A lab with more than one site: how to forward samples without losing track of them

Two sites, one order. Three of the samples can be analysed where they arrived. The fourth needs equipment that only the other site has. Without a system for it, the fourth sample leaves in a bag with a note, and for a day or two nobody can say where it is or when the client's report will really be ready.

Why do multi-site labs need more than a shared spreadsheet?

The questions are simple but the answers move: which site has the sample now, which site was meant to analyse it, and what does that do to the deadline? In a spreadsheet each of those lives in a different column that someone has to remember to update. In a LIMS they are part of the sample's record.

How are locations set up?

A lab registers each of its own sites as a location with a name, an address and a responsible employee. Each location can be marked as one that is allowed to forward samples. Employees are assigned to the location they work at, so when they receive a sample, the sample is stamped with that location. Locations are the lab's own sites and are separate from the drop points where a client hands a sample in before it reaches the lab.

How does forwarding work?

• A sample that has not been received yet is forwarded from one location to another, in bulk, from the screen used for receiving samples
• The "from" and "to" are filled in automatically when there is only one sensible choice
• Only employees assigned to a location that is allowed to forward can start a forward, so it does not happen by accident
• Anyone with access to the screen can undo a forward if it was a mistake
• The forwarding is logged with the locations and the person who did it

A forwarded sample can still be received normally later. Forwarding is a piece of information on the sample, not a separate status, so the sample's own status stays truthful.

What if a sample was registered at the wrong site?

Once a sample has been received, its location can be corrected from the sample's menu, for example if it was stamped incorrectly or a technician wants to record which site actually did the work. This is kept separate from forwarding on purpose: forwarding is about where a sample is going, correcting the location is about where it was.

What does forwarding do to the delivery date?

A detour costs time, and the expected date should show it. When a sample in a delivery has been forwarded, the lab's expected date moves by one working day, or is recalculated from when the forwarded sample actually arrived at its new site. Order and delivery lists show "forwarded" instead of "in transit" once every remaining sample in a group has been forwarded, so the team can tell a sample that is lost from one that is on its way to the right place.

Milva Lab also lets a lab with several sites keep one system for all of them: same orders, same clients, same invoicing. See the Commercial LIMS service page for the whole flow.

Related: how a lab registers a received sample and how a LIMS calculates delivery dates.