Industry

Healthcare & diagnostics

A diagnostic lab runs on a steady flow of samples. Patients book tests at a branch or ask for a home collection, a phlebotomist draws the sample, and it moves to the lab that runs that test. Reports go back to the patient and the referring doctor, and at month end the referring doctors expect their share on the tests they sent.

What we build: Bookings, samples, and referrals

A diagnostic lab lives on turnaround time. A patient walks in or books a home collection, a sample gets drawn and labelled, and from that point the turnaround time starts counting until the report is in the patient’s and the referring doctor’s hands. When you run more than one branch, the sample is often drawn at one place and tested at another, so it has to travel, and someone has to know where it is at every step.

The parts that hurt are the ones no single person can see. A sample sits at a collection center waiting for the daily pickup and no one flags it. A test your lab does not run gets sent to a bigger lab, and that report comes back late or, worse, never gets billed. The front desk cannot answer a simple question about when a report will be ready, so the phone keeps ringing and the patient loses patience.

Then there are the referring doctors. They send you patients and expect a correct payout on the tests those patients took. Working this out by hand across branches at month end is slow and easy to get wrong, and one wrong statement to a doctor who sends you patients is a problem you feel for months. Patients want the report on time and doctors want the number to be right, and both are about trust.

A custom ERP built around a lab keeps the booking, the sample, the report, and the referral in one flow. Every vial carries a barcode from the moment it is drawn, so any branch can see where a sample is and what stage it is at. Referral payouts are worked out from the real bookings, branch by branch, ready at month end without a spreadsheet. Send-out tests are tracked like your own, with the outside cost and the report due date, so nothing slips. Because it is built around how your lab runs, the front desk, the lab, and the accounts desk all look at the same live picture.

The usual
challenges.

Samples getting mixed up or lost between the collection point and the testing lab, especially when they travel across branches. A wrong or missing sample means a redraw, an upset patient, and a late report.
No clear view of where a sample is right now or what stage it is at. The front desk cannot tell a patient when the report will be ready, so the same calls come back again and again.
Referral payouts worked out by hand in a spreadsheet. Adding up what each doctor is owed across branches is slow, and a wrong figure breaks trust with the person who sends you patients.
Tests your lab does not run get sent out to a bigger lab, and these send-outs are easy to lose track of. The report is collected late or the test never gets billed to the patient.
Money collected at collection centers and franchise points does not always match what was booked. Cash and party credit both go missing when collections are not matched to the booking.
Reports going out late with no one responsible for the delay. When turnaround time slips and nobody can see why, doctors and patients quietly move to another lab.

What we'd
suggest.

Put every booking, sample, and report in one place, with a barcode on the vial from the moment it is drawn, so a sample can be found at any branch.
Give the front desk a live status for each test, so anyone can tell a patient when the report will be ready without calling the lab.
Let the system work out doctor referral payouts from the actual tests booked, branch by branch, so the month-end statement is ready without a spreadsheet.
Track send-out tests to outside labs the same way as your own, with the outside cost and the report due date, so nothing is billed short or forgotten.
Tie every rupee collected to a booking at each collection center, so cash and party credit both match the bookings at day end.
Keep the patient's, doctor's, and branch's history in one record, so repeat patients and regular referrers are handled fast.

What a KPI dashboard should show.

The numbers a healthcare & diagnostics owner should be able to see every morning.

Turnaround time

How long from sample drawn to report delivered, the main thing patients and doctors judge you on.

Samples pending

Tests booked but not yet reported, so you can see the backlog before it grows.

Redraw samples

Samples that had to be drawn again, each one wasting time, adding to cost, and hurting trust.

Bookings by branch

Where the volume is coming from and which branch is quiet.

Referral payout due

What each referring doctor is owed this month, so nothing is missed or overpaid.

Send-out tests pending

Outsourced tests still waiting on the outside lab's report, so none get forgotten.

Collection vs booking

Money collected against what was booked at each branch, to catch cash and credit leaks.

Home collection load

Home draws booked against phlebotomists available, so slots are not oversold.