Managing Specimen in Requisitions

Add Specimens to the Requisition

When first creating a new requisition and in the specification phase, users will have an empty Requisition Editor.  Specimens can then be added to the editor by selecting Add Specimens from the Edit menu or using the Add Specimens button.  They can also be added by scanning. This will open the Standard Search Dialog, which is used to select prospective specimens to be listed in the editor.  The word 'prospective’ is used because there are a number of reasons why every specimen users add to the requisition may not end up being included in this particular requisition.  This is important to remember; every specimen must first pass a number of ‘tests’ before being included in this particular requisition.  

When a user first adds specimens to the requisition, lots of information is given about each specimen such as BSI ID, Volume, Material Modifiers, etc.; which can aid the user in selecting and requesting specimens which are appropriate for their needs.  Until the user has a requisition with specimens which have an include status of Included and a Vial Status of Reserved, those specimens have not yet been reserved for the user and can be included in any other requisition in the meantime.

Import Specimens

A list of IDs in the form of a text or Excel file can be used to add vials to a requisition using the text importer.  Once the list is imported, the user will be asked to specify the ID field used for matching.  Several ID fields are available for matching purposes (BSI ID, Subject ID, Current Label, etc...).  Once the ID field used for matching is selected, all vials in the database that match that ID will be added to the requisition.  Once added, the vials can then be requested if they are available.

To add vials from a list of Ids:

1. Select Import from the File menu.
2. Use the Importer to select the file containing the IDs.  On the matching page of the importer, the user must specify which column contains the IDs.  Only one column of the import file can be used.
3. After the importer finishes, a Select the ID field to match dialog will open containing a menu with available fields that can be used for matching.  Select the ID field that corresponds to the IDs in the import file.
4. Press OK on the dialog to add the vials to the editor that match the IDs imported.  All vials matching the imported list of IDs will be added to the editor.
5. Vials will still need to be Requested in order to be included for work in the requisition.

Add Specimens to a Submitted Requisition

Specimens can be added to a requisition after it is submitted.  Once added, they must be immediately requested.  Specimens that are not requested in a submitted requisition are removed from the requisition editor at the next action.

To add specimens to a submitted requisition by searching in BSI:

1. Select Add Specimen from the Edit menu or use the Add Specimen button.  This will open the Standard Search dialog.

1. Enter criteria in the Standard Search dialog to select the specimens to be potentially be added to the requisition and select OK.  The specimens will be listed in the requisition editor but are not yet included in the requisition.
2. Highlight the specimen rows in the Requisitions Editor to include in the requisition.  Specimens that have an Include status of N/A cannot be included in the requisition.
3. Select Request Specimen from the Include column header menu.
   • If there are no warnings generated for the selected specimens, the Include Status will change to Included and the Vial Status will change to Reserved for all specimen.
   • If there are warnings generated for any specimen, the Include Status will change to Requested for any specimen requested without warnings and Warning for any specimens with warnings.  The vial warnings must be overridden before the specimens will be included in the requisition.  See Vial Warnings for more information on overriding vial warnings.
   • Any specimen that were not previously included in the requisition and not selected when the specimen were requested are removed from the Requisition Editor.

To add specimens to a submitted requisition by scanning:

1. Select Scan to Add Specimens from the Edit menu or use the Scan to Add Specimens This will open Scan to Add Specimens dialog.
2. If some field other than BSI ID or Current Label is barcoded, click on Add/Remove Fields… When pressed, it will open the standard BSI Select Fields dialog. Specimen fields, Requisition fields or Subject fields can be added to the Scan to Add Specimens dialog and scanned in similar to BSI IDs or Current Labels.

• • If the value scanned does uniquely identify an available vial, the scanned value for the matching vial will be added to the column in the table, and the scan status will be marked as ‘Included’.
  • If the value scanned uniquely identifies an unavailable vial, the value scanned will be added to the table with a scan status of ‘Not Available’. When OK is pressed on the scan editor, the value will be added to the requisition with an include status of N/A.
  • If the value scanned matches nothing at all, the value will be added to the table with a scan status of ‘Not Found’.

3. If multiple fields are displayed and scanned in, the specimens returned will be those which match all the fields.
4. If the scan returns multiple matching specimens and:

• • And all are available, a row will be added to the scan summery table with the scan status of ‘All Available’
  • And none are available, a row will be added to the scan summery table with the scan status of ‘None Available’
  • And there are mixed statuses – some available and some not available - the pop up will say: “Multiple results were returned for scan ##. Not all results are available to be requested. Keep all results?”
    • The results will be added to the scan dialog as one row, but the status will say ‘Some Available’

5. Scan all the specimens and press OK at the bottom of this dialog. If any of the specimens are not available to be processed for some reason, you will get a warning message and the Include status of the specimens in the requisition will be N/A.

6. Any specimen that do not have Include status of Requested or Included in the requisition will be removed from the requisition once the requisition is submitted.

Request Specimens

Before requesting the specimens to be included in the requisition, determine which specimens to keep.  There are many different criteria to use when selecting which specimens to request.

The very first criterion which must be met is that the Include value for that specimen must be blank (not requested).  Users are not allowed to request any specimen which has an Include status of N/A.  The value of the Include status is dependent upon the value in the Vial Status column.  Only those specimens with a Vial Status of In can be requested.

Other criteria users may choose to use are that they may need a particular volume, or they may need specimens with a material type of serum, or they may need only specimens which have never been thawed.  These are just a few examples.  

To request specimens to be included in a requisition:

1. Highlight the specimens rows in the Requisitions Editor.
2. Select Request Specimens from the Include column header menu.  The Include status of the specimen will change to Requested.
   • Requested specimens will not be reserved until the requisition is submitted.
3. Save the requisition.

Vial Warnings

When a requisition is submitted, BSI will check for any warnings on the specimens requested in the requisition. A requisition that contains a specimen with a warning cannot be reserved for the requisition until the warning is overridden or the request for the specimen is canceled.  The submit will fail if a warning exists for any specimen in the requisition that has not been overridden.  The Requisition Editor will remain open and the Include status for any specimen with a warning will change from Requested to Warning.

An Include status of Warning will be applied to specimen for any of the following reasons:

• If the subject associated with the specimen has not consented.
• If requesting the specimen will drop the volume or number of specimen below that specified in the Study Warnings.
• If the specimens being requested are located on a user's workbench.
• If the Vial Warnings column of the specimen contains a value.

The Vial Warnings specimen level field allows multiple warnings to be added to the same specimen. Warnings can be added via Data Entry and some requisition task completion dialogs.

Consent warnings are generated when a Boolean consent form field is marked as False/No. The consent field that triggered the warning will be listed for the user.

To view and override warnings issued for specimen:

1. Select the specimen(s) with Warning in the Include column.  
2. On the Include column header menu, select Request Specimens from the Mark Include Status sub-menu. 
3. The Warning on requested specimen dialog will open.  The dialog will list the BSI ID for the specimen, the warnings and a description of the warnings.
4. Select the appropriate option from the Warning on requested specimen dialog for each specimen:
   • Override - This will override the warning for the specimen listed in the dialog.  The Include status will change from Warning to Override.
   • Skip - This will skip the current specimen listed in the Warning dialog and move to the next specimen selected.  The Include status will remain as Warning for the skipped specimen.
   • Override All - This will mark the Include status of all specimens in the selection that have the same warnings as Override.
   • Cancel - This will exit the Warning on requested specimen dialog and return to the Requisition Editor without making any changes to the current specimen listed on the dialog.

When all warnings have been overridden or the requests for specimens with warnings have been canceled, the requisition may be submitted.

Approve/Deny the use of Specimen

When a requisition is submitted, and contains specimens that belong to a study or studies which require approval, approvals can be given by:

• System Administrators
• Study PI’s
• Users with explicit study permission for approvals

The user approving specimens must have general permission to specimen in Requisitions as well as Study-specific permissions to do so. The user creating the Requisition cannot approve specimens in it.

An email notification is sent to the requisition submitter, and repository contacts associated with requested vials when there are no longer any vials included which have an Approval Status of “Pending”. Users may opt out of this notification via their user preferences.

Approving specimen via BSI Engage:

1. The user responsible for approving requisitions in a study, listed in the Study Properties dialog as the Requisition Approver, will receive an email when a submitted requisition requests specimens in the study.
2. In the email there will be a link to the approval page in BSI Engage. Click the link.
3. The default web browser will open. Enter BSI login username and password.
4. The Approvals page will open. Select the specimen(s) to be approved and add any comments, then select the Approve button. The page will refresh to reflect the changes.

If approval will not be given, select those specimen(s). Add any desired comments and select the Deny button. The page will refresh to reflect the changes. To just add an approval comment, select the specimen(s) and enter comments. Select the Apply button. The page will refresh to reflect the changes.

Alternately, if the approving user knows the requisition ID associated with the requisition, the following process can be used:

1. Login to BSI Engage using the username and password associated with the account.
2. Navigate to the Requisitions tab.
3. Select Requisition ID from the Add Criteria menu, then enter the ID in the text field. Press the Enter key.
4. Select the Requisition.
5. Select the Approvals tab.
6. Select the specimen(s) to be approved, then add any desired comments and select the Approve button. The page will refresh to reflect the changes.

If approval will not be given, select those specimen(s). Add any desired comments and select the Deny button. The page will refresh to reflect the changes. To just add an approval comment, select the specimen(s) and enter comments. Select the Apply button. The page will refresh to reflect the changes.

Approving specimen via the BSI Client:

1. Navigate to the requisition which requires approval.
2. Select specimen to be approved. Right click on the Approval Status column
3. The following Approval Statuses will be available for selection:
• Mark as Approved - changes Approval Status to Approved
• Mark as Rejected - changes Approval Status to Denied
• Remove Approval - can only be selected if no tasks are completed; changes Approval Status to Pending
• Remove Denial - changes Approval Status to Pending
4. The user may enter a comment by right clicking on the Approval Comment field and entering text.

Switch Requisition Specimens

Specimens can be reserved in new requisitions when they are reserved in an existing requisition.  This tool is useful for simplifying mass returns of specimens to repositories that were originally reserved in more than one requisition. Users must have the Switch Requisition Specimens permission to use this feature.

To switch requisition specimens:

1. Add specimens to a requisition. Reserved and Out specimens will be added with an Include Status of N/A.
2. Highlight specimen rows in the Requisition Editor.
3. Select Switch Requisition Specimens from the Include column header menu.  The Include status of the specimens will change to Requested Switch in a pending requisition or Included in a submitted requisition. The Include status will change to Switched in the previous requisition.

The specimens can be switched back to their original requisition. After selecting the specimens to be switched back, select Switch Requisition Specimens from the Include column header menu. If the requisition is submitted, the included status will be Included.

Cancel a Specimen Request

Specimen that have been requested in a Pending requisition cannot be removed from the Requisitions Editor until the request for the specimen has been canceled.  (Even though they cannot be removed, they are not Reserved for the requisition until the requisition is submitted.)

There are several reasons it may be necessary to cancel a specimen request.  The specimen may have been requested by accident, no longer needed in the requisition, or a warning may have been generated when submitting the requisition that causes the specimen to no longer be appropriate for the requisition.  

Canceling a specimen request is only available for Pending requisitions.  Once the requisition has  been submitted, the specimens can no longer be removed from the requisition, they must be dropped.

To cancel a vial request:

1. Highlight the rows to be in the Requisition Editor that are to have the request canceled.  The Include Status should be Requested or Warning.
   • Do not highlight additional specimens that have a blank status or a status of N/A, as this will interfere with the cancel process.
2. Select Cancel Vial Request from the Include column header menu.  The Include Status will change from Requested or Warning to blank (not requested).  When the requisition is submitted, all specimens that do not have an Include Status of Requested or Override will be removed from the requisition.
3. Save the requisition.

Remove Specimens from a Submitted Requisition

Once a requisition has been submitted for processing at a repository, the specimens included in that requisition can no longer be removed by selecting Remove Specimens from the Requisition Editor Edit menu.  The specimen must be dropped from the requisition.  A specimen can only be dropped from a requisition if there are no tasks with a task status of Begun, Completed or Redo for the specimen.

To drop specimens from a submitted requisition:

1. Highlight the specimens in the requisition to be removed.
2. Select Drop Specimens from the Mark Include Status sub-menu on the Include column header menu.
   • All selected specimens that do not have a task status of Completed, Begun or Redo are no longer listed in the requisition.
   • The Vial Status of all specimens successfully dropped from the requisition will be changed from Reserved back to In.
   • Aside from Vial Status, no other specimen data is modified when a specimen is dropped from a requisition.  If specimen data needs to be modified when changing the Vial Status back to In, a Return to Inventory task should be used.