Concept explainer
What can be ordered
Explains the kinds of order a clinician can raise, including medication, laboratory tests, imaging and requests for consultation.
An order is a clinician's instruction to do one thing for one patient, placed inside a single encounter. The kinds you can raise cover medication, laboratory tests, imaging, procedures and requests for consultation.
What an order is
You place an order by choosing an item from the catalogue and confirming it for the patient in front of you. An orderable is one item in that catalogue. An order is your request for that orderable, held against one encounter.
Forge carries every kind of order through the same lifecycle, so a drug, a test and a consultation all behave the same way once placed. What changes between them is the detail each one carries.
The kinds of order
Each kind names a different thing to do for the patient, and each routes to the service that fulfils it.
| Kind of order | What you are asking for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Medication | A drug for the patient to receive | A course of an oral antibiotic |
| Laboratory test | A specimen collected and analysed | A full blood count |
| Imaging study | A scan read by the imaging service | A chest X-ray |
| Procedure | A treatment or diagnostic procedure carried out | An endoscopy |
| Request for consultation | Another specialty to review the patient | A cardiology opinion |
| Form to fill | A form completed against the record | An assessment form |
Medication
A medication order carries the dose, the route and the schedule. Once you place it, each dose becomes a scheduled task, so the ward sees what is due and when. Medication is charged as it is dispensed, per strip or vial issued, rather than per dose.
Read more in medication orders and medication schedules.
Laboratory tests and imaging
A laboratory order names the specimen to collect. An imaging order names the study and the body part. Both route to the service that fulfils them, and the result returns onto the order, where a second person verifies it.
Read more in laboratory and imaging orders.
Procedures
A procedure order requests a treatment or a diagnostic procedure. It carries the detail the performing team needs, such as the complexity and any anaesthesia.
Requests for consultation
A request for consultation asks another specialty to review the patient. You name the specialty and how soon the review is needed, and the request reaches the team that answers it.
Read more in cross consultation.
Forms to fill
A form order places a form against the record for someone to complete, such as a result form linked to a test. A form order carries no charge.
A form order is free of charge
Every other kind of order bills through Vault when it is chargeable. A form order is the one kind that raises no charge at all.
Read more in forms on orders.
What every order carries
Whatever you order, the request carries the same spine: the patient, the encounter, a priority such as routine or urgent, and any special instructions. Forge records a snapshot of the item as it stood when you placed it, so the order reads exactly as it was at the time of the decision.
You choose from an approved list
Staff pick from a fixed, hospital-approved catalogue rather than typing free text. An order for the same item therefore carries the same code, routing and result form every time, on every ward and at every site.
Common questions
Is a prescription an order?
A prescription is a medication order, one kind among many. An order can equally be a laboratory test, an imaging study, a procedure, a request for consultation or a form to fill.
Does ordering a form add a charge?
A form order carries no charge. Every other kind of order raises a charge through Vault when the item is chargeable.
Where does a laboratory result go?
The result returns onto the order and into the patient record. A person other than the one who entered it verifies it, so two people stand behind every result.
Read how each item is defined in the catalogue.