Printable hospital template
External laboratory report review handover
Hand over external laboratory reports still awaiting clinician review, including partial reports, an absent ordering clinician and unfinished follow-up.
- Written by
- RizCare
- Published
- Last reviewed
RizCare's suggested worksheet. Adapt to your hospital. https://riz.care/library/templates/external-report-review-handover
For staff receiving external reports and clinicians taking over review responsibility.
A report has arrived and the ordering clinician has left for the day. Record who accepts the remaining review or follow-up through the clinical team. The request tracker establishes where the report stands; this sheet makes the next responsibility visible at handover.
It is an administrative handover for Nigerian hospitals using outside laboratories. It does not interpret a result, set a clinical urgency threshold or replace the clinical record. Any urgent communication from a laboratory should follow the hospital's clinical escalation process immediately.
Print this page or save it as a PDF from your browser. The print layout contains only the blank worksheet and its completion note. Fill it in within your hospital.
Practice: ____________________ Prepared by: ____________________ Date: ______________
| Request / received | Pending work | Accepted owner | Outcome / next check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blank entry | |||
| Blank entry | |||
| Blank entry | |||
| Blank entry |
Keep completed copies with the staff authorised to use them.
How to use it
Match the report to the request
Check the patient identifiers and request reference through the hospital's normal process. Record what was actually received, its date and whether it covers the whole request. A partial report should remain visibly partial; do not mark the entire request complete because one attachment arrived. Keep any mismatch or unreadable section as a named issue for resolution.
Transfer responsibility explicitly
List the pending action and the clinician or authorised team member taking it over. If the ordering clinician is absent, use the hospital's cover arrangement and record who accepted the handover. Sending a message is not the same as acceptance. Staff receiving the document should not infer a clinical conclusion or downgrade its urgency while waiting for an acknowledgement.
Check the review and the next action separately
Record the review reference after the responsible clinician documents it. Then track any instructed patient contact, further report request or appointment through to its actual outcome. A completed review does not establish that the patient was contacted. Leave unfinished actions with an owner and an agreed next check, following the clinician's instructions.
The WHO laboratory handbook discusses referral records and receipt of reports. We use that background for traceability; this handover is our own hospital administration worksheet, not a laboratory transport or treatment protocol.
What each field means
- Request and received material
- Record the request reference, received date and the parts available. Keep the report itself in the authorised patient record rather than copying result values onto a general handover sheet.
- Pending action
- State what remains: identity clarification, outstanding report, clinician review or instructed follow-up. Do not compress these into a single done checkbox.
- Accepted by
- Name the person who acknowledged the responsibility and when. If nobody has accepted, keep the item visibly unassigned and use the hospital's escalation route.
- Review and follow-up references
- Link to the documented review and subsequent action separately. Record attempted contact honestly; an unanswered call is an attempt, not a completed discussion.
Completed fictional example
The examples are fictional administrative states and contain no clinical values. The times illustrate handover records, not recommended review or contact deadlines.
| Request / received | Pending work | Accepted owner | Outcome / next check |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAB-041 / 9 September 11:10 | Partial report; review and outstanding attachment | Clinician B, 11:25 | Review RV-09; reception to obtain missing attachment as instructed |
| LAB-044 / 9 September 15:05 | Review documented; instructed contact unanswered | Staff C, 15:20 | Attempt recorded; next step follows clinician's contact plan |
Related resources
Sources and review
The worksheet design and examples are RizCare's recommendations. The sources below support the background discussion; they do not endorse this form.
- Laboratory quality management system: handbook (World Health Organization, copy hosted by The Global Health Network). Read 9 September 2026.