A laboratory test checks a patient’s blood, urine, or tissue for abnormalities. A specimen is taken from the patient and then sent to the pathology lab where it is analyzed. To obtain a laboratory study on a patient, a clinician places an order for the laboratory study to be performed. When the laboratory completes the study, a result is produced.
Lab Data Dictionaries
Data Model
Lab Views
LabResults
Information about patient pathology laboratory orders and lab results. Data is available starting in 2001.
Data Sources
Clarity/MiChart
Michigan Medicine Pathology SoftLab Database
Considerations/Limitations
A laboratory result cannot exist without an associated laboratory order. However, a laboratory order can exist without a laboratory result.
When coding use the Pathology Handbook to search for lab codes (ORDER_CODE or RESULT_CODE, LOINC). This is the best way to confirm that the labs you are looking for are the correct ones.
If you have access to MiChart and know how to place orders you can use CLARITY_ORDER_CODE, which is the code displayed in MiChart.
There are external labs that have the suffix EX (eg. CBC EX), while some others may have a prefix of XX (e.g. XXGCMS, Urine Drug Screen). The latter do not normally correspond to a significant number of orders.
Sometimes is best to do a code/text search combination if you do want to find all records for a specific lab.
Specimen source is a very sparse element mainly because it can be stored in several fields depending on the source system, version, etc.
Results with a VALUE = See Comment, FOOTNOTE, etc. do have results, but not in the RDW. These are normally reports and currently RDW does not support full reports.
Remember the difference between ORDER_CODE and RESULT_CODE. For example, a CBC or Complete Blood Count has an ORDER_CODE = CBC with RESULT_CODES:
- HCT — hematocrit
- HGB — hemoglobin
- RBC — red blood cells
- WBC –white blood cells
- PLT — platelets
