Cerner Defined
Department Defined

Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ) eg. Why no accessions?
How to place Lab Orders the EZ way?
How to cancel Lab Orders the EZ way ?
What is Collection Run ?
Future Orders for Lab.

When placing lab orders, do I have to worry what containers the specimen should be in ? No, as a Clinician, you need not have to worry as system will know what type and size of containers to use based on the Collection Requirement built for these Orderables. Collection Requirement defines what containers to use for different age groups, plus any special hadling instruction. The Container Type, together with it's volume and Special handling will be printed on the specimen label.

Can 2 containers share the same Accession Number ?
Yes, system will label them as Container "A", "B", "C", etc.

Can different Specimens share the same accession number ? Yes, it is possible but highly unlikely.

Do I need to worry about Order Comments for lab orders ? Yes, especially when the Order Comment field has some pre-built information (template), eg. HPE Surgical Request. As mentioned in my previous mail, the Order Comment will be seen in the lab applications and Lab personnel need this info in order to process the specimen properly. Unfortunately, we are not able to make this field mandatory as it is also shared by other modules.

Why no Accession Numbers ? Any of the following occurence will cause the lab orders not to have accession numbers :- Collection requirement has not been built for that age group; Orders placed for Blood specimens had a Collection Priority of "Routine" for Inpatients. These orders will have a status of "SCHEDULED" instead. They will be accessioned during Collection Run. When doing Modify Details of Orders collectively, one of the orderables do not have the correct Specimen associated with it; When the system is really slow, orders transactions may be queued up waiting to be processed. This may take couple of minutes.

Is the system smart enough to lump different orderables together when they belong to the same container ? Yes, this is a feature of the system called NETTING. NETTING prevents unnecessary bleeding of specimen (esp Blood) from the patient. It also cuts down on the number of containers.

Is it possible to modify details of lab orders collectively rather than one at a time using the "Next" button ? Yes, this will be illustrated in the next topic.

Is it possible to cancel lab orders in a batch rather than one at a time ?