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The COVID-19 test order process will depend on your practice setup, location, and laboratory vendors. Your practice can order labs electronically with select vendors, or generate laboratory requisitions to be faxed or printed in Elation. For practices collecting specimens in-house for COVID-19 tests, make sure your practice is prepared for in-house draws and read CDC’s guidelines. Lab tests can be ordered electronically, by fax, phone, or a paper printout in Elation. Read below to find out how your practice can utilize Elation for COVID-19 testing. In this article you will learn how to:

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Electronic lab ordering for COVID-19

COVID-19 tests for select vendors can be ordered electronically in Elation. To request a bi-directional or results interface see this article for more information. Lab testing facilities are requiring physicians to collect specimens for COVID-19 testing in-house. See below for instructions on how to send an electronic order for COVID-19 testing.
  1. Select the ‘Orders’ tool from a patient’s chart
  2. Select the Lab Vendor that is setup with electronic ordering. You will know the laboratory vendor is setup for eOrdering if you select the vendor and the blue “eOrder” button appears. (You can also navigate to ‘Settings > Labs’ and confirm ‘Orders’ is set to LIVE next to the lab vendor.)
  3. Select ‘In-House Draw’ to enter the Collection Date and Time information for specimens collected during the visit
  4. Begin typing ‘cov’ in the ‘Tests’ field and the COVID-19 test for the selected vendor will display (LabCorp example below). Quest Diagnostics requires COVID-19 lab tests to be ordered separately, scroll down to see instructions for ordering COVID-19 tests through Quest.
  5. Select the COVID-19 test from the test dropdownmenu and complete all required information on the Lab Requisition Form. Minimum requirements to order are vendor, test name, and diagnosis. All entered information will be sent electronically and displayed on the Requisition printout.
  6. Once you are ready to send the order, select ‘eOrder’ to electronically send the order to all laboratory locations or click ‘eOrder and Print; to send the order and also immediately generate a requisition printout.
A requisition printout can also be generated from the ‘Actions’ menu after the order is submitted. This order can also be sent to patients via Passport (see instructions in the last section of this article for more information).

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Electronic ordering COVID-19 test through LabCorp

COVID-19 tests ordered through LabCorp are not available for Patient Service Center testing. Your practice must collect specimens for testing on site. See here for more information on ordering tests and receiving results for COVID-19 through LabCorp. Search by keyword ‘covid19’,’corona’, or the COVID-19 LabCorp test code 139900.

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Electronic ordering COVID-19 test through Quest Diagnostics

COVID-19 tests ordered through Quest are not available for Patient Service Center testing. Your practice must collect specimens for testing on site. See here for more information on ordering tests and receiving results for COVID-10 through Quest Diagnostics.
  • Note: Quest requires COVID-19 tests to be ordered separately. This requires the ordering provider to create 2 or more tests for ordering COVID-19 with other lab tests.
Search ‘cov’ or the Quest Diagnostics COVID-19 test code 39433. Use the Ask on Entry questions to send any specific information in the ‘Note’ field. Use the ‘Source’ field to identify specimens collected ‘nasopharyngeal’ (Quest preferred) and/or ‘oropharyngeal’.

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Electronic ordering COVID-19 test through Diagnostics Laboratory Services

COVID-19 tests ordered through Diagnostic Laboratory Services (DLS) are not available for Patient Service Center testing. Your practice must collect specimens for testing on site. See here for more information on ordering tests and receiving results for COVID-19 through DLS. Search ‘covid’ and select test code 7180 to order the COVID-19 test through DLS. Select the specimen collected and the Collection Date and Collection Time

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Electronic ordering COVID-19 test through Clinical Laboratories of Hawaii

COVID-19 tests ordered through Clinical Labs of Hawaii (CLH) are not available for Patient Service Center testing. Your practice must collect specimens for testing on site. See here for more information on ordering tests and receiving results for COVID-19 through CLH. Search ‘cov’ or test code 4219

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Adding custom laboratories and locations to order COVID-19 test

Your practice may not be collecting specimens for COVID-19 testing at this time. Elation supports the ability to create custom lab vendors and add specific locations so your patients know where to get tested. See this article for more information on creating lab vendors. For the most up-to-date information on COVID-19 lab testing facilities, please visit your state department of health website for guidance. NBC News has also published a guide for state-specific COVID-19 lab testing updates here.

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Documenting COVID-19 Test Results at the Point-of-Care

Elation has added the latest COVID-19 tests to the Point-of-Care-Labs section which will allow your practice to document structured COVID-19 lab results that are administered on-site. Learn more about documenting test results on-site in the Elation’s Point-of-Care Labs article. To document these Point-of-Care Labs:
  • Click ‘Notes’ in the grey action bar from within a patient chart and select “Point-of-Care Labs” from the dropdown menu that appears
  • Update the Collected & Resulted times as needed
  • Scroll down to view the ‘COVID-19’ section in the window that is opened.
  • Expand the section to find the appropriate COVID-19 test
  • Enter in the COVID-19 lab result value and click ‘Sign’ or ‘Sign & Export to Note’
Note: If you cannot find the test you are using, you may document the results under the “SARS-CoV-2 RNA-respiratory” or the “SARS-CoV-2 RNA-unspecified” tests. You can also send your recommendations for tests (along with the associated LOINC codes) to Elation using the “I need help” -> “Contact Elation Support” button. Another way to enter Point-of-Care Lab results is to click on ‘Reports’ from the grey action bar, select ‘Lab Reports’ from the dropdown, and then click the hyperlinked ‘Enter Point-of-Care Lab Results’: Similar to other lab results, these values can be trended over time using the Chronological Record search.

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Receiving and reviewing COVID-19 electronic results

Viewing results Results are routed to the ordering provider’s Reports queue on the practice dashboard and directly to the patient’s chart. If a matching patient is not found, a new patient chart will be created. Why does a new chart sometimes get created due to lab results Elation matches laboratory results to patient charts by first, middle, and last name, date of birth, and gender. We err on the side of caution, so all criteria must be an exact match. For example, if the patient’s name in Elation is “Jess” but laboratory results are received for a “Jessica”, Elation will treat the two as separate patients. This will ensure that when a user receives results for two different patients with similar names, the results are not confused. To merge these two charts together, please view this article.Elation will create an alias (i.e. “remember”) when a chart created by a laboratory result is merged into an existing patient chart so that results will deliver correctly in the future.

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Embedded pdfs result reports

Image Electronic interfaces allow the vendor to send an embedded pdf, that is only available when the provider clicks “Download PDF version of report”. The HIPAA-compliant guidance is to download the report, drag and drop the report to the patient’s chart, and delete the pdf file from their computer. Lab value trending The last three values for a test will trend for each vendor. Values received by other vendors will not trend together. For example, if Quest tests Patient’s triglycerides and finds a value of 130 mg/dL and then LabCorp finds Patient’s triglycerides are 200 mg/dL, the Quest value will not appear as a previous value. Trending occurs within each vendor’s values. A LOINC code is required for trending to occur. Units and reference ranges Users must hover their mouse over the value to see units and the reference range. The units and reference range are provided by the laboratory and cannot be changed by Elation.

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Sending COVID-19 test orders and results to patients via Patient Passport

Patient Passport is Elation’s patient portal that allows your practice to send copies of lab orders and lab results to your patients. If your patient is getting tested at a temporary COVID-19 test center, you can send copies of the requisition order right to their passport account. See this article on more information for using Patient Passport.