> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.decodahealth.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Labs
> Order lab work from a patient's chart and follow it through to results.
**Prerequisites:** The **Labs** tab appears only when lab ordering is turned on for your clinic and your role has the **View Labs** permission. Junction lab accounts are requested first — see the [Labs Guide](/guides/labs). Ordering through Fullscript also needs your [Fullscript account connected](/modules/settings/fullscript).
The **Labs** tab on a patient's chart is where you order lab work and follow it to results. Orders from Junction and from Fullscript sit in the same list, and their status updates arrive on their own — there is no second system to check.
## What the list shows
Each row is one order: the tests it covers, the lab, and a status badge with the date it was created. Orders placed together — a Junction order split across two labs, or a Fullscript treatment plan carrying several labs — are grouped into one card labelled **Multi-lab order**.
Above the list, a counter for each state:
| Counter | Shows |
| --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **In progress** | Orders the lab is still working on. |
| **Results ready** | Orders whose results have landed and nobody has opened yet. |
| **Completed** | Orders whose results have been opened. |
| **Drafts** | Junction orders saved but not sent. |
| **Awaiting purchase** | Fullscript labs the patient hasn't bought yet. Appears only when there is at least one. |
Click a counter to show only those orders; click it again to clear it. The rest of the toolbar has a search box for test names and order IDs, a **Newest** / **Oldest** sort switch, and — once the chart holds orders from both — an **All** / **Junction** / **Fullscript** filter.
A patient with no orders yet reads **No lab orders yet**.
## Order a lab
Click **New lab order** at the top right of the tab. When both are available to you, a menu opens so you can pick where the order is built:
* **Junction** — Pick tests and collection here.
* **Fullscript** — Build the order in Fullscript.
When only Junction is available, the button opens the Junction ordering steps directly.
Junction needs a complete patient profile. If something required is missing, the **Junction** option is unavailable and names the fields to fill in on the patient's profile first. Fullscript has no such requirement.
### Junction
Junction ordering happens entirely in Decoda: pick the tests, set the collection method and clinical details, then place the order. Decoda produces a requisition for the patient. See the [Labs Guide](/guides/labs) for the full walkthrough.
Junction orders move through **Ordered**, **Collecting sample**, **Sample with lab**, and then **Results ready**. Along the way the badge may name a smaller step the lab reported, such as **Requisition created**. An order saved but not sent shows **Draft** and reads **Not submitted** on its row; an order the lab rejected shows **Failed**, and one you cancelled shows **Cancelled**.
### Fullscript
Click **Fullscript** and a panel opens with Fullscript's lab catalog inside Decoda. Build the order there the same way you would in Fullscript.
What you send is a **recommendation** on the patient's treatment plan, not an order placed with a lab. The patient buys the lab through Fullscript, and Fullscript arranges the collection. The lab appears in the Labs list straight away as **Awaiting purchase**, before the patient has paid anything.
| Status | What it means |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Awaiting purchase** | Recommended to the patient; not bought yet. |
| **Purchased** | The patient has paid for the lab. |
| **Needs appointment** | The patient still has to book their sample collection. |
| **Appointment scheduled** | Collection is booked. |
| **At lab** | The sample is with the lab. |
| **Partial results** | Some results are in, but the order isn't finished. |
| **Results ready** | Results are in and nobody has opened them yet. |
| **Completed** | Results are in and someone has opened them. |
| **Results amended** | The lab revised results it had already reported. Reads **Amended** once opened. |
| **Interpretation shared** | Fullscript has shared its interpretation of the results. |
Remove a lab from the treatment plan in Fullscript before the patient buys it and the row disappears from the Labs tab. A lab the patient has already paid for is never dropped this way.
On live orders, a row of dots tracks how far the order has come: **Ordered**, **Collected**, **At lab**, **Results** for Junction, and **Purchased**, **Scheduled**, **Processing**, **Results** for Fullscript.
## How updates arrive
Status changes and results arrive on their own, and the list updates while you are looking at it. To force a check, hover over the buttons at the top right of the tab and click the refresh icon (**Sync lab orders**). The order's own page has the same icon (**Refresh lab order**).
No notification, email, or text goes out when results land. The signal is in the chart: the order's badge reads **Results ready**, and the **Results ready** counter above the list goes up.
## Read results
Click any row to open the order. It has up to three tabs:
* **Order Details** — the order timeline, the lab and tests, and order information such as the physician, billing type, ICD-10 codes, priority, clinical notes, and dates.
* **Results** — appears once results are in, with a count next to it. It opens with an **AI Results Summary** of the values; click **Regenerate** for a fresh one. Below it, a table of every biomarker with **Biomarker**, **Value**, **Unit**, **Ref Range**, **Status**, and **Notes**. Abnormal and critical values are shown in red.
* **Junction View** — Junction orders only. Junction's own view of the order.
Opening a results-ready order marks the results as seen: the badge flips from **Results ready** to **Completed**, and from **Results amended** to **Amended**.
The buttons across the top of the order depend on where it came from and how far along it is:
* **Results PDF** — download the lab's report. Available for both Junction and Fullscript from the first partial result onward.
* **Requisition** — Junction only, once the lab confirms the order.
* **Cancel Order** — Junction only, and only before the sample reaches the lab. A Fullscript lab can't be cancelled from Decoda.
* **Edit draft** and **Edit & resubmit** — reopen a Junction draft, or a failed order, to correct and send it.
A Fullscript lab shows its **Order number** under the title once the patient has bought it — the reference printed on their receipt, and the one to quote to Fullscript. A Junction order shows its **Junction order ID** instead.
Decoda also files each results report in the patient's **Forms & Documents** tab under **Document Type: Lab**, and Junction requisitions under **Requisition**, so they sit with the rest of the patient's files.
## Results become measurements
Every numeric result is tracked as a measurement on the patient's chart automatically, so a panel repeated over time builds a trend without anyone re-typing values. Results that aren't numbers — ranges, comments, coded values — are recorded as text.
Lab values show a **Lab result** label in measurement tables and cards, and can't be edited or deleted: the lab owns them. To stop tracking an analyte, archive its field in **Settings > Measurements**.
## Related pages
* [Labs Guide](/guides/labs) — Junction account setup and the full ordering walkthrough
* [Supplements](/modules/patients/supplements)
* [Record Patient Measurements](/modules/patients/measurements)
* [Patient Chart](/modules/patients/patient-chart)