Introduction

Sometimes specimens are taken out of a box, but you also want to block the position in the box to keep it back.

The process of retrieving a specimen from a box and blocking the position is called 'Specimen check-out'. Similarly, the process of storing it back at its original location is called 'Specimen check-in'.

Earlier, when a specimen was retrieved, the box position was vacated and someone could use that position for a different specimen.

Video

Check-out specimens

You can check out/in specimens from multiple places using the 'Actions' button.

List pages

All specimen list pages have the 'Action → Retrieve' option. This now has an additional checkbox for check-out.

  1. Participant overview page -> Specimen tab -> Specimen list page

  2. Specimen list page

  3. Specimen cart list page

  4. Container list page

  5. Query Result page

Overview pages

  1. Visit specimen tree view page

    2. Specimen overview page. (Not visible if specimen is not stored in a box)

Check-out status

  1. When the samples are checked out, there is a transfer event added with the storage status as ‘CHECK-OUT’

  2. The container position is blocked with the specimen label (for example - N0001_PL_1.1) and cannot be used to store any other sample until the position is unblocked

  3. Specimen status updated to ‘Checked Out’ on overview pages

  1. Participant overview page -> Specimen tab -> Specimen list page

    2. Visit specimen tree view page

    3. Specimen overview page

Check-in specimens

  1. Specimen can be checked in from the overview page individually.

    2. Using the 'Transfer' option multiple specimens can be checked-in. The original location is populated automatically for such specimens.

Unblock checked-out specimen position

You can unblock the check-out specimen positions from the container in bulk. For example: The specimens were distributed and not returned back, the container positions that were blocked during distribution check-out need to be freed for utilization.

Option 1

Navigate to the container list page->Actions->Unblock

You can either add labels or barcodes for which the positions are to be unblocked.

On adding the labels, the blocked positions will be displayed. These will be unblocked once you click on ‘Unblock’

Option 2

Navigate to the container locations tab of a container that has blocked positions and click on ‘Unblock All’ to vacate all the blocked positions.

Distribution

You can check out specimens while distributing specimens from user interface and via bulk import as well.

Return

Add labels or barcodes of the specimens that were checked-out during distribution and are to be returned.

For the samples that were checked out, the container location will be auto-populated. Once you click on submit the specimen gets returned and stored in the location specified.

Bulk Import

You can using bulk import ‘Update’k function to check-out the specimens in bulk. Please refer to the below reference 'Specimen' CSV to check out the samples. Refer to wiki page for more details.

To check-in the specimens, you need to provide values in the ‘Location#Container’, ‘Location#Column' and ‘Location#Row' fields.

Similarly for distribution, you need to add yes/true in the ‘Checkout Specimens’ column to check-out specimens while distribution.

Query module

You can query for the checked-out samples by adding the below mentioned filter

The query result will provide you with a list of specimens that were checked out.