Accession & the Lab Scanner

Accession is the point at which the lab formally takes charge of a sample. This page covers the simplified single-stage accession and the Lab Scanner screen, which accessions samples by scanning their barcodes.

At a glance

fa-flask | Sample collected | The sample is taken from the patient.
fa-truck | Received at the lab | The sample reaches the laboratory bench.
fa-barcode | Scan the barcode | Point the scanner at the label on the tube.
fa-check | Accessioned | The lab accepts the sample and it becomes reportable.
fa-pencil | Results can be entered | The test moves into Report Pending.

Single-stage accession

Accession used to happen twice — a general acceptance followed by a separate department acceptance — and a test could not be reported until both were done.

Sites can now collapse this into one stage. When they do:

• The step is labelled simply Accession.
• Department accession disappears from the worklist: the column, the per-row button and the bulk action are all hidden.
• Only the single accession is required before results can be entered.

Nothing is lost

Switching to single-stage accession changes only what is required and what is shown. Historic department-accession records — including department rejection reasons — are preserved, so reports and analytics built on them keep their history.

If you are switching over

Tests that are already generally accepted but still awaiting department acceptance stay in Sample Pending until something else is written to them. Clearing the department accession queue before the switch avoids this entirely.

The Lab Scanner

The Lab Scanner appears in the Lab sidebar for users with the access_lab_scanner permission. (On sites still running two accession stages it is labelled Accession Scanner.)

It turns accession into a single physical motion: pick up the tube, scan the label, put it down. There is no need to find the patient in a list first.

Using the scanner

1. Open Lab → Lab Scanner.
2. Put the cursor in the scan box and scan the barcode on the sample. A hand-held barcode gun types the value and submits it for you.
3. The result appears at the top of the results list immediately; keep scanning without waiting.

Both label types are understood:

• Sample barcodes — accession every test that shares that sample.
• Package barcodes — accession the single test the label belongs to.

Reading the results

Each scan produces a coloured result card showing the patient, the order and the tests affected:

Result	What it means
Processing	The scan is being looked up.
Accessioned	The sample was accepted; the tests are now reportable.
Already accessioned	This sample had already been accepted — no action, no error.
Blocked	The sample cannot be accessioned yet, for example because it has not been collected or received. The card explains why.
Not found	No sample or test matches the barcode that was scanned.
Failed	The accession could not be saved. Scan again.

tip

Already accessioned is a normal outcome, not a mistake. Re-scanning a tube that a colleague has already processed is safe — it will never accession anything twice.

Scan history

The scanner keeps a history of what was scanned, by whom and what the outcome was. Open it from the scanner screen to check a batch after the fact, or to confirm that a particular tube was handled.

Outsourced tests are never accessioned

Tests sent to an external laboratory skip accession entirely — the sample leaves your building, so there is nothing to accept. Collection is the only step required before an outsourced test can be reported. See Outsourced Tests.