There are several steps that must be completed in order to provide test results to the patient care team. These steps may vary slightly from laboratory or department but generally are as follows:
- A patient specimen is collected in one of several locations, such as hospital wards, outpatient collection areas, and physician offices.
- The specimen is received in the specimen collection and processing department of the clinical laboratory.
- The staff accession the specimen, confirm its identity and integrity, and perform any additional processing, such as centrifugation.
- The specimen is sent to the appropriate laboratory department(s) for testing, sometimes by a track system.
- The specimen is tested and analyzed manually or by an instrument.
- The test results are reviewed and verified by an MLS or MLT. If the test results are outside of expected values, the test may be repeated, or a new specimen may have to be collected.
- The verified test results are released to the LIS.
- The LIS sends the test results to the EMR.
- The test results are accessible to the patient's care team via the EMR.
The flow diagram to the right shows an example of a blood specimen for hematology testing.
