Medical Laboratory Workflow

Workflow in a medical laboratory can be divided into three phases:

• Pre-analytical
• Analytical
• Post-analytical

Requesting tests

 The diagnostic process starts with the medical practitioners ordering required tests based on clinical symptoms presented by the patient.

Sample collection

The samples are either collected by the requesting practitioners in clinics/hospitals or by a phlebotomist located at the collection centres. Different samples are collected based on the tests requested. Eg: blood is collected in various tubes (SST, plain, EDTA, K2 EDTA or citrate tubes) according to the order of draw.

Sample transportation

The samples are collected from various collection centres by dedicated courier services like Nz couriers and Sub60 (in New Zealand) and transported to the medical laboratory. The samples are transported whilst maintaining controlled environmental conditions, ensuring that the sample isn’t affected by temperature, agitation or other influencing factors.

Sample registration

 The samples are delivered to the specimen reception where they are sorted into different categories based on the types of samples and the tests requested. These samples are then checked for errors, registered into the laboratory tracking system, barcoded and sent to different departments for processing.

Sample preparation

Different samples are prepared in different ways according to the standard procedures set by the laboratories. Some samples like the SSTs and citrate tubes are centrifuged, for special tests serum is extracted from the samples or in case of other samples they are tested as- is. Along with the sample preparation, the commercial reagents as well as controls are prepared to be loaded onto the analysers.

Running QC

In a medical laboratory, Quality Controls (QC) are run often to check if the machines are giving accurate and precise results. How often the QCs are run are based on the frequency at which the analyser is used. In a usual lab setting the QCs are run every four- eight hrs and before any special tests are run on the analyser. If the QC is out of range, the control should be rerun and if it is still erroneous the test should be repeated and the errors causing it should be fixed before further testing is performed on the analyser.

Sample analysis

After the samples, reagents and quality control are loaded onto the analyser, the tests required to be run on the sample are communicated to the analyser via a middleware that connects it with the registration software . The analyser communicates the results obtained from the tests with the software which complies the patients results into a final report.

Result validation

The patient results compiled by the software can be accessed by the medical laboratory scientists, pathologist and clinicians. If the results are normal and if the tests were performed without any errors/ alarms the results are send out to the requested clinician or patient without notifying the laboratory scientists. If the results are abnormal or there are any flags raised by the analyser the results are cross verified by the scientists and sent out with a possible diagnosis.

The clinicians/ medical professionals make their diagnosis of the patient conditions based on the laboratories results and plan out the treatment for the patient accordingly. We hope this article has helped you better understand the medical laboratory workflow.