Handwritten lab requisitions create unnecessary work and room for error across the entire ordering process. Digital laboratory requisition software replaces paper forms with structured electronic workflows that validate order information, generate barcode labels, and connect directly to the LIS before the specimen ever reaches the lab. The right platform can support both browser-based Provider Portal ordering and EHR-integrated ordering simultaneously, making adoption flexible across different practice environments. When evaluating options, focus on LIS connectivity, exception handling, and compendium mapping, not just the ability to fill out a form on a screen.
Replacing Paper Lab Requisitions With a Connected Electronic Workflow
Handwritten laboratory requisitions create avoidable work for physician practices, patient service centers, accessioning teams, and billing staff. Illegible handwriting, missing fields, incomplete insurance information, and repeated manual data entry slow down intake and introduce errors.
The goal of digital laboratory ordering isn’t simply to turn a paper form into a PDF. A stronger approach moves order information into a structured electronic workflow before the specimen ever reaches the laboratory, covering electronic ordering, patient and provider data, test and diagnosis selection, validation, requisitions, specimen labels, eligibility, medical necessity, electronic signatures, LIS integration, and exception handling.
What Is Digital Laboratory Requisition Software?
Digital laboratory requisition software replaces or supplements handwritten order forms with structured electronic order entry. Instead of freehand text and repeated transcription, authorized users enter order information into defined fields and workflows.
For a clinical laboratory, the software may sit within a Provider Portal, an EHR-integrated CPOE workflow, or a broader laboratory outreach platform. The exact configuration depends on the laboratory, connected provider systems, LIS, and enabled modules.
Why Laboratories Move Away From Handwritten Requisitions
1. Reduce Dependence on Illegible Handwriting
Electronic ordering removes handwriting from the order-entry step. Test names, patient information, provider details, and diagnosis data are entered or selected in a structured format. This doesn’t eliminate every order error; incorrect patient selection, mapping problems, or incomplete source data can still occur, but it removes the specific risks created by illegible handwriting and manual interpretation.
2. Reduce Repeated Manual Transcription
A paper workflow typically requires staff to read a requisition and re-enter it into the LIS. An integrated electronic workflow can cut that repeated transcription for supported data. Laboratories should measure the effect in their own environment rather than relying on generic claims.
3. Identify Missing Information Earlier
Electronic order entry can require applicable fields before an order is submitted, such as patient demographics, provider information, tests, diagnosis data, insurance, collection details, or test-specific questions. Moving those checks upstream helps catch incomplete information before it reaches accessioning.
4. Standardize the Ordering Experience
Paper requisitions vary by practice, location, and user. A digital workflow gives the laboratory an opportunity to present a more consistent order-entry process while still supporting laboratory-specific requirements and client configurations.
5. Connect the Electronic Order to the Physical Specimen
Laboratory ordering is unique because an electronic order must ultimately remain associated with a physical specimen. Requisitions and barcode labels remain important even when the order itself is electronic.
Core Capabilities to Evaluate
Electronic Laboratory Ordering
The workflow should cover how a user finds or creates a patient, selects tests, enters diagnosis information, answers required questions, reviews the order, and submits it. Key elements include patient search, test selection, diagnosis entry, test-specific questions (AOE fields), required-field validation, order review, and requisition and label generation.
Test Compendium and Mapping
Electronic ordering depends on accurate test information. Understand how the platform presents the compendium, handles custom panels, maps selections to LIS codes, and manages future compendium changes. Mapping supports translation between systems but doesn’t guarantee every value is automatically correct; design, testing, validation, and maintenance still matter.
Insurance Eligibility
Where enabled, eligibility workflows make payer information available earlier in the order process. A typical workflow sends an eligibility inquiry and returns information staff can review before or during collection. This is not a guarantee of coverage or payment; it’s information that supports the workflow.
Medical Necessity and ABN Workflows
Depending on configuration, electronic ordering may support medical-necessity checks and Advance Beneficiary Notice workflows. Verify which rules are supported, how they’re maintained, what the ordering user sees, and how exceptions are handled. These functions can support the ordering process, but reimbursement and compliance depend on additional factors.
Electronic Signatures
Some workflows require electronic capture of provider authorization or patient acknowledgment. When evaluating this, confirm what is captured, how identity is associated with the signature, where the signed record is stored, and which workflows it supports. Legal or reimbursement claims about a specific e-signature method should be confirmed by the laboratory’s compliance or legal teams.
Barcode Labeling at the Point of Collection
Barcode labeling can help connect the physical specimen with the electronic order. A laboratory should evaluate which label formats and printers are supported, what data appears on the label, when the label is generated, and how the barcode is used after the specimen arrives at the laboratory.
Instrument-ready labeling should be described according to the laboratory's validated workflow. Do not assume that a barcode automatically bypasses every accessioning step or works with every analyzer.
Custom Requisitions
Even in an electronic workflow, a printed requisition may still be required for certain clients, collection sites, or laboratory processes. Custom requisitions can standardize the information accompanying a specimen while reflecting the laboratory’s workflow and branding.
Standing Orders
For recurring testing, standing-order functionality can reduce the need to recreate the same order manually each time. Evaluate how effective dates, expiration dates, recurring schedules, requisitions, and collection events are handled.
LIS Integration
The electronic order should not become another disconnected source of data. For laboratories, one of the most important evaluation questions is how the ordering platform connects with the existing LIS. Ask how orders are transmitted, how mappings are maintained, how failures are surfaced, how changes are tested, and who supports the interface after go-live.
Provider Portal vs. EHR-Integrated Ordering
Laboratories don’t need to force every provider into the same connectivity model. Browser-based Provider Portal ordering and direct EHR integration can coexist.
A Provider Portal is browser-based and best suited for practices that access the lab through a web interface. EHR-integrated ordering is embedded in the provider’s own system and works best for practices that prioritize a fully in-workflow experience. Both connect to the LIS, just through different paths. A hybrid strategy can reflect the varying technology environments across a provider network.
| Consideration | Provider Portal | EHR-Integrated Ordering |
|---|---|---|
| Where user works | Browser-based portal | Provider’s EHR |
| Ordering | Portal workflow | Supported EHR/CPOE workflow |
| LIS connection | Through portal/interoperability layer | Through EHR interface/interoperability layer |
| Best fit | Practices using browser-based lab access | Practices prioritizing embedded EHR workflow |
Exception Handling Matters as Much as Automation
No electronic workflow eliminates every exception. Laboratories still need a clear way to identify and resolve issues: missing information, unmapped tests, patient matching problems, interface failures, rejected messages, or unusual send-out workflows. A key evaluation question is: How does the system surface an exception, who can resolve it, and how is the resolution documented?
How Lifepoint Informatics Fits Into the Workflow
Lifepoint Informatics has focused on laboratory outreach, clinical integration, and healthcare interoperability since 1999. For laboratories moving away from handwritten requisitions, the relevant Lifepoint ecosystem includes provider-facing order entry, requisition and label workflows, LIS connectivity, eligibility and medical-necessity workflows where configured, standing orders, and related interoperability capabilities. The exact combination of modules should be confirmed for each laboratory’s implementation.
Provider Web Portal: Provides browser-based access to supported laboratory workflows, including electronic orders and other enabled provider-facing functions.
TruPrint Labels and Requisition Printing: Supports configured requisition and specimen-label workflows. Laboratories should validate printer requirements, barcode formats, label content, and downstream LIS or instrument behavior for their environment.
Eligibility and Medical-Necessity Workflows: Where enabled, these are decision-supporting administrative workflows, not guarantees of payment, coverage, or compliance.
Manual Results and Exception Workflows: For information that can’t move through a standard interface, structured manual-entry or exception workflows provide a controlled path. Product-specific queue, validation, and approval behavior should be verified before publication.
What Laboratories Should Measure After Replacing Paper Orders
The strongest proof of value comes from the laboratory’s own operating data. Useful measures include:
- Percentage of eligible orders submitted electronically
- Paper or fax requisition volume
- Manual order-entry volume
- Incomplete-order frequency
- Order-related support calls
- Eligibility and specimen labeling exceptions
- Interface exceptions
- Average time spent resolving order problems
- Provider adoption of electronic ordering
These measures are more credible than publishing generic percentages for error reduction or turnaround-time improvement without first-party evidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best software to replace handwritten lab requisitions?
The best fit depends on the laboratory’s LIS, provider network, order-entry requirements, specimen workflow, integration needs, and operational goals. Look for structured electronic ordering, LIS connectivity, requisition and label support, validation, exception handling, implementation support, and the ability to support the provider connectivity models your clients actually use.
Can electronic lab ordering reduce transcription errors?
It can reduce opportunities for errors caused by interpreting handwriting and repeatedly re-entering information. It doesn’t eliminate all order errors; incorrect source data, user selection, mappings, and configuration still matter.
Does electronic ordering eliminate manual accessioning?
Not necessarily. Integration can reduce manual re-keying for supported order data, but laboratories may still have accessioning, specimen receipt, exception, and verification steps depending on their workflow and LIS configuration.
Can digital requisition software check insurance eligibility?
Some platforms incorporate eligibility workflows. Payer connectivity, response data, timing, and configuration should be confirmed with the vendor. Eligibility information does not guarantee coverage or payment.
Can the software support medical-necessity checks and ABNs?
Depending on the platform and configuration, medical-necessity and ABN workflows may be supported. Verify the exact rules, maintenance process, user prompts, documentation, and applicable payer workflow.
Does electronic ordering replace the LIS?
No. Electronic order-entry software handles provider-facing or intake workflows. The LIS remains responsible for core laboratory information and processes. Integration connects the two.
Can laboratories still print a requisition?
Yes, depending on the solution. A laboratory can use electronic ordering while still generating a standardized printed requisition for workflows that require physical documentation.
Can Provider Portal ordering and EHR integration be used together?
Yes. A laboratory may support browser-based ordering for some practices and direct EHR-integrated ordering for others, reflecting the different technology environments across the provider network.
Operational Compliance Standard
For laboratories, the strongest solution is one that fits existing LIS infrastructure, supports the provider community, reduces unnecessary transcription, keeps the specimen connected to the order, and makes exceptions visible when automation cannot complete the workflow.
Contact Lifepoint Informatics to learn how Lifepoint’s Provider Web Portal, ordering, printing, and interoperability solutions can support a transition from handwritten requisitions to structured electronic laboratory ordering.
