Specimen
A specimen is a physical sample — blood, tissue, a swab, urine — collected from a patient so a laboratory can analyse it. It is the bridge between a lab order and a result: the order asks for a test, the specimen is the material that gets tested, and the report carries back what the lab found.
What it represents
In Care's FHIR-aligned model, a specimen maps to the Specimen resource. It captures:
- The material — what kind of sample was collected and its condition on arrival at the lab
- The collection — who took it, when, by what method, from which body site, and the patient's fasting status
- Its identity — an accession identifier (the lab barcode) used to find the sample fast
- Its links — the patient it came from, the encounter it was collected in, and the order it fulfils
The distinction worth holding onto: a specimen is neither the order nor the result. The order asks for work; the specimen is the tangible thing that work is performed on; the findings return separately through a diagnostic report. One order can yield several specimens, and a single specimen can pass through several processing steps before it is tested.
Lifecycle
A specimen sits in exactly one status as it moves from collection to testing. The first two are working states; the last three are terminal.
draft → available → unavailable / unsatisfactory / entered_in_error
- draft — a Care-specific starting state for a record still being prepared
- available — present at the lab and suitable for testing
- unavailable — no longer available, having been consumed, lost, or discarded
- unsatisfactory — reached the lab but unfit to test (contaminated, too little), so a recollection is usually needed
- entered_in_error — created by mistake; kept for audit, treated as void
How it connects
A specimen is the pivot of the lab workflow, and almost everything about it is borrowed from the records around it:
- It is always collected from a patient, during an encounter that gives the sample its clinical context.
- It exists to fulfil a service request — the lab order. One order may produce several specimens, and that order is also what governs who may read or write the specimen.
- It can be shaped by a specimen definition, an optional template describing the expected container and preparation.
- Once tested, its results surface through a diagnostic report, closing the loop back to the clinician who placed the order.
Permissions
Access to specimens is governed by two facility-scoped permissions.
| Permission | Description | System Roles |
|---|---|---|
can_read_specimen | View a specimen record, including lookup by accession identifier | Facility Admin, Administrator, Admin, Staff, Doctor, Nurse, Pharmacist |
can_write_specimen | Update a specimen — record collection, processing, and status changes | Facility Admin, Admin, Doctor, Nurse |
Both permissions are checked against the specimen's linked service request rather than the specimen alone. Roles are granted through a user's facility, organization, or patient memberships, and permissions cascade down the organization tree — a role given high in the tree applies to the facilities beneath it.
Related
- Reference: Specimen (technical)
- Concept: Service Request — the order a specimen fulfils
- Concept: Specimen Definition — the template a specimen can be derived from
- Concept: Diagnostic Report — where a specimen's results surface
- Concept: Patient — the person every specimen belongs to
FHIR reference
This concept aligns with the FHIR Specimen resource. Care implements an opinionated subset: the patient, encounter, and order links are set on creation as subject_patient, subject_encounter, and request, and the status set adds a Care-specific draft value not present in FHIR.