Referring Physician
While it occurs less frequently, Physician Office Laboratories due sometimes function as reference laboratories. Some specialty physicians will refer the patient to the primary care physician (and vice versa) for laboratory testing.
After verifying that there is a legal order from the referring physician laboratory testing proceeds as usual. The work flow is identical to the above up to the point where the technician is to report the results. In this case the primary office is not involved and the result is reported out to the referring physician. This is frequently done by fax. All laboratories that are reported out should contain the contact information for the laboratory including the name, address and telephone number of the laboratory, the name of the medical director, and the initials of the technician.
If the referring physician and the Physician Office Laboratory share care of the patient the laboratory will also be uploaded into the local electronic health record for later review.
In this case the responsibility of notifying the patient of the lab result is the responsibility of the ordering practitioner.
As usual the laboratory must keep a record of the valid physician order and of the result itself.
- Office Work Flow Main Page
- General Office Visit Work Flow
- The Laboratory
- Xrays
- Billing Cycle