Note: Only patients of clients that support order entry can be retrieved.

Note: If you have an active bridge and subsequently search for a patient ID, selecting or clearing this option has no effect; the Patient Search - Advanced Results dialog box does not appear. This option applies only if you search using the patient’s name or SSN.

Notes:  

• If you have an active bridge, appears next to the Search button when you click PID in the Search By list. No mater which option you search by, if you have an active bridge and the patient has a patient ID, an attempt will be made to retrieve the patient information from the external system.

• If your bridge is inactive, appears, and the patient information will be retrieved from eLabs without invoking the bridge. You can position the pointer over this symbol to see why the bridge is currently inactive.

• A bridge automatically becomes inactive after a certain number of failures. If this occurs, the bridge remains inactive until you log out and log back in.

• If your bridge is active, and an administrator enabled this feature for you, you can temporarily inactivate your bridge by clicking the bridge symbol. Clicking it again activates the bridge once more. Unless an administrator inactivates your bridge, it will always be active each time you log in, no matter what state it was in the last time you logged out.

Notes:  

• When searching for a patient by name, you can optionally include a comma and at least the first letter of the patient’s first name (such as pat,a).

• If you type fewer than three characters of the patient ID, only exact matches will be retrieved.

• If you have an active bridge and search by patient ID, you must type the complete patient ID. For some bridges, the patient ID is case sensitive. If your external system uses a separate identifier (such as a company number) to determine where to retrieve the patient data, you might have to type that identifier first, followed by a hyphen and the patient ID (such as company#-PID).

Tips: 

• On the Patient Search - Advanced Results dialog box, you can control whether or not the search encompasses all of the clients that you can access at your current lab by selecting or clearing the Search All Clients check box. (If you select this check box, you might see the same patient multiple times, once for each client.)

• To search for specific text on the Patient Search - Advanced Results dialog box, press Ctrl+f and type the desired text.

• To sort the search results on the Patient Search - Advanced Results dialog box, click the appropriate column heading. You can click the same column heading again to reverse the sort order. If you click to view a patient’s pending orders and then click a column heading, the list of pending orders is collapsed before the search results are sorted.

Note: If you retrieve a patient with an insurance carrier that must change based on the location of the client or facility, a message advises you of the change.

Note: If a connection cannot be made to the external system, a message advises you of this. Click the Close link to close the Combo Bridge Control dialog box and then search for the patient without using the bridge, scan the patient’s driver’s license or other identification card, or add the patient (as described later in this procedure).

Notes:  

• You can make changes on the Bridge Information dialog box, or you can change the information that is imported after you click OK. However, any changes are applied only to this order; no corresponding changes are made to the external system.

• For certain types of bridges, a work telephone number can be retrieved from the external system. This number does not appear on the Bridge Information dialog box, but if it uses the correct format, it is added to the patient record when you click OK.

• For certain types of bridges, an email address can be retrieved from the external system. It is validated when you click OK. If the email address does not use the correct format, you must change or delete it.

• The NPI box appears only if the lab supports NPIs. If the external system sends anything other than ten digits, you must correct or delete the NPI before you click OK.

• If the external system sends a surrogte UPIN, you must delete it or type a valid UPIN in order to import the information.

• The carrier name that appears on the Bridge Information dialog box (if any) is typically converted to the name used for that carrier by eLabs. If this cannot be done, either the Insurance area on the Order Entry page will display the phrase Insurance Mapping DB (IMDB) and you can proceed with the order, or no insurance information will appear, and you must provide it (as described in Add or Edit Insurance Information).

• Any information that is not supported is not imported. For example, if the lab does not support secondary insurance information, that data is not imported, even if it exists in the external system.

• If you retrieve a patient via a bridge, that patient is saved in the eLabs patient database as soon as you click OK on the Bridge Information dialog box, even if you subsequently click Cancel on the Order Entry page.

Notes:  

• If the lab does not support card scanning, the Scan ID button does not appear.

• If the lab supports card scanning, and you are not a hospital staff member, you can show or hide the Scan ID button by selecting or clearing the Use Attached Card Reader check box in your user profile.

Notes:  

• If you swiped a driver’s license, a unique number derived from the license number is used as the patient ID. You can change this later if you use the data retrieved from the card.

• If you retrieve a patient with an insurance carrier that must change based on the location of the client or facility, a message advises you of the change.

• To add the patient without using the information retrieved from the card, click Add New Patient and add the patient as described in the next section.

Notes:  

• The displayed and required fields vary, depending on the lab, client, and bill type.

• If you specify the patient’s SSN, a patient ID is not required. However, using a patient ID rather than the SSN is recommended.

• The patient ID, if any, must be unique for the client.

• If you do not provide an SSN or patient ID, a patient ID is generated automatically when you click OK. You can change the patient ID as appropriate.

• To be able to manually generate a cumulative test results report for the patient, you must provide either an SSN or patient ID. For more information, see Generating a Cumulative Test Results Report.

• You can type the zip code in either the City or Zip box and then press Tab to automatically complete the City, State, and Zip fields.

• For some clients, a specific sex appears automatically.

Note: If the selected or added patient has Medicare and the physician on the order is not enrolled with PECOS, the system displays a message indicating that the order must be placed on hold or canceled.

Notes:  

• If no SSN or patient ID appears, click Edit and provide either an SSN or patient ID.

• If you change or remove the SSN or patient ID for a patient who has only one of those identifiers, a new patient record is created. If any pending orders were associated with the original patient record, they are kept with that record.

• If a Health ID appears, you cannot change or remove it.

• Under some circumstances, if you change an existing patient’s last name, date of birth, or sex, the Key Demographic Field Changed dialog box appears. If it is appropriate to change the existing patient record (for example, if the patient’s name changed due to marriage), click the Update the current patient option button. Otherwise, click the File as new patient option button. Then click OK.

If you chose to file as a new patient, any existing SSN, patient ID, Health ID, or data in the Additional Information area is automatically removed. A new patient ID is generated automatically. This ID is derived from the patient’s date of birth, sex, and initials. If the automatically generated patient ID is already in use, it is appended with an incrementing number (such as 19580921FAP-01). You can change or remove the patient ID as appropriate.

• If you change the client after retrieving an existing patient, and the retrieved patient’s SSN or patient ID is associated with a different patient for the new client, a message appears in the Patient Information area, and any existing SSN or patient ID is automatically removed from the retrieved patient. (Any Health ID or data in the Additional Information area is retained.) If an SSN or patient ID is required, you must click Edit in the Patient Information area and provide new data. (You can optionally just click OK on the Edit Patient Information dialog box to automatically generate a unique patient ID, and then click OK again to close the dialog box.)

• If you retrieved an existing patient who has insurance, and that patient’s carrier is affiliated with a different lab, the lab with which you are placing the order might change. For more information, see step 6 in Add or Edit Insurance Information.

• Any changes that you make to the patient demographics are automatically saved in the patient’s record when you complete the order.

Note: The admission date cannot be more than 365 days in the past.

Tip: You can use any of the following shortcuts to specify the admission date:

• Type t for today’s date.

• Type y for yesterday’s date.

• Type t-# (where # is the number of days prior to today). For example, type t‑5 to specify the date five days prior to today’s date.

Note: If a lab reference ID is received programmatically, that ID will overwrite any ID that you specify.

Note: For hospital staff members, if the selected client supports the client bill type, Bill Type is automatically set to Client, no matter what the default bill type is for the client or retrieved patient. (Any insurance or guarantor information associated with a retrieved patient is retained in the patient record; the bill type is changed only for this order.)

If the selected client does not support the client bill type, you must click an appropriate option in the list. If you change Bill Type to Insurance, any insurance information associated with the retrieved patient does not appear automatically; you must specify it manually later.

Caution! If you are not a hospital staff member and you retrieved information about an existing patient, the bill type changes automatically to reflect the patient’s current record. If you subsequently specify a bill type that requires less data than currently resides in the system (for example, if you change Insurance or Patientto Client), a prompt appears, asking whether or not you want to change the information in the system. Click This patient’s current order and all future orders to update the patient’s record in the system, or click This order only to apply your changes to this order only, and then click OK. If you click This patient’s current order and all future orders, data associated with the previous bill type might be lost.

Note: If Bill Type is set to Client, the Relation list does not appear.

Notes:  

• You can have copies of the results sent to additional recipients only if the lab supports this feature.

• If Bill Type is set to Insurance, insurance and guarantor information are required.

• If Bill Type is set to Patient, guarantor information is required. (If Relation is set to Self, the patient demographic information is automatically used as the guarantor information.)

Notes:  

• Eligibility verification occurs only if your user account was configured by an administrator to perform this action, the Bill Type is set to Insurance, and the patient’s primary or secondary carrier has provided eligibility data.

• If the Bill Type is Insurance and eligibility verification occurs, a message will appear and you will not be able to continue if the insurance carrier is known to not pay for Quest Diagnostics testing. To continue, click Edit and change the Bill Type to either Patient or Client (if available), or follow your usual procedure for turning away the patient if they do not agree to pay.

• A diagnosis might be required, depending on the client or insurance carrier.