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A collection centre takes the sample; a hub laboratory runs it. Specimen Transfers is the hand-off between them, and its point is that the receiving lab does not re-key anything: the page says so itself — “Hand collected specimens to one of your hub laboratories. Receiving auto-creates the order at the hub — chain of custody carries over, nothing is re-keyed.”

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What you’re looking at

The heading is Specimen Transfers, with Dispatch specimens in the top right. There are no tabs. Below sit two cards: Each row reads “{n} specimens”, a status badge, the dispatch time and, where given, the courier and the time it was received. There is no draft state — a transfer exists only once it has been dispatched. Actions appear only on an In transit row: Receive & accession on an incoming one, Cancel on an outgoing one. Received and Cancelled rows carry no actions at all. The empty state. Incoming reads “No incoming transfers. Collection centers dispatch here.” and Outgoing reads “Nothing dispatched yet. Collect specimens, then dispatch them to a hub lab.” If this site is a collection centre you also meet the banner elsewhere in the product: “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.” This page is the other half of that sentence.

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Dispatch a batch

1

Open the dialog

Select Dispatch specimens. The button is never disabled — if this site has nowhere to send to, the dialog tells you why. Dispatch specimens to a hub lab explains the batch: “Pick the collected specimens going into this shipment. The hub receives the whole batch and accessioning happens automatically on their side.”
2

Choose the destination

Pick a Destination lab — the placeholder is Select hub laboratory. Where you have only one, it is chosen for you.
3

Tick the specimens

The list is headed Specimens ({n} of {m} selected) and shows every collected specimen still waiting, with its specimen ID, type and test reason. Tick the ones physically going in this shipment — not everything on the shelf.
4

Label the shipment

Courier (optional) (“GIG Logistics”) and Note (optional) (“Morning batch”) are free text, and both show on the manifest later. Filling them in is what makes a chased shipment findable.
5

Send it

The submit button reads Dispatch {n} and stays disabled until a destination and at least one specimen are chosen. On success you get {n} specimens dispatched and the batch appears under Outgoing as In transit.

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Receive a batch at the hub

1

Find the incoming row

At the hub, the batch sits under Incoming as In transit. Select the row first to open Transfer manifest — “{n} specimens · {courier} · {note}” — and check the contents against the box in front of you.
2

Take it in

Select Receive & accession. Every specimen in the batch is accessioned in one action and its order is created at the hub with the custody chain carried across. The toast reads {n} specimens accessioned — now on your bench.
3

Work it as normal

The specimens are now ordinary hub work — they appear on Worklist and go through Accessioning and results as usual.
Receiving cannot be undone from this screen. A Received row carries no actions, and the orders it created are live at the hub. Open the manifest and check the box first — a batch received before it physically arrives puts specimens on a bench that does not hold them.

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Cancel a dispatch

Select Cancel on an outgoing In transit row. The toast reads Transfer cancelled — specimens returned to your bench, and the row stays visible, struck through, as Cancelled. Use it when a courier never collected, or when the wrong specimens were ticked — not to undo a receipt, which is not possible here.

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Who can do this

Access to this screen is role-based, not plan-based, and both sites use the same page. Anyone outside that role set sees a single message instead of the page: “You don’t have permission to manage specimen transfers. Please contact your clinic administrator.” Note that a Lab Manager does not hold Verify and authorise results by default — that comes from the access tier, not the administrative role — and a QC Officer is review-only by design. A lab scientist reaches this page and the rest of the bench, but is denied Executive, Lab Analytics and Referral Commissions.
  • Enforcement is opt-in, per person. Someone never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns “Saving starts enforcing”.
  • A denied action is recorded; an allowed one is not.
See Permissions.

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Check it worked

  • The batch appears under Outgoing as In transit, with the courier you entered.
  • At the hub the same batch shows under Incoming, and the manifest lists every specimen.
  • After Receive & accession, the row flips to Received and the specimens appear on the hub’s bench queue.
  • The dispatching site’s collected-specimen list no longer offers those specimens for a second dispatch.

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Common issues

You have nowhere to send to. Transfers move specimens between two sites under the same owner, and the destination must be a full laboratory — not another collection centre. The owner sets this up.
The dialog only offers specimens already recorded as collected. Collect them first — see Collect a specimen — then come back.
This site is a collection centre, and a collection centre never receives. Receiving happens at the hub laboratory.
The Dispatch {n} button needs both a Destination lab and at least one ticked specimen. The header button itself is never disabled.
Your role is outside the set that reaches the bench surfaces. An owner or manager can change it in the team settings.
There is no undo on this screen — the orders now exist at the hub. Handle it as ordinary bench work: reject the specimens that never arrived, so the record says what actually happened.

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FAQ

No, and that is the whole point. Receiving creates the order at the hub automatically and carries the chain of custody over, so the collection site’s record and the hub’s are one continuous chain.
No. They share a sidebar position but they are different screens for different things: this moves patient specimens between laboratories, not stock between branches.
Not in a single shipment — a batch has one Destination lab. Dispatch twice, ticking a different set of specimens each time.
They return to your bench and become available to dispatch again. The cancelled row stays on the page, struck through, so the attempt is still on the record.
No. Dispatch a second batch for it. Editing a shipment after it has left would break the custody record the transfer exists to protect.