Attach results from an outside lab

When you need this

The doctor sent tests to a lab that doesn't use Modial, and its results have come back on paper or as a PDF. Attach the lab's report to the visit that ordered the tests, so the doctor reads the lab's own report. Don't retype the values: a typing mistake in a result is easy to miss and can harm the patient. Anyone whose role can change encounters can do this, at the front desk or in the consulting room, even after the visit has ended.

Steps

1. Open Encounters, click the All tab and search for the patient under Search by patient name....
2. Click the visit where the doctor ordered the tests. If you're not sure which one, open the most recent and look at its Lab Tests tab.
3. Click the Attachments tab.
4. Add the report:
   • A PDF or scanned file: click Choose files and pick it, or drag it onto the box. You can add several at once.
   • A paper report: click Take photo. The first time, the browser asks to use the camera: allow it. Lay the page flat in good light, with all four edges showing, and click Take photo. For each further page, click Take next page. If the tablet has more than one camera, pick the one facing the page from the list above the picture.
5. Under What is this?, type what the report is, for example FBC results from Lancet, 22 Oct, or click Lab results.
6. Click Attach 1 file (or Attach 3 pages, Attach 2 files, …).
7. Tell the requesting doctor the results are in. The app doesn't tell them.

What you should see

File attached (or 3 files attached). Each file is listed under the box with your description under its name, for example Lab results – page 2 of 3, and the number on the Attachments tab goes up, for example Attachments (3). Click a file's name to open it in a new tab.

The visit's Lab Tests tab still shows the tests as Pending. That's expected: the tests and the attached report aren't linked.

If something goes wrong

• There's no Attachments tab: your role can't open a visit's tabs. Ask the person who manages staff logins.
• There's no Choose files and no Take photo: your role can see the visit but can't change it. Ask the person who manages staff logins.
• There's Choose files but no Take photo: this browser can't use a camera here. On a tablet, Choose files may offer the camera: take one photo per page. If it doesn't, photograph the pages with the camera app first, then choose those photos.
• "Could not access your camera. Please check permissions and try again.": the camera was blocked. Allow the camera for this site in the browser's settings, then click Start Camera.
• "… is over 25 MB. Scan it at a lower resolution, or split it.": do that, then attach it again.
• "Unsaved Changes" when you close: there are pages or files you haven't attached. Press Cancel to go back and click Attach, or Discard to throw them away.
• Some files attached and then an error showed: the ones still listed didn't attach. Click Attach again.
• You attached it to the wrong visit: click the bin beside the file. The app asks Delete this file? Press Delete, then attach the file to the right visit.
• A page is blurred or cut off: before attaching, click the × beside it and take it again. Once attached, delete it with the bin and photograph it again. The doctor has to be able to read every value.
• The results came from a lab that uses Modial: there's nothing to attach. The lab sends its results through the app, and the doctor is told when they're ready (see Tell doctors and patients when lab results are ready).