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Check in a lab request
When you need this
You work at a partner hospital's reception or accounts, and you take payments. A nurse has sent a patient's lab request for payment. You take the money and check the patient in, which sends the lab order to the lab. The nurse then takes the samples.
Steps
In the sidebar, click Lab requests, then the Waiting for payment chip. Its number is how many requests are waiting.
Click the patient's request. It opens with the patient, the doctor and the tests the nurse filled in.
Under Who pays, below the tests and above Clinical details, choose Patient, Medical aid or Company. A Company card, or a Medical aid card and an Authorization card, open below it.
For a medical aid, first say Whose card is it?: keep The patient's own, or choose A family member's when the patient is a spouse or child on someone else's card. For a family member's card, type the Main member's name as it is on the card, choose what The patient is their (Spouse, Child, Parent, Sibling or Other), and add Their phone if you have it.
Then choose the Medical aid and type the Member number from the card, and the Suffix beside it (for example 00 for the main member, 01 for a dependant). The member number is the main member's; the suffix is the patient's own. All of it fills in from the patient's policy when it's on file and is kept for the next visit. The claim PDF prints the suffix, and names the main member and the relationship.
Check the tests and prices under Tests and charges, and tell the patient what to pay.
Under Payments, click Add payment. The amount is filled in with what the patient owes. Choose the Method. To split a payment (for example, part cash and part card), change the amount to the first part, then click Add payment again: the new payment holds the rest. A medical aid request still waiting for its authorization takes no payment here: see A medical aid request shows only Save draft below.
Check the Summary: it says Paid in full.
If the patient should sign the request, use Patient signature (optional). Under Who is signing, leave Patient, or for a child choose Guardian. Signed by is filled in with the patient's name; for a guardian, type the parent's name instead. The patient signs in the box with a finger, a pen or the mouse. Clear wipes the box so they can sign again. You can check in without a signature.
Click Check in patient, then Check in to confirm.
📷 lab-request-waiting-for-payment – not taken yet – after deploy to staging
📷 lab-request-check-in-payment – not taken yet – after deploy to staging
What you should see
The message Checked in, and the patient's lab request opens with its payment and receipt. The lab order is created, so the nurse can find it under Laboratory › Lab orders and take the samples. The request is no longer under Waiting for payment.
Print the receipt
Each payment under Payments has its receipt beside it. PDF downloads the A4 receipt, and Print prints it on the receipt printer. Both follow the receipt setting in Preferences: one line for the bill, or every test and charge listed.
On the receipt printer, an itemised receipt lists the tests and charges with their prices, and no line for the bill. If the payment covers only part of a bill, it shows one line per bill instead, so the prices always add up to the total.
To give the patient the other kind, click the three dots beside the receipt and choose Download itemised receipt or Print itemised receipt. A lab that lists every test by default sees Download invoices-only receipt and Print invoices-only receipt there instead, for a patient who doesn't want an employer to see the tests.
To print more than one receipt with each Print (one for the patient, one for the file), go to Settings › Printers on that computer and set Copies of each receipt. It's saved on that computer only. Only the first copy opens the cash drawer. With Print dialog, the copies come out one per page: set the printer to cut after each page: see Set up the receipt printer.
Sign after check-in
To add the signature later, for example when the samples are taken, open the patient's request. Under Patient signature, click Add signature. If they have signed already, click Sign again: the new signature replaces the old one. Choose Who is signing, check Signed by, let them sign, then click Save signature.
The signature prints on the lab order, beside the doctor's, with the name and the date signed.
If something goes wrong
"The signature didn't save. Add it on the lab request's page.": the patient is checked in, but the signature wasn't kept. Open the request and add it as in Sign after check-in.
"Full payment required. Collect … more, or refer the patient to the lab for a part payment.": a patient who pays for themselves pays the whole bill before they are checked in. Take the rest, or send the patient to the lab.
A medical aid request shows only Save draft: the lab's claims team gets the medical aid's authorization and checks that patient in. Leave it for them; the nurse takes the samples after that.
"Nothing waiting for payment.": no request is waiting. Ask the nurse whether they clicked Send for payment.
There is no Check in patient button, only Send for payment: your role can't take payments. Ask the lab to change your role.