LIMS Two Page Lab Reports - hmislk/hmis GitHub Wiki

Two-Page Lab Reports

Some lab reports need more than one printed page. A common example is Full Blood Count: page 1 shows the results and page 2 shows the analyzer's histograms and scattergrams. Reports are single-page unless you turn this feature on and add a second page to a report format, so reports you already use are not affected.

Video: Set up a two-page lab report and enter results (about 5 minutes). More videos are in the Video Library.

Before you start

  1. Turn the feature on: Menu > Administration > Manage Institutions > Preferences > Application Options, search for Lab Report - Multi-page templates enabled, click Edit Option, switch it on and Save.
  2. Only General (absolute-positioned) report formats can have a second page. HtmlTemplate, Pathology and Microbiology formats stay single-page, and the designer does not show the Pages panel, the Analyzer Image button or the item Page selector for them.
  3. To show analyzer graphics on page 2, the analyzer must be set up to send its images to HMIS. The graphics appear on new reports, not on reports that were already saved without them.

Switching the option off again returns every report to a single page straight away. Nothing needs to be redeployed.

Adding a second page to a report format

Go to Menu > Administration > Manage Lab Services > Manage Investigations > List Investigation, open the investigation with the cog button, open the Manage tab and click Manage Format - Single Item.

Report format designer showing Page 1 and Page 2 buttons and the settings for page 2

The format designer with a second page. The Pages panel switches between pages and holds the settings of the selected page. The preview on the right shows the selected page only.

  1. In the Pages panel click Add Page. Page 2 appears next to Page 1.
  2. Click the page you want to work on. The preview shows that page.
  3. Add items as usual with Label, Value, Calculation, Image, Html or Analyzer Image. New items go to the page you have selected. To move an existing item to another page, select it and change Page in the Positioning tab.
  4. Use Analyzer Image for each histogram or scattergram, then position and size it like any other item.
  5. Click Save Page Settings after changing the settings below, and Save for item changes.

Remove Page deletes the last page, and only when it has no items.

A page prints only when it has at least one item. A page that holds only its settings is not counted, so add an item (for example a Label, a Value or an Analyzer Image) to page 2 before you test the report.

Designer of an HtmlTemplate report with no page controls

An HtmlTemplate format in the designer. There is no Pages panel or Analyzer Image button because only General formats can have a second page.

Settings for each page

Each page has its own settings in the Pages panel.

Setting What it does
Show the common report (patient details) on this page On by default, so the patient details print on every page. Switch it off for a page that should only hold graphics. A warning reminds you that patient identification will then not print on that page unless you add it yourself.
Print the page number on this page On by default. Prints "Page 1 of 2" style text. Reports with only one page never print it.
Text The wording of the page number. {page} and {pages} are replaced by the numbers.
Position Moves the page number. It selects the page number so you can set Left, Top, font and alignment in the Positioning and Font tabs. Without a position it prints at the bottom centre.
Background This page's own uses the page's own background image and falls back to page 1's if there is none. Same as page 1 repeats page 1's background. None prints no background.

The Background hidden / shown button above the preview only affects what the preview shows.

Giving page 2 its own background image

  1. Go to Menu > Administration > Manage Lab Services > Report Templates > Report Template Image Upload.
  2. Select the template (report format).
  3. Choose Page 2 in the new Page list and upload the image.

Page 1 keeps its existing image. On the printed report, the Show Background button turns backgrounds on or off for all pages, as before.

Common report items on selected pages only

The common report (patient name, age, bill number and so on) is shared by every investigation that uses the same template, so changing it affects all of them. To show a common item on only some pages, go to Menu > Administration > Manage Lab Services > Report Templates > Report Format Templates, select the item and change Show on (All pages, Page 1 only, Page 2 only, and so on). Apply to all sets it for every item of the template at once. For a two-page report it is usually simpler to use the per-page switch above.

What you get when printing

  • The report print page shows one block per page, and Print puts each on its own sheet.
  • Export PDF produces one PDF page per report page.
  • Pages that open a report without the full print layout (for example the mobile views) show page 1 only for now.

Tips

  • Check a two-page report with a test patient before using it: print it, export the PDF and look at both pages.
  • Keep the common report on for page 2 unless the page is only graphics and your lab accepts that.
  • Exporting a format to Excel includes a PageNo column so pages survive an export and import.

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