Home Collection

Switch on home sample collection, plan daily runs for phlebotomists, mark each visit collected or missed and print the run sheet.

Home Collection is for labs that send a phlebotomist to the patient's home. Orders flagged for a home visit wait here until you put them on a run.

Before you begin

• Switching the service on and setting the fee needs Manage Lab Orders / Workflow.
• Planning runs and marking visits needs Collect Samples / Phlebotomy or Manage Lab Orders / Workflow.

Where to find it

Open Laboratory → Work → Home Collection.

Switch home collection on

1. Type the Home visit fee in Rs. Leave it at 0 for a free visit.
2. Click Switch on.

The New Lab Order form now has a Home sample collection box. The fee is added to the order's bill as its own line. To change the fee later, type it and click Save fee.

Book a home visit

1. On Lab Orders, click + New Lab Order and pick the patient and tests.
2. Tick Home sample collection. The patient's address and phone fill in.
3. Check the Address and Phone for the visit, and fill in Area / sector, Preferred visit and a Note for the phlebotomist if useful.
4. Click Create Order.

The order now waits under Waiting for a visit.

Confirm a request from the patient portal

With the patient portal's Home sample collection switch on, patients can ask for a visit themselves. Their requests show in the box Requests from patients above the waiting list. Click Confirm visit to make the lab order, or Decline with a reason the patient reads. See Home sample collection requests.

Plan a run

1. Pick the day at the top.
2. Under Waiting for a visit, tick the visits for one phlebotomist. All ticks every visit.
3. Click + Plan a run.
4. Choose the Day and the Phlebotomist. For someone without a login, pick Someone without a login… and type the Name.
5. Type the Area, or keep the suggested one.
6. Click Plan run.

To add more visits to a run that is not finished, tick them, pick the run next to Add and click Add.

Send the phlebotomist out

1. Click 🖨 Run sheet to print the stops, with addresses, phones, tests, tubes and a signature column.
2. Click 🏷 Labels to print the tube labels. Each label also carries the address and phone.
3. Click Set out. The run shows Out.

Mark each visit

• ✓ Collected: the samples were drawn. The order moves to Collected, ready to be received in the lab.
• Missed: pick or type the reason, such as Not at home, and click Mark missed. The visit goes back to the waiting list.
• Take off: removes a stop from a run that has not set out.

When the round is over, click Finish. Any stop not visited is marked missed and goes back to the waiting list. Cancel on a planned run sends all its visits back.

Common questions

The Home sample collection box is not on the order form. Home collection is switched off. Switch it on here.

A visit is still waiting, but the patient came to the lab. Collect the samples on the order as usual with Collect Samples. The order then cannot be put on a run.

Who is recorded as collecting the sample? The phlebotomist on the run, if they have a login. Otherwise the user who marked it collected.

Is the fee charged if the visit is missed? Yes, if you bill the order. The fee is a line on the bill of every order booked for a home visit.