Processing

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After new data has been entered into BSI, the next step is to process the specimen. Processing can include any process completed on a specimen during its lifecycle, such as aliquotting specimens, modifying data, adding procedure results, shipping specimens, and specimen disposal. In BSI, these processes are tracked via a requisition.

Specimens must be requested and removed from the available inventory before processing can begin. For more information on requesting specimens, check out this page.

Tracking specimen processing in BSI is accomplished via tasks. Each task can be used to track a separate action taken on the specimens.

Before a task can be completed for a specimen, it must first be applied. A task status of Applied is represented by an open black circle. Users can apply a task to a specimen only if the specimen has an include status of Requested, Overridden or Included. Users can also apply a task to a partially created child vial (denoted by an Include status of Reserved Child), but the task status will be Intermediate.

There are two ways to apply a task to specimens in the Requisitions Editor:

Apply the task to selected specimens when adding the task by checking the "Allocate this task to selected specimens" checkbox (Checked by default).
Apply the task to selected specimens from the task's column header menu.

To apply an existing task to specimens in the Requisitions Editor:

Select the specimens that are to have the task applied.
Click on the column header for the task to open the column header menu.
Hover over the Change Status option to open the sub-menu and select Apply.
- The task status for the selected specimens will change to Applied unless the task has already been applied to the specimen or the specimens are child specimens for an aliquot or process task that has not been completed.
- The task status for child specimens that are part of an aliquot or process task will have a task status of Intermediate - represented by an open green circle. When the aliquot or process task has been completed, and the specimens become 'real', the task status will automatically change from Intermediate to Applied. See the section on Aliquot for more details on completing an aliquot.

Available tasks include:

Blind: This task is used to hide certain specimen data when transferring to another repository.

Box Return to Inventory: This task is used to return an entire box and all the specimens contained within it to the inventory.

Ship: This task is used to send an entire box and its specimens to an external facility which does not use your BSI database to track specimens.

Box Transfer: This task is used to transfer an entire box and every specimen contained within it to the custody of another repository.

Package: This task is used to containerize specimens into a box in the locations heirarchy preparation for shipping at a later time.

Returned: This task is used to note the return of specimens previously shipped to a facility or person that does not use BSI. The specimen will be reserved i nthe requisition and can then be returned to the inventory.

Return to Inventory: This task is used to return specimens reserved in a requisition to the available inventory when processing is complete.

Ship: This task is used to send specimens to an external facility which does not use your BSI database to track specimens.

Shipment Received:The Shipment Received task is used to track the receipt of existing specimens from within a requisition.

Transfer Out: This task is used to transfer custody of specimens from one repository to another within the same BSI database.

Unblind: This task is used to merge data from original and blinded specimens after those specimens no longer need to have data hidden.

Generic, Investigate, or Pull: These tasks are used to record details about actions taken on specimens but which do not alter any specimen data.

Procedure: This task is used to track and record data entered in a Results batch.

Relabel: This task is used to print new labels for specimens and track when physical specimen labels are changed.

Aliquot: This task is used to create child specimens which are linked in BSI to the parent specimens they were created from.

Process: This task is used to create child specimens which are linked in BSI to the parent specimens they were created from.

Pool: This task is used to combine multiple specimens into a single, new specimen.

Broken/Destroyed: This task is used to change the vial status of specimens which are physically broken or otherwise damaged to "Broken/Destroyed".

Destroy: This task is used to change the vial status of specimens which will be disposed of to "Broken/Destroyed".

Discrepancy: This task allows you to record discrepancies between virtual specimen data in BSI and physical specimen data.

Empty: This task is used to change the vial status of specimens which have a volume value of "0" to "Empty", thereby removing them from the available inventory.

Hold: This task is used to change the vial status of specimens to "On Hold", which reserved specimens for a specific purpose while maintaining their location data.

Lost: This task is used to change the vial status of missing specimens to "Lost", thereby removing them from the available inventory.

Thaw: A Thaw Task increments the Thaws field value by a specified integer when completed on specimens in a requisition.

Withdraw: This task is used to change the vial status of specimens to "Out", without shipping them to another facility.

Modify: This task allows you to track updates to specimen data via the requisition.

Add Cores to Microarray: This task allows you to add extra cores to an existing microarray specimen.

Create Microarray: This task is used to create a new microarray specimen from existing specimens in the inventory.

Modify Microarray: This task allows you to modify the grid location of cores contained in an existing microarray, as well as delete cores from the microarray.

Completing the Task

Selecting this right mouse button menu item allows the user to complete a task for the specimens that they have selected. The task will only be completed for specimens that are Included and have a task status of Applied, Redo, or Begun; all other selected specimens will be ignored. In the case of Aliquot and Process tasks, only a task status of Begun may be completed. In the case of a Return To Inventory task, only specimen(s) that have no other tasks that are Applied or Begun may be completed. When a user chooses to mark a task as completed, what happens depends on which task they are completing.