Collection Date or Service Type for Lab or Radiology Orders

The Collection Date column on the Orders Summary tab contains the date and time for the collection of the specimens associated with an order or the Service Date for a radiology test shown in this display.

For lab test orders, the time in this Collection Date column is the date and time captured in the Test Details tab for the test. If you have multiple tests on the same order, the time in the Collection Date column reflects the time of the earliest test in the group.

For example, three test orders are associated with the same encounter on the same day. If a user opens the order, and then selects the Test Details tab, three have a Collection Date (date and time) of 12/07/2011 11:27 AM. The next morning, another test is added to the same order, it has a collection time of 09:09 AM on 12/08/2011. If you look in the display above that shows the Orders Summary tab, you see that the date and time in the Collection Date column is 12/07/2011 11:27 AM, not 12/08/2011 09:09 AM. That is the earliest collection date/time recorded for this group of tests.

For radiology tests, the Service Date is the date/time that the test was run. It should match the date/time of the test as shown in the Categories tab in NextGen® Enterprise. This date can be seen on the Results display in the Orders tab, when you select Documents and Images. The service date also appears on documents attached manually to the order (see New Document and Images Tab). You can select in the Service Date column and enter the date or select one from the calendar and save the value.