Questions to Ask Before Buying Pathology Lab Software

A demonstration usually opens on a dashboard. Ask the vendor to follow one sample instead. Have them register a patient, print the tube labels, receive the sample, enter a result and release the report.

Watch what happens to a haemolysed or clotted sample. A good system marks it rejected with a reason and books a recollection against the same order. If rejection is a free-text note, rejected samples will be hard to count later.

Then ask about samples that never pass your front desk. Home visits and partner centres need their own registration, and the lab needs a list of what was collected but has not arrived.

Analyser interfacing is the question most often answered too quickly. Ask which of your machine models have been connected before, and what happens for the ones that have not. An honest answer is that each model is scoped separately.

Next, ask who controls the reference ranges. They should come from your lab and your pathologist, by age and sex, with every change recorded. Flags for high, low and critical values should show while the technician types.

Finally, ask how a report is released. It should leave only after a pathologist signs it. Ask whether WhatsApp messages go from your own business account or from the vendor’s.

Most labs bill several groups at different rates. Walk-in patients, camps, partner centres, nursing homes and corporate clients may each have an agreed list. The system should pick the right list from the patient’s source.

Ask to see a month-end statement for one collection centre. It should list each sample, the rate applied and the payments received. A disputed line should open to the patient and the date.

Discounts deserve one question of their own. Who can give them, and is the reason recorded?

Reagent kits, controls and calibrators should be counted by lot number and expiry. Ask for a list of lots close to expiry, and ask how stock moves when a kit is opened.

Quality control records matter to every lab. Ask whether daily control runs can be recorded by machine and test, charted against limits your lab sets, and signed off with the action taken.

Be wary of any claim that software makes a lab accredited. Software keeps records. Accreditation remains between the lab and its assessing body.

Each role should see only its part of the work. A technician rarely needs billing, and a partner centre must never see another centre’s patients. Ask whether every change to a result or a bill is logged.

Ask how your current patient list and past results will be moved, and who checks them before the first day. Ask too how you would take your data out if you ever left.

On cost, ask what changes the price: centres, users, interfacing or set-up. Get the answer in writing with the proposal.