Working with Fax Lab Results

SigmaMD offers fax-based ordering and results for diagnostic labs when an electronic interface is not available. Use this guide for a walk-through on creating and submitting lab orders. Once results are received via fax, follow this guide to link them to the original order and add them to the patient's chart.

Reviewing Fax Lab Results

Step 1: Access Received Fax

• Navigate to Inbox > Documents.
• Locate and open the received fax.

Step 2: Set as Diagnostic Result

• If the fax is a diagnostic result, set Type to Diagnostic result in the Details panel to the right of the PDF. When Sigma AI document processing is enabled for your practice, Sigma AI reads each fax as it arrives and may already have set the type for you. Whether the fax is also assigned to the clinician named on it, or only suggested below the Assignee field, depends on your practice's Sigma AI Auto-Assign option. See Sigma AI Auto-Assign for Documents.

• Complete the fields below. Diagnostic Type, Order, Status and Reviewer appear once you select the patient:
  • Patient: Select the patient the result belongs to. If Sigma AI matched a patient, the name appears as a suggestion below the field; click it to add the patient.
  • Diagnostic Type: Choose Lab result.
  • Order: Optionally select the original lab order to link. Once linked, the order will no longer be listed in the list of orders Pending Results in the Labs screen.
  • Status: Select the result status (e.g., Final, Corrected, Partial).
  • Reviewer: The clinician who reviews the result and receives its notification. The Assigned clinicians filter of the Lab results to review list follows it. It defaults to the ordering clinician of the linked order, or to the patient's assigned clinician when no order is linked. To route the result to someone else, select another active clinician in your practice — the list covers clinical roles only: Ordering Clinician, Nurse, Medical Assistant and Allied Health Professional.

• Once completed, select Save.
• You can change the Reviewer while the result is pending review — you can replace it, but not clear it. A reviewer you select stays with the result when you save it again, when you link or change the Order, and when the patient's assigned clinician changes. If you move the result to another patient, it starts over from that patient's default.
• Once the result is marked as reviewed, the Details panel shows Reviewed by with the clinician who reviewed it.

Step 3: Add Result Details

When Sigma AI is on for you, saving the fax as a diagnostic result with a patient starts Reading the Results: Sigma AI fills in the tests from the fax and writes a Note to Patient if there isn't one yet. Review everything it filled in before marking the result as reviewed. Sigma AI reads only the first 30 pages of a file.

• Otherwise, or to correct what Sigma AI filled in, populate the result details one test at a time:
  • Test name
  • Status
  • Collected on date
  • For each test, add one or more components:
    • Component Name, Value, and Unit
    • (Optional) Reference range
    • (Optional) Flag. Any flag other than Normal shows the red alert icon on the result. See Understanding the Red Alert Icon on Lab and Imaging Results.
    • Status

• Once completed, click Save to finalize.

Step 4 (Optional): Add Note to Patient

• Note to Patient, which will appear with the result in the SigmaMD Patient App once you mark the result as reviewed. The patient will be notified at that point by email and push notification, or by text message if they have no email address on file. The text asks them to contact your practice for details.

Step 5: Mark as Reviewed

• When you finish inputting all the information needed, select Mark as reviewed.

Note: If you are unable to complete adding results after linking the patient and order, you can return to the Documents screen later or complete the review from the Home Screen > Lab results to review card.

Downloading or Printing Result PDFs

When viewing the result PDF, you can easily download or print it using the buttons directly above the PDF viewer:

• Download: Save a copy of the result PDF to your device.
• Print: Print a physical copy of the result.

Viewing Results in the Labs Table

Once linked to a patient, the faxed lab results will appear in the Labs table in the patient chart. The table includes:

• Test: Lists test names (expandable to view test components).
• Status: Displays the current status badge for the test and components.
• Result: Displays values for each component.
• Reference Range: Displays normal reference range for each component.

Hover over any test name to access View order details (shows order metadata) or View results (opens the result PDF with the option to add/update patient notes). You can also view the original requisition from this view.

All lab result PDFs are stored in the patient's Files section under the Labs folder for future reference.

Patient Access

The patient (or their caregiver) automatically receives an email that their results are available and can view the result PDF in the SigmaMD Patient App. The result values and any provider notes appear once the result is marked as reviewed. You do not need to manually send results to the patient.