1 Introduction
2 Create Shipment/ Shipment Request
- 2.1 Request Status
- 2.2 Separate Shipment Report for Specimen and Container Shipments
3 Sorting containers in Shipment Report
4 Receive
5 Delete
6 Create in bulk

Introduction

A site may ship whole boxes of specimens to another site. When receiving site receives these boxes, they store them as is in their freezers. OpenSpecimen allows you to track this workflow of shipment of containers from one site to another.

Below are the prerequisites to ship/receive containers using OpenSpecimen:

Both the shipping site and receiving site should use the same instance of OpenSpecimen.
To ship containers, you need to have access to the site where containers are stored.
You cannot ship containers from multiple sites within one shipment.
When receiving a shipment, you can store the received containers in the parent containers of the receiving site only.

Create Shipment/ Shipment Request

From Home page navigate to 'Shipments'.
Click on the 'Create' button and select the option 'Containers'
Enter all valid details, select sending site and receiving site, and click on the ‘Next’ button. Select the checkbox ‘Shipment Request’ if you want to generate request (available from v10.3).

Note

From v10.3 Unique shipment names will be auto-generated with the format

Regular Shipments: Shipment_<date>_<time>
Request Shipments: Shipment_Request_<date>_<time>

In the next screen, enter the container names separated by a comma, tab, or new line and click on the ‘Add’ button.

Check the list of containers to be requested/ shipped, make changes, if any, and click on the ‘Submit Request’/ ‘Ship’ button. From v10.2 onwards, users will be able to see container CP and specimen types restrictions for the container being shipped.

The users selected under the field ‘Notify Users’ while creating a shipment will be notified when the container is shipped.
You save the shipment as a draft by clicking the ‘Save Draft’ button.
Once the shipment is “Shipped“, you cannot edit the “Notify Users“ field.
You can see the “Notify Users“ field on the overview page for the Shipped shipments but cannot see it on the edit screen.

Request Status

From version 11.2, a new 'Request Status' feature has been added, enabling the site fulfilling the request to update the requester on the current status of their shipment. You can define status values in Extras → Dropdown Manager → Shipment Request Status. Changes to the request status are communicated via email to the requester, sender, and any users designated in the notify users field. This status is also visible in the Shipment list view and can be used as a filter.

Separate Shipment Report for Specimen and Container Shipments

From version 11.2, users can configure separate reports for specimen and container shipments. The reports are query based and query ID can be set in configuration settings (Shipment Report, Container Shipment Report)

Note: As the container report is using OpenSpecimen query (reporting) module, at least 1 specimen should be present in the container.

Sorting containers in Shipment Report

Starting from version 11.2, users can align the order of containers in the shipment report with their display in the UI. This feature is particularly useful for users who print shipment reports to organize container storage and then receive the shipment. To ensure consistency between the downloaded shipment report and the UI, a new 'Shipment Item ID' column has been added to the query module. By placing this column as the first in the shipment report, the order of containers will match between the report and the UI.

Receive

To receive the container shipment, log in as a user from the receiving site and select the ‘Shipments’ card from the home page.
Select the newly created container shipments from the list.

Click on the ‘Receive’ button from the shipments overview page.

Review the shipment details and click on the ‘Next’ button.

Select parent containers from the receiving site to store the shipped containers and click on the ‘Receive’ button. From v10.2 onwards, users will be able to see container CP and specimen types restrictions for the container being shipped.

Click on the ‘Download Report’ button from the shipments overview page to download the shipment report.

The sender of the shipment will be notified when the container is received at the receiving site.
Once the shipment is ”Received”, you cannot edit the “Notify Users“ field.
You can see the “Notify Users“ field on the overview page for the Received shipments but cannot see it on the edit screen.

The system adds ‘Shipment Shipped Event’ and ‘Shipment Received Event’ respectively for the specimens stored in the shipped or received containers.

Delete

The delete feature is supported to delete the shipments created by mistakes by users, or the shipments of which the record is not necessary.
Users can delete the shipments in all pending, shipped, and received statuses.
- Users with sending site access only can delete the shipment which is in ‘Shipped’ status.
- Users with receiving site access only can delete the shipment which is in ‘Received’ status.
To delete the shipment navigate to the shipment → Delete → Yes.
When the ‘Shipped’ status shipments are deleted, the corresponding ‘Shipment Shipped Event’ from all the shipment specimens is deleted as well.
When ‘Received’ status shipments are deleted, the corresponding ‘Shipment Shipped Event’ and 'Shipment Received Event’ from all the shipment specimens is deleted as well.
The original location of the specimens that were part of the deleted shipment will not be restored.

Create in bulk

You can create a shipment of containers holding the specimens in bulk. For more details, refer to 'Create/Update Container Shipments'.

Shipment of Containers