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A test request is the record everything else hangs off: the specimen you accession against it, the results you enter, the report you release and the invoice you raise. Test Requests is the plain working list of them — today’s requests, in one table.

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What you’re looking at

The page opens with a greeting — “Good Morning, {your name}!” — over the line Here’s a list of all lab requests for today!. Below that is the table and nothing else. This screen is deliberately simple. The toolbar holds Search for patient, New Test Report, a refresh button (Refresh table) and View Columns, whose menu is headed Toggle columns and offers Patient ID, Patient Name, Status, Conducted By, Requested By, Date, Patient Type, Test Name and Result.
Everything richer lives on Lab Reports, not here. The four-status ladder (Pending, In Progress, Completed, Cancelled), the Critical badge, the Paid / Partial / Pending payment badges, Select Lab Test, Order Summary and the {n} / {n} parameters filled counter are all on that page. If you are looking for one of them, you are on the wrong screen.
The empty state. A new lab sees No lab test data found. — correct until the first request is raised. No recent lab test data available for this clinic. means the same thing.

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Raise a request

1

Open the order form

Select New Test Report. It takes you to the full ordering form on Lab Reports, where the price and the parameters are in front of you.
2

Choose the patient and the tests

Fill in the patient, then add each test from the catalogue. If the patient has no record yet, create one first — see Register your first patient.
3

Submit

Submit the order. It appears back here as Pending, ready for the bench.

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Work a request from the table

Each row’s menu offers View Lab Results and, for a lab scientist only, Conduct Lab Test on a pending request or Update Lab Test on a completed one. On a phone the same menu is shorter: View Results and Conduct Test. Selecting one opens a full page rather than a panel, headed Conduct Lab Test, View Lab Results or Update Lab Results to match what you are doing. It carries a Patient Information card and a Laboratory Tests card, and under Test Parameters a field per analyte — Enter test result, Enter {parameterName} or Select value for a list — each showing Reference: {range}. Finish with Submit Lab Results or Update Lab Results; Cancel leaves it untouched.
Only lab scientists may conduct or update a test through this path. Everyone else who opens a request gets read-only view mode and the message Only lab scientists can conduct or update lab tests. That is a role limit, not a fault — see Roles.

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Raising a request with no connection

Order capture works offline. Raise the request as normal and it queues on the device, then syncs when the connection returns. The offline bar reads Offline · reference data {staleness} — new lab orders queue and sync on reconnect and carries a Sync now button. Two things change offline. Patient search is reduced to name and patient number and returns at most 25 matches, so search precisely. And payment is never taken offline — a replayed order arrives unpaid and settles at the desk. Accessioning, screening, result entry and verification all stay online, because they are status-guarded steps whose conflicts need a person at the bench. See Working offline.

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Who can do this

Role decides whether Test Requests opens, and whether the working actions appear on a row. Permission decides what happens on the form those actions open. A Lab Manager does not hold verify by default. Managing the lab and signing a result out are different jobs, and verification arrives with the access tier — Whole lab or All sites — not with the administrative role. A phlebotomist reaches this page, the intake queue and patients, and nothing else in the lab; a lab scientist reaches the whole bench but is denied Executive, Lab Analytics and Referral Commissions. Two behaviours surprise people:
  • Enforcement is opt-in, per person. Somebody never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns “Saving starts enforcing” — from then on they can only do what is switched on there.
  • A denied action is recorded; an allowed one is not. A figure you are not entitled to see is hidden or rendered as a dash, never as a zero.
See Permissions.

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Check it worked

  • The request appears in Test Requests with the status Pending.
  • The Lab Station Analytics tab counts it under Total Lab Tests and Pending Tests (“Awaiting processing”).
  • The patient’s record lists the request.

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Common issues

The search only offers tests in your catalogue. Add it under Lab Station › Test List — see Add your tests and panels.
Price lives on the catalogue test, not the request. Open the test in Test List and set a price on the Basic Information tab; new orders then price themselves.
You are not signed in as a lab scientist, or the request is already Completed, where the action becomes Update Lab Test. Opening it anyway gives Only lab scientists can conduct or update lab tests.
They are not on this table. Both live on Lab Reports, along with the In Progress and Cancelled statuses.
Open the offline bar and select Sync now. If the bar shows a rejected count, the order needs a person to look at it — rejected items are never retried silently. See Working offline.
Regulated collections go through the DOT workflow, which carries its own chain of custody and forms. See DOT testing and Lab intake mode.

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FAQ

Because it is the day’s working list, not the reporting surface. A request is either waiting for the bench or done. The fuller status ladder — including In Progress and Cancelled — is on Lab Reports.
No. It orders a test for a patient. To define a new test and its analytes, use New Test Record on Lab Station › Test List — see Add your tests and panels.
Yes. Raising is not a bench act, so anyone who reaches the page can order a test. Conducting and updating it are limited to lab scientists.
Only with Amend a verified result, and the change is recorded alongside the original. Tell a verifier rather than working around it — see Enter and verify results.
Not here. They populate the Worklist, the drug-testing bench queue, which is empty for a lab doing only clinical work.