Adding a Flexible Lab or Imaging Provider for Patient Choice

In situations where your patient prefers to visit a lab or imaging provider of their own choosing, you can create a flexible, placeholder provider in SigmaMD. This workaround allows you to generate printable diagnostic orders that patients can take directly to their preferred provider.

Note: This is a temporary workaround until formal support for patient-directed diagnostic orders is added.

Step 1: Submit an Interface Request for the Placeholder Provider

Follow the instructions in this article to request a new diagnostic interface: Requesting a Lab or Imaging Interface in SigmaMD

When completing the form:

• Provider Name: Use a clear and descriptive name like {Your Clinic Name} + Lab or {Your Clinic Name} + Imaging
• Fax Number: Use 888-888-8888 as a placeholder fax number

Once the SigmaMD team approves your submission, the interface will be made available for use in your account.

Step 2: Add Charge Items for the Placeholder Provider

To enable billing logic and generate printable orders for the placeholder provider, you must associate charge items with each diagnostic test. Follow the instructions in this article: Adding Charge Items for Diagnostic Tests. Refer specifically to the section titled “For Fax Interface Providers.”

• Base Price: Set to $0, since the patient will not be paying your clinic for these tests.

This setup ensures orders can be properly generated and printed, without billing the patient through your clinic.

Step 3: Create and Print the Lab or Imaging Order

Once the placeholder provider is available and charge items are added, you can create diagnostic orders as usual. For detailed steps on generating and printing orders, see:

• How to Create and Submit a Lab Order
• How to Create and Submit an Imaging Order

These articles walk you through the complete workflow for preparing and printing the order to hand to the patient.

Note: When the order is generated, SigmaMD will attempt to fax it to the placeholder number 888-888-8888 . Because this is an invalid number, the transmission will fail and appear as "Transmission failed" in the Fax screen. This can be safely ignored.

If you have any questions or need assistance at any step, contact our support team.