What is the context?
Meddbase comes with a fully integrated electronic pathology system that links directly with selected pathology labs, including HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) and TDL (The Doctors Lab). Request forms can be raised ad-hoc or during an appointment. If the appointment specifies tests (e.g. a health assessment may require a profile blood test) the lab form will pre-populate with required tests based on how you have configured the service.
Non-standard tests can be ordered and added to the list via the Meddbase service picker. The request form is automatically created by Meddbase through a template and contains all the patient information required, including a unique barcode that ensures complete accuracy when processing the tests.
When tests are completed, the lab automatically sends results back to Meddbase servers. Test results directly update the patient's medical record and your admin team or the requesting doctor are automatically notified in the system or via email.
Please note: Electronic Pathology is a chargeable feature and additional set-up is required. If you do not currently utilise Electronic Pathology and would like to, please speak to your Account Manager.
What is the purpose of this article?
This article aims to provide guidance on how to raise pathology requests and manage results in Meddbase.
- Requesting pathology in an Appointment
- Requesting pathology from the Patient Record
- Pathology Results Work List
Requesting pathology in an Appointment
When in an appointment, Meddbase will automatically create a pathology form based on the tests that have been added as services to the appointment. The list of tests currently associated with the appointment can be found at the top of the clinical form.
If the test you wish to request is not listed here, you must add it as a service.
Note: If the same service is added twice, it will only be requested once.
Use the Add Service button located at the top left of the page and search for the test using the service picker. Once you have found the test, add it to your chosen services. The price and payer will be displayed. Be sure this information is correct. Once you have added the tests to the chosen services, hit proceed and this will take you back to the consultation.
Once back in the consultation, hit the Path Lab Request button located at the top left of the page. This will generate a lab request form based on the tests in the services list.
The Lab request form will also prompt you with a list of additional options to allow you to communicate with the Lab. Select the options you wish to set using the parameters section on the left of the page. As you change the parameters, the form will automatically update.
Once you have completed the form, click save and print. Meddbase will pop up a window prompting you to print out the lab form.
Note: If the window does not pop up it will be because you have a pop-ups blocked. If this is the case hit the “print again” button and make sure for future requests you exclude the site *meddbase.com in your pop up blocker.
If you are a TDL customer, as soon as you hit save and print, an electronic request is automatically sent to the lab. You must also print out the hard copy and attach it to the sample as the lab will not process anything until they have this.
Once you have completed the request, click finish and you will return to the consultation page.
The gif below demonstrates how to raise a request within an appointment:
Requesting pathology from the Patient Record
To request pathology directly from the patient record, click “Pathology Lab Request” from the actions menu on the patient home page.
This will take you to the service picker where you can search for and select your desired test.
After this, the same process as above is to be followed. Once you are happy with the form, click save and print. The form will be printed with all the patient details and a bar code. The Lab will use this bar code to reference you and reference the delivery of the results back to Meddbase. Please make sure this barcode prints correctly or it may result in a delay in the results.
The gif below demonstrates how to raise a request from a patient record :
Please note: the availability of services shown in the service picker is dependent on the patient's preferred payer and the respective chargeband.
Pathology Results Work List
When new pathology results are received, they will appear in the Pathology Result Worklist under Work on the start page. Items in this inbox will require an action. In the Delegated Work section, the Pathology Results inbox enables you to monitor requested pathology* and pathology results.
To access the Pathology Results Worklist, you must belong to the Pathology Result Administrators role group.
*Requested pathology can now create a work item within Delegated Work > Pathology Results as soon as it is raised, allowing you to monitor all pathology requests rather than waiting for results to be received. To enable automatic creation of work items for requested pathology, please contact support or your account manager.
On this page, each row represents a result, while the columns provide a quick summary of key information for each pathology item.
At the bottom of this page, the following controls and filtering of the worklist are:
- CSV Download - Download this page into a CSV file.
- Show most recent - Sort the order of work to either most recent or next due.
- Search Pathology - Search for a request.
- Site Filter - Filter worklist based on the site.
- Status Filter - Filter worklist based on status.
- Appointment Type Filter- Filter the worklist by appointment type which created the Pathology request initially.
- Show only abnormal results - Filter the worklist to only show results received with an Abnormal flag.
- New window - Open the Pathology results work type inbox in a new window.
- Archive - Archive items from the inbox.
For better visibility, Abnormal results will be represented with a icon in the leftmost column.
Managing an incoming Pathology Result
Clicking on a new pathology work item will allow you to process the result in a separate window.
In this window, you can do the following:
- Actions - here you will find various actions to allow you to raise a query about the result, accept with a follow-up or accept the result. Continue reading for available actions.
- Go to Patient Record.
- Go to Result in Medical History - View the result in the Medical History of the patient.
- Print Request - Print another request form, or view the initial form sent.
- Assign reviewers - Assign a reviewer to the Pathology work task.
- Assign assistants - Assign Assistants.
- Set the status of the pathology item.
- History - leave notes and log them against the history of the work item.
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View the results - Selecting the tabs labelled with Dates and Times will show you the results.
- Results classified as abnormal will be highlighted in red on this page.
- View the initial Request.
- Share with the patient - Share the result with the patient via the Patient Portal.
Viewing the results in this window will display them in a tabular structure with additional information provided by the lab.
It is now possible to display the labs requested within the Pathology results window. This lists the names of the labs requested at the top of the results window. If you would like to enable this feature, please contact support or your account manager.
Actioning Pathology work items
When receiving electronic results from TDL or HCA labs, results can be :
- Claim the review - This changes the status of the work item to "Reviewer Assigned".
- Decline the review - Unassigns the user from the work item.
- Accept result with follow-up - Accept the results once a follow-up review has been completed. The pathology results are then added to the patient's medical history.
- Accept result - Accept the results. This will automatically add them to the patient's Medical History.
- Ressign for review - Re-assign the results to be reviewed by another user.
- Raise Query- Raise a query to another user regarding the results. They will receive a notification and work item to review the results.
Once a result has been accepted, or accepted and completed, the work item will be archived.
Review date
This article was last updated on 11th November 2024.