HOW TO: Manage Electronic Lab Results

Receiving electronic lab results

Once an interface between your practice and a lab vendor is live, the lab vendor will automatically send lab results electronically to the patient’s chart. 

Electronic lab results are routed to patient charts by matching first name, last name, date of birth, and sex at birth and assigned to the Ordering Provider for review and sign off. 

NOTE: If the interface is unable to find an exact patient match, then it will automatically create a new patient chart in Elation to house the lab results. 

By default, lab vendors will send the electronic report once all tests are finalized across a single lab panel or lab order, but you can ask a lab to send partial results if preferred. 

Viewing electronic lab results in Elation

View electronic lab results in any of the following places:

• In the Practice Home Reports inbox of the Ordering Provider if the report is unsigned.
• In the patient’s chart under Requiring Action if the report is unsigned.
• In the patient’s chart under the Reports -> Lab tab regardless of whether it's been signed.

Viewing electronic lab results on the Practice Home

Unsigned electronic lab results will appear in the Practice Home Reports inbox of the Ordering Provider. Results are listed in order of your sort preferences, either Oldest First or Newest First. Reports with abnormal results will show the corresponding test names in red t (shown in the image below). 

Click the patient's name to open their chart and view the full report.

Viewing electronic lab results in the patient’s chart

Unsigned electronic lab results will appear in the Requiring Action section of the patient’s chart. You will see the following details in Requiring Action:

• The date of the report.
• The Provider or Delegate the report is assigned to.
• The date and time the results were collected.
• Sign Off options, including the options to sign off and attach the Report to a new Patient Letter or Provider Letter.

Click on the name of the report to open the full report view to see the following details:

• Report details:
  • Requisition No. - The unique lab order ID assigned by the lab vendor.
  • Order by - The name of the Provider that ordered the tests.
  • Vendor - The name of the lab vendor.
  • Document Date - The date of the report.
  • File Received - The date the report was transmitted to Elation.
  • Collected - The date the lab specimens were collected.
  • Completed - The date the test results were completed.
  • Status - The status of the results
  • Accession No. - The unique ID assigned to the lab specimens associated with the results.
• Test result details:
  • The test name and test value.
  • The last 3 values for the same test from previous results, if available.
  • Abnormal test results - Look for abnormal test results in red, bold text.
  • The reference range for the test - Position your cursor over the test value to see reference ranges, if available.
  • Any notes as shared by the lab.
• A PDF version of the report - Click the Download PDF version of report button at the bottom of a report to download a PDF version of the report. Only some lab vendors (e.g. Quest and Genova Diagnostics) send the PDF version of the report along with the electronic version. 

Signing electronic lab results

Any Provider Level User can sign off on any electronic lab results, even if the results are assigned to a different provider in the practice. Staff Level Users can sign off on electronic lab results if they were delegated sign off permissions. Click here for instructions on how to reassign lab results to a Delegate.

To sign off on electronic lab results:

1	Locate the electronic lab result in the Practice Home or patient’s chart.
2	Click Sign Off.

Moving an electronic lab result to a different patient chart

To move an electronic lab result to a different patient’s chart:

1	Locate the electronic lab result in the Practice Home or patient’s chart.
2	Click Actions -> Refile to Other Patient Chart.
3	Search for the patient’s chart by their name and then select their name from the search results.
4	Click File.
5	The report will now appear in the other patient chart.

Reassigning electronic lab results to a different Provider or Delegate

To reassign electronic lab results to a different Provider or Delegate for sign off:

1	Locate the electronic lab result in the Practice Home or patient’s chart.
2	Click Actions -> Reassign to Provider or Actions -> Reassign to Delegate.
3	Search for and select the name of the Provider or Delegate you want to assign the report to.
4	Click Assign.
5	The report is now assigned to a new Provider or Delegate.

Exporting lab results to visit notes

To export lab results to a visit note:

1

Open the lab report in Reports -> Lab window.

2

Use any of the workflows below based on what you’d like to export To export a single test value, position your cursor over the test value and click Actions and choose one of the export locations. To export all abnormal values, go to the bottom of the report and click More Actions -> Reference All Abnormal Values in Note. To export multiple test values: Click on the star next to each value you want to include. Go to the bottom of the report and click More Actions -> Reference All Starred in Note.

Managing duplicate charts created when receiving electronic lab results

Electronic lab results are routed to patient charts by matching first name, last name, date of birth, and sex at birth. If the interface is unable to find an exact patient match, then it will automatically create a new patient chart in Elation to house the lab results. The new chart will show a pink banner at the top to indicate it was auto-generated by Elation. If you find that it’s a duplicate of an existing chart, you can merge it, along with the lab results, into the patient’s actual chart 

Elation Help Article: Merging Duplicate Charts