Question from an Implementer (Palladium): How can OpenMRS support walk-in patient registration and direct lab order creation?
Context: Dispensaries and smaller health facilities often lack comprehensive lab testing capabilities. When patients need tests that aren’t available on-site, staff issue a request form for the test to be completed at another facility. These patients are considered “walk-ins” at the receiving facility.
Upon arrival with the request form, they are registered in the system. Since they don’t require clinical services, the workflow should allow them to proceed directly to the lab for testing, bypassing clinician consultation. This requires the system to support direct lab order creation from the lab.
Question: Is there a way the system can support this without clinician involvement? Is this something common with other implementers?
Could you say more about what the actual question is here? This just seems like a workflow that OpenMRS should be able to accommodate.
The patient can be registered like any other. Presumably, they wouldn’t be put into a clinical queue, but potentially a queue for the laboratory. From there, something like the lab lite app could be used, which has the ability to enter orders. This would require the creation of a visit and encounter, but we need those anyways to correctly record the results.
This is something our users have the ability to do in O2. There is an Add Order button at the top of the page of the lab app that the lab staff use. Clicking this button takes the user to a search screen where the lab staff can search for a patient and then they can select the lab tests they will receive. Once the tests are selected they are redirected back to the list of lab orders where they can enter results or sample collection details. I tired to upload a video of workflow, but it didn’t accept the format. I will try again.
A pregnant woman visits facility A for their first ANC Visit. An ANC Profile is required but is not available within that facility so a Lab request form is filled and the client is advised to seek services at the neighbouring Facility B and return the results during their next visit. The Patient viists Facility B and presents the lab request form at registration desk, the registration officer registers the patient in the EMR and at check-in they are categorized as a walk-in and put on Laboratory queue.
The laboratory technician receives the patient at Lab but doesn’t have an existing order in the EMR system. The patient presents the lab request form to the Lab Tech and he/she needs to raise this order in the EMR for them to take a sample, process it and post the results.
Can we avail this capability to the Lab users on O3?
Kezia has elaborated this further. @fanderson Many thanks for sharing how you have implemented this, and it appears this is exactly what the Palladium team wants. @ibacher Let me know if you need more information.
