Clinical defaults

Clinical defaults control how lab results reach your patients. The main setting is a delay: approved results can be held for a few hours so a clinician can call the patient about anything important before they read it in the portal.

Before you start

• Only the clinic owner can change clinical defaults.

Set a lab results delay

1. Open the account menu at the bottom of the left sidebar and select Clinic settings.
2. Under Clinic, select Clinical defaults.
3. In Lab results delay, enter the number of Hours to hold results after they’re approved. You can enter from 0 to 168 (seven days). Enter 0 to publish results as soon as they’re approved.
4. Select Save changes in the Unsaved changes bar.

What happens next

The delay applies to results approved or entered by hand after you save. When a clinician approves a lab report or saves results entered by hand, the results become visible to the patient once the delay has passed. Results approved before the change keep the timing they were given.

The patient is told their results are ready once, when the results become visible. If a delay was holding them, the message goes out within about half an hour of the delay ending. While results are held, the report shows when they’re scheduled to publish, with a Publish now button that releases them and sends the message straight away.

Reference range source

The Reference range source section sets which reference range is shown next to each result on the patient’s results page. Use lab-provided ranges (default) is the only option you can choose at the moment, so results show the range printed by the lab. Use clinic-defined ranges and Use functional medicine ranges are marked (Coming soon).

Good to know

• The delay is clinic-wide. It applies to every practitioner and every patient.
• A delay gives you time, but nothing reminds you to call. Agree in your team who follows up on results before the delay ends.
• To review and approve results, see Review and publish lab results.
• Whether the patient is emailed or texted about new results is set under Patient notifications. See Choose which messages patients receive.