Overview

BC Lab eOrders is a BC-specific project in partnership with LifeLabs and PHSA. It uses the Ocean eReferrals messaging workflow in the Ocean Provider Network to support laboratory ordering in British Columbia, while relying on LifeLabs/eOrder infrastructure to validate and manage electronic lab orders in a provincial holding-tank model.

The integration allows an ordering provider or delegate launch Ocean from an EMR or Ocean Portal, complete a Standard Outpatient Laboratory Requisition (SOPLR) (which is a BC specific lab form), validate order content using CDS Hooks in Ocean, create an eOrder in the LifeLabs eOrder service, receive from Lifelabs and print the generated SOPLR PDF with barcode, and track order status in Ocean. Laboratory receivers do not primarily work inside Ocean; they retrieve the requisition and associated data from the Life Labs holding tank through lab-side systems when the patient presents.

Project Background

The core business goal is to let healthcare practitioners submit lab requisition orders electronically from Ocean into an eOrder service. The eOrder service validates the order, stores it in a provincial repository or holding tank, and allows participating labs to retrieve and fulfill the order when the patient attends a lab service centre.

Ocean operates as the front end for healthcare providers and eOrder as a background service and the proposed integration model keeps the provider experience in Ocean while allowing LifeLabs/the eOrder service to handle validation, repository storage, and lab retrieval workflows.

The design allows for patient flexibility – the patient is not necessarily tied to a single patient service centre chosen at order time. Instead, the eOrder can be made available to participating lab locations, which can retrieve the order data electronically. This is expected to improve lab operational efficiency, reduce manual data entry, and support faster turnaround for patients.