In Tackling Templates, Part 1, we took a broad look at the ways in which templates can be utilized to help expedite and streamline workflow, particularly when handling large quantities of specimens. We discussed that within BSI it is possible to create different kinds of templates according to the task you are trying to accomplish. These different templates have been tailored to help facilitate everything from entering and processing specimens, to creating supply kits.
Today we’ll discuss the templates used for entering specimens into the system, which is usually done when receiving specimens in a shipment or when creating initial electronic records. For these tasks, the BSI Templates manager allows users to design and save customized templates that specifically account for the values and fields relevant to the collection’s requirements. Templates can be created such that fields are displayed in an assigned order and specified data values are automatically populated for specimen records. Actions available in the template editor include the ability to set fields to auto-populate the same values for all specimens in a batch, increment values (this is usually particularly helpful for ID-type fields), and copy or concatenate values from other fields.
Multiline templates can also be created through the Templates manager. These types of templates can be helpful for situations where you know how many and what type of specimens you will be collecting. You can design a custom template for a specific set of related records, prefilled with the correct information for each specimen. Like single line templates, multi-line templates can contain pre-determined data values as well as functional commands for automatic field population, thereby streamlining data entry for the user.
It is clear that BSI templates promote organization and efficiency when adding specimens to the database. Next time we’ll take a look at templates designed to help process requisitions for specimens that already exist within the system!