Skip to main content
Step 3 of the setup checklist — “Add a patient so samples and results can be attached to a record.” Everything downstream hangs off this record: the test request, the specimen, the result and the report all carry the patient’s identity from here.

​
Register a patient

1

Open the patient list

Go to Patients. The toolbar carries Search patients… and New Patient.
2

Start a record

Select New Patient. The form is grouped into Personal Information (“Basic identity and demographic details.”), Contact Information, Medical Profile, plus Profile Photo and Patient Type cards.
3

Fill in who they are

Under Personal Information: Title, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Gender, Date of Birth, Marital Status and National ID (“e.g. SSN or NIN”). Get the name and date of birth right — they print on every report, and a report with the wrong identity on it is the one mistake this workflow cannot absorb.
4

Add a way to reach them

Under Contact Information: Email Address, Primary Phone (with a country-code picker), Secondary Phone, Residential Address and a next-of-kin Full Name, Phone Number and Address. A phone number is what lets you call a critical result through instead of waiting for someone to open a report.
5

Record anything that changes interpretation

Under Medical Profile: Blood Type, Genotype, Allergies (“Known allergies (food, drug, etc)”), Medical History and Current Medications. Medication matters more in a lab than people expect — it explains half the unexpected results you will chase.
6

Link a dependent, if they are one

On the Patient Type card, set Is Dependent? and choose a sponsor under Select Sponsor. Use this where one payer covers several people — a parent and children, or an employer account.
7

Save

Select Create Patient (the button reads Creating…). A Patient Created toast confirms it and you land back on the patient list.
The create form is deliberately forgiving — you can save with only what you have at the counter and complete the record later. That is not permission to leave the name or date of birth blank; it is there so a rushed registration does not block a specimen that is already in the building.

​
Registering with no connection

Patient search works offline but is reduced to name and patient number, and returns at most 25 matches. Search precisely, and if you cannot find someone you are sure exists, check again once you are back online rather than creating a second record for the same person. See Working offline.

​
Check it worked

  • The patient appears in Patients and is found by Search patients….
  • They can be chosen under Patient Details on the ordering form — see Raise a test request.
  • The floating Setup checklist ticks Register your first patient.

​
If something goes wrong

Keep the record the samples are attached to and stop using the other. Ask a Lab Manager before deleting anything — a record with results on it is part of the clinical history.
Check you saved (a Patient Created toast) and that you are searching a name that matches what you entered — a middle name in the first-name field will not match.
Your role does not include patient registration. Radiologists and bench-only scientists do not get it — see Roles.
Records belong to the site you were in when you created them. Switch sites and check before re-creating — see Switching workspaces.
Regulated collections capture donor identity through their own chain-of- custody forms. See DOT collection.