added to the patient record when you click OK.

• For certain types of bridges, an email address can be retrieved from the external system. It is validated when you click OK. If the email address does not use the correct format, you must change or delete it.

• The NPI box appears only if the lab supports NPIs. If the external system sends anything other than ten digits, you must correct or delete the NPI before you click OK.

• If the external system sends an NPI or UPIN, and that physician is already associated with the client, that physician automatically appears in the Physician box in the Order Information section as soon as you click OK.

• If the the external system sends a surrogate UPIN, you must delete it or type a valid UPIN in order to import the information.

• The carrier name that appears on the Bridge Information dialog box (if any) is typically converted to the name used for that carrier by eLabs. If this cannot be done, either the Carrier box in the Insurance Information area will display the phrase Insurance Mapping DB (IMDB) and you can proceed with the order, or no insurance information will appear, and you must provide it (as described in Provide Billing Information).

• Any information that is not supported is not imported. For example, if the lab does not support secondary insurance information, that data are not imported, even if it exists in the external system.

• If you retrieve a patient via a bridge, that patient is saved in the patient database as soon as you click OK on the Bridge Information dialog box, even if you subsequently click Cancel on the Order Entry page.

Notes:

• The displayed and required fields vary, depending on the lab, client, and bill type. This section automatically displays the appropriate fields for the default bill type for your default client at your current lab.

• For some clients, a specific sex appears automatically.

• You can type the zip code in either the City or Zip box and then press Tab to automatically complete the City, State, and Zip fields.

• If you specify the patient’s SSN, a patient ID is not required. However, using a patient ID rather than the SSN is recommended.

• If you type an SSN or patient ID that is already used by another patient, the Patient Key Conflict dialog box appears.

To remove the SSN that you added, click the Retain the existing SSN (none) option button. Otherwise, click the Load the existing Patient option button to retrieve the patient associated with that SSN. Then click OK. You can then update the patient’s record as needed.

To remove the patient ID that you added, click the Retain the existing PID (none) option button. Otherwise, click the Generate a new PID option button to generate a new ID. Then click OK.

• If an admission date is required, it cannot be more than 365 days in the past. If that date is not required, and you specify a date more than 365 days in the past, the admission date is not saved.

• You can optionally click Clear to delete all of the displayed information and start again, or click Back to search for the patient.

Notes:

• You cannot change the patient’s Health ID (if any).

• If you retrieved an existing patient, and the system is set up to send the order to a different lab based on that patient’s insurance carrier, insurance ID, or group number, a message in the Insurance Information area indicates which lab and carrier will be used automatically. To order tests from your current lab instead, click Override in that message. However, this might affect patient billing.

• Under some circ*mstances, if you change an existing patient’s name, date of birth, or sex, the Key Demographic Field Changed dialog box appears. If it is appropriate to change the existing patient record (for example, if the patient’s name changed due to marriage), click the Update the current patient option button. Otherwise, click the File as new patient option button. Then click OK.

If you chose to file as a new patient, any existing SSN, patient ID, MRN, chart ID, location, ward, station, room, bed, or admission date is automatically removed. A new patient ID is generated automatically. You can change or remove the patient ID as appropriate.

• If you specify a patient ID that is already used by another patient of the same client, the Patient Key Conflict dialog box appears. To retain the PID that you typed or to type a new one, click the Retain the existing PID option button. Otherwise, click the Generate a new PID option button to automatically generate a new ID. Then click OK.

• Any changes that you make to the patient demographic information are saved in the patient’s record when you complete the order. If you cancel the order, the changes are not saved.