Ordering a Lab Test

Outpatient Laboratory tests may only be ordered by a physician, midwife, nurse practitioner, certified rural RN, pharmacist, or dentist in accordance with the Clinical Practice Guidelines and Protocols developed by the BC Medical Association and the Ministry of Health. Requests for laboratory testing from Naturopaths are not accepted by IH labs at this time.

BC’s Agency for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is responsible for processing requests for changes to the referral schedules. Visit the agency’s referring practitioner schedules page for more information and direct inquiries to pracbenefitscheds@phsa.ca.

Test Directory

Locum physicians are required to add a copy to for the physician, and fax number, and the location of the clinic they are covering for proper follow-up of patient care after they are gone.

Learn more about the guidelines for ordering urgency so that results are available when you need them in the Turn Around Time section.

Please refer to page 2 of the IH Laboratory Requisition for some common patient instructions.

Consult the IH Lab Test Directory or contact your local lab for more information on requirements for specific lab tests. Out of province test orders require BC Agency for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine approval. Please refer to their webpage for further information and forms to complete.

Patients may be asked to return at a later date if:

• The test ordered must be shipped outside of Interior Health
• The sample will not be stable until the next shipping opportunity

View patient collection instructions

Complete the IH Laboratory Requisition following the job aid to prevent delays and errors.

• IH Laboratory Requisition
• Outpatient Cardiac Diagnostic Requisition

Requisitions may be faxed to the laboratory by providers or given directly to the patient. For urgent or same-day testing, please provide the requisition directly to the patient to help avoid delays at the time of collection.

Additional requisitions from a referral testing facility may be required. Please refer to the Test Directory for information and links.

Requisitions from other accredited laboratories or pre-approved requisitions from IH Specialty programs (i.e. Renal Clinic, etc.) are accepted at any IH Laboratory site.

Please refer to the Provincial Standing Order Policy for details.

• The maximum time-period for any Standing Order is now 24 months.
• Standing orders must only be completed on requisition forms approved under the Laboratory Services Act. Requisitions must include:
  1. Complete patient and practitioner information
  2. Start date and expiry date
  3. Frequency of testing
  4. Additional practitioners for copy to results
  5. Locum providers must include the name of the provider they are covering
• If the details of an existing standing order need to be changed, a new standing order must be completed by the referring practitioner and a notation made to indicate it is a replacement.

Additional information

• Standing orders are for routine testing only.
• Standing orders are not transferrable to other providers.
• When a provider leaves their practice, communication to the laboratory is required to cancel any active standing orders.
• Standing orders are discontinued immediately when a provider leaves their practice (includes locums). Patients affected by this must see a new provider for a new standing order request.
• Multiple standing orders are accepted for a single patient. However, providers should be aware of multiple standing orders on their patients.
• The laboratory may minimize the amount of blood drawn from the patient by combining the orders and identifying one provider (usually the one requesting most of the repeated tests, or the family physician as indicated on the requisition) as “most responsible”.
• By combining orders, the designated provider may receive test results that have been ordered by other practitioners following the care of the patient.

The following orders require a requisition for each visit:

• Urine culture
• Renal, transplant or other complex orders (due to complexity)
• PRN orders *PRN orders for INR testing will be accepted if ordered in conjunction with a specified frequency, i.e. INR monthly and PRN as requested by physician.

Refer to BC BC Provincial Standing Order Policy and Frequently Asked Questions for further information.