What a laboratory has to be able to show
Laboratory accreditation is, from a records point of view, a question of traceability. For any sample, the laboratory should be able to show who ordered the test, when the sample was collected and how it was identified, when it was run and on what, who entered the result, whether it was repeated, and what report went out and when.
Where any of those links lives on paper — a collection register, a worksheet, a typed report — the chain is only as reliable as the person who kept that page. This page describes how the record is kept, not what any NABL standard requires; your quality manager and the standard itself are the authority on that.
The laboratory workflow in TechMediz
Orders
Tests are created in the system and ordered from OP, from the ward and from the nurse station as requests, so the order exists before the sample does.
Sample collection
Collection is recorded as its own step — at the laboratory or by the nurse station on the ward — against the patient and the test.
Result entry and analysers
Result values are entered against the sample, or arrive from the analyser through LIS integration where the analyser supports it.
Status and re-tests
Test status is maintained throughout, and a re-test is recorded as a re-test rather than an overwritten value.
Turnaround time
TAT is tracked across the chain as it happens, not estimated afterwards. What it measures is explained in turnaround time in the hospital laboratory.
Reports and consumables
Reports are kept in a consistent format with NABL documentation support, and the consumables each test uses are tracked against it.
Biochemistry, pathology, microbiology and haematology
A laboratory is organised — and assessed — section by section. The TechMediz laboratory module keeps biochemistry, pathology, microbiology and haematology as separate sections, so each section's tests, results and records can be produced on their own.
Results do not stop at the laboratory door. Each released result is held against the patient's UHID and is available to the treating doctor and in the medical record. The everyday side of running the lab is on the laboratory management software page.
What software does not do for accreditation
NABL accredits laboratories, not software, so no software product can make a laboratory accredited — and TechMediz does not claim to. Accreditation also covers competence, equipment calibration, quality control and procedures that no system produces.
What software does is make the record exist without anyone assembling it. If your laboratory sits inside a hospital that is preparing for NABH as well, the hospital-wide records are covered on the NABH hospital software page, and both are discussed together in the records your hospital software has to produce.
