> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Worklist

> Work the bench queue oldest first: filter specimens by status and type, open one, or screen a batch of negatives in a single pass.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Enterprise" roles="Lab scientists, doctors, nurses, managers and owners" note="Needs the Diagnostics care area" />

The **Worklist** is the specimen queue as the bench sees it: **The bench queue, oldest first.** It is where you find a specimen by its number, see what stage it has reached, and clear a run of negatives without opening them one at a time.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Laboratory', 'Worklist']} />

<TaskHeader before="At least one specimen registered against a test request" time="Seconds to find one; a minute to clear a batch" after="Specimens moved on through the queue, with the technician's name on the record" />

## What you're looking at

Seven chips run across the top. Each carries a live count and doubles as a filter:

**All · Lab intake · Collected · In transit · Received · Screening · Confirmed**

Below them are the controls:

| Control                        | What it does                                                                  |
| ------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Specimen ID, LAN or donor…** | Searches the specimen number, the lab accession number and the patient's name |
| **All specimen types**         | Narrows to **Oral fluid** or **Urine**                                        |
| **List** / **Rack**            | Two views of the same queue                                                   |
| Rack density                   | **5 / row** to **12 / row**, default **10 / row**                             |
| **Refresh**                    | Re-reads the queue                                                            |

### The list

| Column       | Shows                                                                                               |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Specimen** | The specimen ID                                                                                     |
| **LAN**      | The lab accession number                                                                            |
| **Donor**    | The patient the specimen came from                                                                  |
| **Type**     | Oral fluid or urine                                                                                 |
| **Panel**    | **\{n} analytes**                                                                                   |
| **Status**   | **Intake Pending**, **Collected**, **In Transit**, **Lab Received**, **Screening** or **Confirmed** |
| **Received** | When it arrived                                                                                     |

Anything not recorded shows as an em dash. With nothing matching, the table reads **Nothing in the queue for these filters.** — check the chips and the search box before assuming the queue is empty.

### The rack

**Rack** lays the same specimens out as a plate: rows **A**, **B**, **C**, wells **A1**, **A2** and so on, in first-in-first-out order. Select a well to include it in a batch; double-select it to open the specimen. Its own footer is honest about what it is: "positions are a bench aid, not stored assignments."

## Open one specimen

Selecting a row opens its workflow sheet, titled with the specimen ID and its status badge. Two tabs: **Workflow**, which offers the action appropriate to the current status, and **Chain of Custody**, which is the unbroken record of who held the specimen and when. If a status has no action available, the sheet says so rather than offering a dead button.

## Screen a batch of negatives

This is the reason the worklist exists. When a bench run comes back all-negative, you clear the whole tray in one action instead of opening each specimen.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Filter to what you ran">
    Select the **Received** chip and set the type to **Oral fluid**. Only received oral-fluid specimens are eligible for a batch screen — everything else goes through its own form.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select the specimens">
    Tick the rows, or select the wells in **Rack** view. The action bar tells you **\{n} selected**, and adds "· \{n} eligible for batch screen (received oral-fluid only)" when your selection includes rows that do not qualify. **Clear** starts again.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select Mark batch negative">
    The button carries the eligible count. The dialog asks **Mark \{n} screens negative?** and states exactly what it will do: record an all-negative initial screen for every selected specimen and finalise each as a negative result.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Name the screening technician">
    Enter the name as it should appear on the chain of custody. The button stays disabled until you do — an unattributed screen is not a chain of custody.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Record">
    Select **Record \{n} negative screens**. You get **\{n} specimens screened negative**, and any that failed are listed individually so nothing fails silently.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Only run a batch screen after the bench run has confirmed every one of those specimens screened negative. Any specimen with a non-negative must go through its own screen form — a batch marks results, and a wrongly-batched positive is a reported result that was never read.
</Warning>

<AuditNote action="Opening the worklist and screening specimens" />

## If your site is a collection centre

A site that collects but does not test shows a banner and disables the bench actions: "This site is a collection center — register specimens and dispatch them to your laboratory. Accessioning, screening and reporting are done at the full lab and are disabled here." That is a property of the site, not of your account.

## Who can do this

| Layer      | What it decides                                                                                                                                                                                                |
| ---------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Care area  | Whether **Laboratory** exists here at all — **Diagnostics**, in **Settings → Facility**                                                                                                                        |
| Role       | Whether this page opens. Owners, lab scientists, doctors, managers, nurses and staff pass; anyone else is told **You don't have permission to access the Worklist. Please contact your clinic administrator.** |
| Permission | What you may do to a specimen once you can see it                                                                                                                                                              |

| Action                           | Who by default         | How it is governed                       |
| -------------------------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
| Open the worklist and read it    | Lab and clinical staff | Role                                     |
| Open a specimen's workflow sheet | Lab and clinical staff | Role                                     |
| Screen a batch negative          | Bench staff            | Role, plus the site being a testing site |
| Read the chain of custody        | Lab and clinical staff | Role                                     |

Per-person enforcement is **opt-in**: someone never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**. A **denied action is recorded** in the audit log; an allowed one is not. See [Staff permissions](/platform/team/permissions).

## Check it worked

* The specimens you batched leave the **Received** chip and its count drops.
* Each one shows the screening technician's name on its **Chain of Custody** tab.
* The confirmation names the count you expected — if it names fewer, read the per-specimen warnings underneath.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Nothing in the queue for these filters.">
    A chip or the type filter is still narrowing the list. Select **All**, set the type back to **All specimen types**, and clear the search box.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Mark batch negative is disabled">
    None of your selected rows are eligible. Batch screening covers **received oral-fluid** specimens only; urine and anything not yet received go through the per-specimen form.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The Record button will not enable">
    The **Screening technician** field is blank. A screen with no named technician cannot go on a chain of custody, so the dialog refuses it.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Some specimens in my batch failed">
    Each failure is listed with its specimen ID and reason, and more than three are summarised as "…and \{n} more specimens failed". Open those specimens individually — the rest were recorded.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="You don't have permission to access the Worklist.">
    Your role does not include the bench. Ask an owner to correct it under [Staff](/hospital/settings/staff).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Failed to load the worklist">
    A transient read failure. Select **Refresh**. If it persists, narrow the filters — a very large unfiltered queue is the usual cause.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Does the rack view remember where I put a specimen?">
    No. It is a first-in-first-out layout of whatever the current filter returns — a bench aid, not stored positions. Refiltering redraws it.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Why does it say Donor rather than Patient?">
    The worklist is built around chain-of-custody testing, where the person the specimen came from is the donor. It is the same person as the patient on the request.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I undo a batch screen?">
    Not as a batch. Open the affected specimen and correct it through its own workflow, so the correction is recorded as a deliberate act on that specimen.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How far back does the queue go?">
    It shows the working queue, oldest first, and is capped so a busy lab still loads quickly. For anything older, search by specimen ID or LAN.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is there more detail on this screen anywhere?">
    Yes — the Diagnostics edition runs the same worklist and documents accessioning and screening in more depth. See [Worklist](/lims/lab/worklist).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="the worklist" />