Specimen Tracking Software Assist Tracking

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March 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Modified this screen to add a “order by Sort Order” check box to the selection criteria to provide an easy method for the administrators to see the data in the same manner as will be shown in the various modules. This makes maintenance easier for resetting sort orders as necessary.
Print Center – ENFD Plate Labels – Created this screen to allow for the printing of ENFD plate labels.
Scoreboard – Provided the ability on the main pie graphs to include the total value of all “slices” in the header description. Also provided the ability to use a specific cut date/time instead of a rolling back hour for determining when the pull the data from the perspective of a from date.
Customer Service Module – Added a client fulfillment order review pop up screen. If an order header record is double clicked, this pop up screen shows all of the data associated with the order including who entered it and who last changed the status. A quick way of knowing when the items was completed and by whom without going to the web to run reports.
Scoreboard – Added an Object Requests scoreboard view to allow for grid type display of object request orders that are entered by the customer service portion of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Status Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a font color. This is used when displaying object request records in different colors.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Status Maintenance – Modified this screen to clean up the font color maintenance to implement the color drop down and swatch value to improve the look of the screen.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Type Maintenance - Modified this screen to clean up the font color maintenance to implement the color drop down and swatch value to improve the look of the screen.
Admin Web Site – Client Order Status Maintenance - Modified this screen to clean up the font color maintenance to implement the color drop down and swatch value to improve the look of the screen.
Admin Web Site – Request Status Maintenance - Modified this screen to clean up the font color maintenance to implement the color drop down and swatch value to improve the look of the screen.
Leica POU Module – Added logic to provide a scanning option to fill the extra notation field on the screen.
Admin Web Site – Client Facility Maintenance – Added the field “CourierSchedule” to allow for the “normal” time of a courier stop to be reflected. This helps for planning when a call is taken in customer service to see what the normal time is for a stop and also inside the courier order closeout screen.
Courier Closeout – Modified to show the courier schedule time and the date/time that a request was entered into the customer service module (or via the web) so that the logistics group has visibility to how long the order has existed.
Customer Service Module – Added visibility to the existing client facility courier pickup schedule on the pickup tab.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Step Maintenance – Added fields for manager approval and on demand step. The manager approval check box will drive the appearance of the maintenance step on a manager approval screen for signoff purposes. The on demand check box will determine what steps are not need for scheduling but rather for on demand types of maintenance.
Assist Order Agent – Extended this automatic order creation agent to include the ability to create equipment work orders as part of the functionality associated with the Assist preventative maintenance module.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance - Added the “Preventative Maintenance Approval” checkbox to denote whether or not an employee is authorized to approve maintenance logs
Admin Web Site – Order Agent Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the operation of the Assist order agent. This portion of the Assist tracking system is an automated schedule agent that loads multiple types of recurring orders into Assist. This report provides visibility as to the volume of orders and frequency that the job is running to the end users.
Admin Web Site – Checklist Item Maintenance - Added a check box for manager approval. This check box will drive the appearance of the checklist item on a manager approval screen for signoff purposes.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Approval – Created this screen to allow for the credential authorized saving of management approval of equipment maintenance records. This screen handles both items created via the preventative maintenance module/screens of Assist as well as the checklist functionality that can be used within many of the different modules of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Tracking Information – Extended this report to include the External order number of the shipment assuming this information was captured.
Admin Web Site – Login Process – Modified the login screen to allow for system access if the timeclock ID is provided instead of an Assist user ID. This is moving toward a single sign on type of operation where Assist will accept a universal badge ID for login to the system. While Assist already supports Active Directory authentication, there are scenarios where an Assist user may not have an Active Directory account, while they all have time clock IDs.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Added a tab to allow for the capture of Checklist area data capture. Checklist areas provide the ability to capture PM information about a physical area in the lab that are not really tied to a specific PM activity to a work session checklist. Examples would be room temperatures, whether or not a room has been cleaned, etc.
Admin Web Site – Modified the routine that displays the drop down list box of order categories to only include a category if is it active. Previously it was showing all categories, which was confusing and difficult to tell which ones were valid.
Order Closeout – Doctor Orders – Added a checkbox to allow for the override of the order category filtering. Made the pending and open order statistics adhere to the filter rules for categories as well. Added logic to have the panel on the entry screen filter based on the kit chosen and/or the panel override. Changed the “Clear” button to put the order category defaults back instead of taking back to “Not Specified”.
Doctor Module - Added logic to have the panel on the entry screen filter based on the kit chosen and/or the panel override.
Admin Web Site – Work Order Request Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the work order request status values. This is used in the Assist preventative maintenance module. Work order requests are used by employees to request a maintenance work order (i.e. a fix to equipment) from the maintenance technician group.
Customer Service Module – Added an EmailSent flag to all of the email notification tables. There was a scenario where requests were being captured without an active call and multiple emails were being sent instead of just one. The flag allows for visibility of whether or not Assist sent an email on a transaction.
Admin Web Site – Client Order Detail Report – Added the column for Sent Mail to give visibility to whether or not an email was sent when the order was created.
Admin Web Site – Client Pickup Detail Report - Added the column for Sent Mail to give visibility to whether or not an email was sent when the pickup request was created.
Admin Web Site – Client Comment Detail Report - Added the column for Sent Mail to give visibility to whether or not an email was sent when the comment was created.
Admin Web Site – Special Request Detail Report - Added the column for Sent Mail to give visibility to whether or not an email was sent when the request was created.
Admin Web Site – Work Order Request Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of work order requests. This is part of the Preventative Maintenance section of Assist. This screen can be used by employees to send a request for support from the maintenance technicians in the facility.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Added a tab to handle work order requests along with an alert button on the first tab. This provides a maintenance technician visibility to work order requests that are being made by employees as they are entered and provides them the ability to close out requests while in the field working.
Admin Web Site – Work Order Request Report – Created this report to provide visibility to all of the work order requests that are made by employees for preventative maintenance transactions.
Main Scanner Engine – Added the Work Order request tab inside the equipment assignment to allow for assignment requests.
Main Scanner Engine – Added the ability to search for QC notes on an accession number at both the requisition and bottle level. Previously, this feature was only available on a cassette or slide scan transaction.
Admin Web Site – Accession Object Count Report – Created this report to provide visibility to object count data by accession number for facilities that perform bulk quantity scanning of objects. Bulk scanning is done where an accession object is scanned and a quantity is keyed rather than scanning each object in the group.
Main Scanner Engine – Added the ad hoc preventative maintenance capability from inside the equipment assignment section of the screen. When this button is pressed, the technician can enter maintenance procedures and steps that were performed on any of the equipment that is assigned to their screen configuration (i.e. the microtome and water batch at Microtomy). This provides the ability to keep track of the “once in a while” things that are done at a station.
Admin Web Site – Facility Maintenance – Added a check box for “Equipment Facility” to allow for the extension of the facility master table to indicate facilities as equipment tracking facilities or not. This is used as part of the object tracking/preventative maintenance section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Facility Location Maintenance – Added a check box for “Equipment Location” to allow for the extension of the facility location table to indicate locations as equipment tracking locations. This is used as part of the object tracking/preventative maintenance section of Assist.
Distribution Module – Added the ability on the utility pop up screen to see the distribution location and the manifest number that a case was assigned to when it was originally distributed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Step Details Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment step details. These are the various details steps associated with preventative maintenance steps and are used in the Assist PM module. An example would be a maintenance step of “Annual Maintenance” with detail steps that outline all of the components of this “parent” step.
Check In Module – Provided the ability for the void button to put accession numbers back into the grossing processor batch.
PM Module – Added a last maintained user and date to the equipment maintenance table.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Modified to include the saving of the last maintained user and date for better tracking of who is making changes. This same change was made to the main PM client, so this change added the same feature to web maintenance.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance History Report – Modified this report to show the last maintained date and user.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Work Order Maintenance – Added last maintained user and date capture to this maintenance screen and allowed for comments to be entered.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Work Order Report – Added the last maintained user/date and comments to this report.
PM Module – Provided capability of an equipment maintenance save transaction to close out any open work orders for the equipment/step that is done.
PM Module – On the PM Outstanding detail tab, added the Pending status if the order has been moved to pending along with comments and the ability to maintain them. This allows a technician to mark a PM work order step as in process and to note any issues stopping completion of the work order item.
Leica POU – Modified to require a user be logged in before allowing for a manual print. Previously, this was not required.

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April 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Scanner Engine – Added a configuration value to allow for the maximum value for the slide quantity to be specified/enforced for collection points where a slide quantity is being used.
Doctor Closeout – Provided the ability for the closing of a doctor order to automatically generate an outbound distribution record for the doctor that placed the order. Some labs do not pass special stain orders back through distribution since they are a specific doctor request. This new feature allows for a distribution record to be generated for tracking regardless of whether or not the distribution department is utilized.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the slide protocols drop down. Doctor orders have not previously been tied directly to protocol groups (i.e. Accession Slide Count maintenance) to allow for protocols to be known. This marries them up.
Admin Web Site – Phone Type Maintenance – Added a Fax type flag to allow for the marking of phone types as fax or not.
Admin Web Site – Call Reason Maintenance – Modified this screen to include an active flag along with a default request template (if needed).
Customer Service Module – Modified to have the request template on the “requests” tab changes when the call reason on the first tab is changed if a default template is associated with the call reason.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Status Maintenance – Modified this maintenance to include a flag to denote a status as “customer service only”. This allows for a status setting such as “send to compliance” that would put an object request into a pending status from a customer service perspective while the closeout screen can be tweaked to ignore any requests with a “customer service only” status.
Admin Web Site – Material Requested Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of lists of materials that might be requested as part of the object request template (i.e. send outs) inside the Assist customer service module. Examples would include: Blocks, Slides, etc.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Report – Added the material requested description to the details of this report.
Admin Web Site – Employee Productivity Summary Report – Added an employee drop down choice to the selection criteria to allow this report to be run for a single employee.
Customer Service Module – Added the material requested drop down choice to the object requested special request template.
Admin Web Site – Call Type Maintenance – Modified to include a patient flag and a non-client flag to allow for further stratification of the types of calls that are coming into the facility.
Accessioning Module – Modified the print label routine inside the module. If the setting is made, the printing of the bottle label will automatically close the print panel and return to the main screen. Also, introduced two additional label templates into the module. Both of them are compatible with Cognitive printers and provide extra choices.
Accessioning Module – Added logic in the configuration to allow for the size of the bottle bar code to be easily modified. Also added the ability to control the label identifier (i.e. Bottle, Req) to show on the labels.
Accessioning Module – When the manual login process was used, the queue loader settings were not being checked in the same manner as when a badge scan was performed. This was preventing the correct default of the cassette printer. This was corrected.
Admin Web Site – Requesting Entity Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of requesting entities. This data is part of the Assist customer service module and is specifically found on the object request template of the special requests tab where send out orders are tracked.
Customer Service Module – Added multiple fields to the object request special request template. Added the material requested, requesting entity, shipment type, shipment account number, and shipment name on account.
Assist Scanner Engine – The scan of the reset bar code takes the user to the parent object from where the error was made. Pressing the reset button just cleared the error and allowed for immediate scanning off the child object. The button functionality was changed to match the bar code scan.
Warehouse Module – Modified so that when drop down boxes are shown for cabinet and drawer that they are still capable of being scanned to position. The drawer scan will switch cabinets.
Warehouse Module – Bulk Filing Screen – Modified the method used to calculate the range. This was not pulling back the from/to range of accession numbers accurately. Also added a “Clear” button to allow for the counts to be turned back to zero and the list of pending accession numbers for the transaction to be cleared.
Doctor Module – Image Processing – Added the ability to show images associated with a case on a new tab for that purpose. They are automatically loaded when a case is scanned but also allows for specific retrieval of images using the selection criteria on the tab. This entire tab can be hidden from view if image processing is not needed.
Warehouse – Added the configurable ability to turn on tracking of all inquiries that are performed inside the warehouse module. This is done to indicate who is looking up cases to handle a situation where they may not scan them out per SOP but would give an indication of who actually was researching what cases.
Leica Slide POU – Modified this screen to give the ability to have a “scan only” checkbox that can be shown and activated to only scan cassettes without printing slides for controls and such.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Inquiry Tracking Report – Created this report to provide management visibility to which employees are looking up which cases in the warehouse software.
Scanner Engine – Provided the ability to use a delimiter value and count setting in the auto configuration table to switch configurations for the parent object on the screen. This allows for automatic configuration flipping between number wheel formats when the parent object has no object identifier.

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May 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Location Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of location interface types. These types are used for the categorization of any Assist interfaces that exist for the location (i.e. site database).
Warehouse Module – Drawer Transfer – Modified the drawer transfer routine to include an audit log to indicate who transferred a drawer.
Warehouse Module – Cabinet Transfer – Modified the cabinet transfer routine to include an audit log to indicate who transferred a cabinet.
Admin Web Site – Storage Drawer Audit Report – Created this report to display the audit log information generated when a drawer is moved to a different cabinet in the Assist warehouse module.
Admin Web Site – Storage Cabinet Audit Report – Created this report to display the audit log information generated when a cabinet is moved to a different warehouse location in the Assist warehouse module.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Drawer Transfer – Modified this screen to check for capacity limitations on the destination cabinet when a drawer transfer is performed. This is only done when the destination cabinet indicates that there is a capacity (i.e. a non-zero value in the capacity field).
Admin Web Site – Number Wheel Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of templates for the printing rules of cassettes, slides, and labels based on the number wheel (accession prefix).
Doctor Closeout – Modified this screen to slightly change the logic associated with displaying a font priority color on the order types. When changing the font color, the logic will not only consider “open” components of the order when setting the color. Previously, it would flag an order font color as a high priority color even if all of the high priority components were closed giving a false priority rating.
Doctor Module – Modified the panel override checkbox logic. If an order category is specified that does not allow panels (i.e. kits) OR if there are NO panels built even if they are allowed, turn on the panel override to allow for detailed order type selection immediately.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the ability to specify an abbreviation for the distribution location for use on screens and reports where the full location name is too long to fit easily.
Admin Web Site – Number Wheel Template Details – Created this maintenance screen to handle the maintenance of number wheel template details. This allows for the variables that are custom between different label templates (i.e. slides, cassettes, labels) to be specified and associated with different templates at the number wheel level for advanced lab printing flexibility of object formats.
Admin Web Site – Number Wheel Template Type Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to handle the creation of number wheel template types.
Warehouse Module – Drawer Purge Screen – Added this new screen to the warehouse module to allow for the bulk delete of all objects in a drawer. This is a very dangerous feature, but for facilities that store their objects (cassettes and slides) by date, this allows for the purging of the entire drawer rather than having to scan each object. Drop down lists are available and/or drawer bar code scanning is available as a choice.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Detail Listing – Fixed a bug where distribution data was not being retrieved correctly in the report.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Maintenance – Added a “Requires Training” checkbox to this maintenance screen to introduce the ability to tie training records into manufacturing task scanning.
Admin Web Site – Training Task Authorization Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of task training authorization. This is used for keeping track of training records and which employees have been approved for performing specific maintenance tasks based on training records.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to allow for input of the LISCrossReference field.
Scoreboard – Modified to allow for the user name to be suppressed on generic graphs. Previously, the suppress employee name feature was not available on generic graphs.
Admin Web Site – Scoreboard Generic Details Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the indication of whether or not employee names should be suppressed on generic scoreboards.
Main Scanner – Modified the add on block/slide button screen to add to the last cassette number to already anticipate what is needed if the configuration is set to do so.
Grossing Point of Use – Added the specimen notes button and logic to this module.
Grossing Point of Use – Added the specimen type display and override logic to have the point of use module provide the same functionality as the regular grossing module.
Grossing Point of Use – Modified this module to allow the specimen type abbreviation to be passed onto a cassette as instructions.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to allow for the specimen type abbreviation to be brought forward and propagate into the instructions field, which prints on the cassette, if no other method of identifying the instructions has been specified.
Grossing Point of Use – Modified to add the configuration change button.
Doctor Module – Added accession notes to the “Information” tab inside this module. The notes have been “branded” as lab alerts and are intended as a real time method for a doctor to communicate information about an accession number (i.e. case) to the lab. Examples would be “missing slides, quality issues, etc.”. They type of communication that would typically be done via email without any tracking record of them for long term analysis. Also modified the specimen notes button to show a red background if there are specimen or accession notes on the case so that visibility can be provided to both types of notes. The font of the radial button on the information tab will change colors to reflect which (or both) has notes.
Doctor Closeout – Modified this module to add a color alert button to any accession notes that are created by the doctor module. This provides the lab with visibility to notifications from the doctor(s) to address various issues. The ability to acknowledge the note is present so that they can be “closed out” and also provide visibility back to the doctor that the note has been seen and the request is being addressed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Modified to include the Slide Stainer check box to mark a type of equipment as a slide stainer to allow for specific logic in the various modules of Assist to deal with staining.
Scanner Engine – Created the logic flow to allow for the writing of stain queue records for the driving of the slide stainer from the Assist bar code.
Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Loader Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance over the stain queue loader table. This table allows for the customization of stain queue defaults for sites that are using the Assist slide staining integration components.
Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of slide stain queues. These queues are logical areas where stain records are submitted during scanning at Microtomy to generate stain records that can be released to slide stainers.

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June 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of stain queue status values. These values are used to indicate at what workflow status an accession number resides when being processed in a slide stainer via the stain queue.
Warehouse – Bulk Move – Modified the bulk move screen to allow for the creation of a range of accession numbers by looking into the Assist database and pulling back transactions where the object was scanned. This allows for more “intelligent” creation of drawers full of blocks or slides when the warehouse module was not implemented at the beginning of an Assist installation.
Warehouse Module – Created the drawer transfer screen utility menu option. This option allows for the migration of data from an existing drawer to a new drawer. After moving the objects (i.e. slides, cassettes, requisitions), it clears the original drawer to make it available for re-use. This is typically done when a lab uses metal cabinets and will be emptying these cabinets into cardboard boxes (or something of that nature) to go into long term storage and the original drawers will be used again.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Template Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of the object type when specifying the layout of a warehouse template (i.e. cassette, slide, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Auto Configuration Identifier Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the identifier code, which allows for automatic configuration mode switching to be increased to 5 characters instead of 1 to allow for more complicated switching scenarios.
Main Scanner Engine – Modified the logic associated with auto configuration to take into account more complicated switching algorithms.
Warehouse Module – Modified the cabinet/drawer template screen to include the object type when creating the cabinet and drawer in the database.
Slide Queue – Added a configuration choice to support the concept of different LIS/Number wheel formats having different object identifiers.
Warehouse Module – Added a drawer object count text box to the screen to show how many objects are already in the drawer. Also modified the capacity logic to look at this number and compare it to the drawer capacity if capacity enforcement is activated.
Slide Queue – Fixed an issue with the slide queue that could cause duplicate slides. This was only an issue in labs using the LIS Pathway and specimen type protocol integration. If an individual accession number had used a different specimen type in a prior year from the current year and the specimen type detail tracking data from prior years has not been archived, it would pull both sets of specimen type protocols and print slides for both sets of protocols but with the current year location identifier on the slide. This ONLY happens in Pathway labs.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the cassette and slide templates to the maintenance. This allows for customized cassette and slide printing by number wheel to provide relatively infinite capability of supporting templates and customization for multiple sites and LIS formats.
Document Management – Added LIS Interface table connectivity to show the patient name when a requisition is scanned for verification/information purposes.
Cassette Queue – Modified the cassette queue to take advantage of the new logic where cassette templates can be stored at the number wheel level. This allows each number wheel in a lab to have a custom set of variables and label layout. When each cassette is read out of the queue, it will load the appropriate template and begin printing using that custom layout.
Slide Queue - Modified the slide queue to take advantage of the new logic where slide templates can be stored at the number wheel level. This allows each number wheel in a lab to have a custom set of variables and label layout. When each slide is read out of the queue, it will load the appropriate template and begin printing using that custom layout.
Warehouse Module – Drawer/Cabinet Storage – Modified the utility screen that allows a drawer to be moved between cabinets. Changed to allow for the specification of the two lines of description and the vendor cross reference field when performing the move transaction.
Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry – Added the vendor cross reference and both description lines from the storage drawer as part of the selection criteria for looking up objects. This would be very helpful when attempting to retrieve objects that have been sent off site where the vendor cross reference is known.
Main Scanner Engine – Removed the logic that has been inside the scanner engine since inception to put data into a local Access database in the theory that the software could run locally if the database was down. Given the complexity of the software since the early stage when this was added, the local database capability was no longer feasible and was adversely impacting performance, so it was removed.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report – Added a department drop down box to the selection criteria. This allows for the filtering of employees for an entire employee department instead of just by collection group or to further subdivide the employee grouping as necessary.
Admin Web Site – Storage Drawer Maintenance – Modified the drawer maintenance screen to include the description line 1, description line 2, vendor cross reference, and object type fields for additional information specification about a warehouse drawer.
Admin Web Site – Storage Cabinet Maintenance – Modified the cabinet maintenance screen to include the object type field.
Admin Web Site – Auto Assignment Inquiry – Correct an error in this report where Doctor/Case Type preferences were not getting filtered correctly in all cases. This correction is only relevant for sites that are using auto distribution.
Distribution Module – Modified this module to include the tracking of whether or not an override was performed when the Assist auto assignment logic is overridden. This is only applicable for sites that use Assist auto distribution.
Warehouse Module – Drawer/Cabinet Transfer Screen – Modified to work with drop down boxes for navigating to the correct cabinet rather than requiring bar codes be scanned.
Warehouse Module – Cabinet/Warehouse Transfer Screen – Modified to work with drop down boxes for navigating to the correct warehouse location rather than requiring bar codes be scanned.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the equipment interface data. This will be used as part of the equipment/stain queue section of Assist where the location for the drop area on the network is specified.
Leica Microtomy POU – Modified this module to include the verification threshold warning. This starts counting scan transactions when logged into the module using a verification badge. It warns if more than 5 scans are performed.
Leica Microtomy POU – Include the logic to write to the stain queue if the stain queue logic is in place in the lab.
Admin Web Site – Stain Protocol Cross Reference – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the stain protocol cross reference table. The information entered in this table is part of the stain interface between Assist and slide strainers and allows for a cross reference from an Assist protocol value and the control value (code) that will drive a slide stainer.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Added an “Active Only” check box for the criteria when retrieving accession prefixes to curtail the displayed list. Also added a dropdown box for LIS so that the LIS associated with the number wheel can be tracked.
Admin Web Site - Auto Configuration Identifier Maintenance – Added a dropdown box for LIS so that the LIS associated with the auto configuration can be specified.
Admin Web Site – LIS Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of LIS records which can be associated with number wheels.
Admin Web Site – Work Task Tracking Report – Added the manual entry flag to this report to allow for visibility as to whether or not the time records were entered manually via the time tracking module or web site.
Admin Web Site – Work Task Tracking Maintenance – If a record is maintained via this screen, turned on the manual entry flag so there was visibility to the fact that the data was generated manually.
Work Task Tracking Module – Added the ability to record tasks and date/time information after the fact via the manual entry view (if enabled). Also made several cosmetic and/or end user convenience changes.
Quality Module – Modified the accession prefix drop down so that it reflects the location identifier along with the accession prefix to cut down on confusion for labs that use Pathway and have repeating prefixes (really suffixes).
Admin Web Site – Stain Equipment Cross Reference – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of stain equipment cross references. This is part of the stain queue logic inside Assist where stain tracking is enabled. This set of data allows for the overriding of protocols if a specific equipment type is used when the stain is sent to a machine for loading and it has different protocols from “normal”.
Warehouse Module – Fixed the name of the Drawer/Cabinet cross reference screen where a drawer can be moved into a different cabinet. Previously, this screen was showing “Cabinet/Warehouse” in the screen header in error.
Admin Web Site – Database Definitions Maintenance – Modified this screen to support an alternate description for explanation purposes. Also extended for a courier pickup flag, a remote location number, and a stain queue flag. This table allows for “alternate” database to the primary Assist database to be specified. The flags for Courier and Stain Queue allow for those specific modules to expand the data shown to include other locations for redundancy or shared data responsibilities. For example, if a slide stainer is down is one location of a large laboratory corporation, the slide stain queue in another site can have visibility to the stain requests that have been submitted so that they can process the staining for the original site to better serve customers and their turnaround time needs.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report – Extended this report to include a column of data that was collected by the work task tracking module of Assist if it is used by a facility. The tasks collected are associated with collection groups and the task data will be collected at the group level if any were specified.
Admin Web Site – Work Task Maintenance – Extended this maintenance screen to allow for the inclusion of a data collection point group when a task is specified. This allows the work task time to be allocated out to the various collection groups where an employee would have logged non-direct label task time for sites that make use of this feature.
Manufacturing Module – Modified this module to “embed” all popup windows in the main screen to keep from spawning additional windows which can make display challenging in multiple monitor deployments where the popup is thrown to a screen other than the one where the user was sitting.
Document Capture Module – Extended the functionality of this module to allow it to operate with TWAIN devices instead of solely web cams. This allows the module to be used with multiple scanners and fixed cameras that support the universal TWAIN standard.
PM Module – PM Outstanding Tab – Added the equipment short description to the record listing of outstanding PM items for more clarity on which piece of equipment requires maintenance.
PM Module – PM Outstanding Tab – Added the last maintained date and user to the pending information so that the employee that marked the item pending is shown along with when they performed the transaction.
PM Module – Equipment Tab – Modified the equipment master maintenance tab so that it would preload to any equipment type and/or equipment master selection that had been made on the main PM tab. Previously, the same selections had to be made again if a change to the equipment being maintained needed to be made.
PM Module – PM Outstanding Tab – Added a checkbox for “Product Filter” to allow for ALL outstanding PM records to be displayed at once in the list view rather than just displaying them for the selected piece of equipment. This can be toggled back and forth to specific equipment records or all for the maintenance tech that might be walking the floor with the client software looking at punch list items rather than printing a list at the beginning of their shift.
PM Module – Modified to allow for scan transactions of equipment bar codes to drive the selection of the valid values in the drop down lists as well as when the screen is displayed in the mode where there are no dropdown boxes. Also allowed for a manual override of the user ID box so that manual keying a valid ID can be done as well as scanning into the box.
PM Module – Cross Reference Bar Code – Extended the module to allow for the addition of a cross reference bar code to the equipment master section of the database. The maintenance tab allows for this data to be maintained. This allows for the entry of an “external” bar code that Assist will recognize as the bar code for the equipment outside of using the Assist database equipment number. For sites that order pre-printed fixed asset tags, this allows for the assignment of these fixed asset bar code tags and have Assist recognize them and match them to equipment when scanned.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Made modifications to support the cross-reference bar code. The reasoning behind this change is outlined above under “PM Module – Cross Reference Bar Code”.
Admin Web Site – Billing Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of billing status records. A new tie from case scan transactions is being created to allow for a billing queue to indicate what cases are complete and ready for billing. This status table provides for the concept of open, closed, and pending.
Admin Web Site – Billing Queue Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of billing queue records. This is part of the new billing tie into Assist.

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July 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Document Capture Module – Added a scanner features checkbox that displays the various scanner features that can be tweaked by the end user to modify the manner in which the TWAIN driver returns images.
Scanner Module – Added the ability to show accession notes in addition to the specimen notes inside the notes button embedded display. Also provided the ability to specify the text precursor for each (i.e. SN = Specimen Notes, AN = Accession Notes).
Scanner Module – Provided the ability to suppress the pieces alert if it is specified by it is the value of “1”. This allows a lab to always include the tissue piece count without having an audible alert to cut down on noise. Previously, the SOP would be to not include the pieces count if it was one, or to turn off all alerts.
Scanner Module – Label Queue – Added the ability to send data to the print center label queue for screen load only rather than full automated printing. This is valuable for labs that use label printing but want to be able to override data. Also added the label queue to which the screen is tethered underneath the scan history.
Print Center – Label Queue – Modified the label queue to support a drop down for protocols for overriding pass through specimen type protocols and also to allow for ad hoc printing of different protocols for a specimen.
Print Center – Label Queue – Resolved an issue with specimen type tracking and the label queue. If a specimen was scanned that had at some point had a specimen type changed on it, the label queue would duplicate the labels for the case due to the fact that it was not considering only ACTIVE specimen type records. This was changed to only look at active records.
Scanner Engine – Specimen Notes Button – Modified this button so that after entering any specimen notes the back color of the button immediately becomes red to indicate that notes exist. This reduces the concern where someone wonders if they remembered whether or not they had entered the notes.
Scanner Engine – Specimen Type Protocol Button – Created this button on the main scanner engine to allow for a user to see the slide protocols and magazine that will be accessed by a specimen type. The drop down on this view will default to the active specimen type that has been selected by the specimen being processed, but the button can be used to interrogate all of the specimen types to determine the protocol mix associated with them as needed.
Scanner Engine – Quick QC Removal – Provided the ability for a single bar code value (customizable) to be used to remove any QC notes on a specimen that originated from the user logged into Assist. This is to streamline the removal of erroneous QC messages without having to go into the QC pop up screen.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold History Report – Modified this report to include the machine name and scanner port that generated the transactions.
Scanner Engine – Added a new button to allow for Case Hold transactions to be generated from inside the main scanning engine without the screen being configured as solely a case hold station. This provides the functionality for “Grossing Hold” or “Decalcification” from inside the main module. There is also now an information warning that is generated at any point in the workflow if a case hold is encountered to request that the employee release the case, but it does not stop processing, it is a note like QC and can be silent or not based on the configuration.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Specimen Log Report – Modified to add a column to include specimen notes which can be suppressed with a check box on the screen. Also added the case hold reason description.
Scanner Engine – Specimen Notes Capture – Modified the specimen notes capture process to keep the note creator and created date.
Admin Web Site – Missing Objects Report – Modified this report to include the location identifier when looking for missing objects to better support the identification of missing specimens.
Admin Web Site – Missing Objects Report – Modified this report to include a column for the case hold information. Also corrected an issue where the collection from/to groups were not pulling correctly.
Check In Module – Manufacturing Auto Task – Created the ability for the check in scan transaction (or batch load) to generate a manufacturing task record for the loading of the cases to be used for piece rate tracking for facilities using the manufacturing tracking portions of Assist.
Check In Module – Billing Queue Auto Generation – Created the ability for the check in scan transaction (or batch load) to generate a billing queue record. This is then used for the billing queue scoreboard and close out module for facilities that use the loading of cases onto equipment as a trigger to bill the case or inform billing that the case has reached that point in manufacturing.
Admin Web Site – Client/Specimen Type Case Count Report – Created this report to allow for the display of case counts by client/specimen type.
Accessioning Module – Modified the Accession notes section to include stored comments.
Scanner Engine – Specimen Notes – Added the ability to include stored comment type so that comments for any category can be used, but the comment type DOES default to the type that is most common for the collection point.
Scanner Engine – Scan Object Order – Created logic to allow for enforcing the scan order of objects (i.e. bottles, cassettes) for sites that want to enforce order. An override checkbox is also provided to allow for this logic to be bypassed.
Scanner Engine – Case Definition – Added a new feature to allow for the definition of a case to be displayed when the requisition is scanned. This would typically be used at a grossing station. When the requisition is scanned, all components of the case are retrieve and displayed in tree view so that the parent/child can be expanded and collapsed. This provides the grosser with visibility of what parts the case contains. A toggle check box can move from case definition to scan history.
Accessioning Module – Pulled the specifications for X/Y coordinates on bottle print logic out of the code and placed into the configuration so that label text/bar code objects can be moved around as needed without having to update software.
Print Center – Multiple Label Print - Pulled the specifications for X/Y coordinates on bottle print logic out of the code and placed into the configuration so that label text/bar code objects can be moved around as needed without having to update software.
Scanner Engine – Block/Slide Magazine Check – Modified the slide queue writing routine to check for a magazine override from the instructions table in case those are in play.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Modified to include the “Block/Slide Magazine Override” flag to the slide recipe section of the maintenance to provide functionality to pull a magazine for the slide the block instructions. This provides additional color/routing choices.
Slide Queue – Modified to take the “Block/Slide magazine override” into consideration when deciding which magazine to pull slides from when printing (see above).
Admin Web Site – Inventory Detail Maintenance – Modified this screen to include expiration date and quantity on hand to better support inventory management.
Preventative Maintenance – Modified to allow for the outstanding PM list to be used to position the other screens/tabs/drop down list boxes to the equipment type, equipment and steps being maintained to provide for streamlined selection.
Document Capture Module – Modified to allow for a “show image after save” choice when performing a TWAIN scan.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Layout Report – Extended this report to provide the option of displaying the various record numbers for warehouse, area, etc. Also added an object count to show what is in those locations in terms of summary totals and added alternatives for sort order and object type as criteria.
Admin Web Site – Missing Objects Report – Corrected an issue with the “last touched” column where the data was not always accurate.
Manufacturing Module – When the image capture panel is called for taking ad hoc pictures, it was leaving the web cam active upon closing the screen. Modified this routine to close out the camera on exit and reestablish connection on launch.
Admin Web Site - Task Time Tracking Report – Added the comments column to this report.
Admin Web Site – Task Time Maintenance – added the ability to maintain comments to this screen to allow for task time records to have comments attached.
Admin Web Site – Chemical Machine Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of templates that are used by the chemical/machine assignment section of Assist where chemical lot numbers are associated with accession numbers as they are processed.
Work Task Tracking – Added the ability to associate comments with a time tracking record. Added stored comment drop down lists for ease of entry.
Admin Web Site – Day End Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include two new fields: Number Wheel Choice and Last Accession Choice. These two choices, represented as checkboxes, will allow for the day end agent to now specify a day end transaction by number wheel and to allow for the recording of the last accession number used on that number wheel. This can be very beneficial for multi-site facilities to keep up with last transactions when their shifts end at different times such as at multiple hospital grossing facilities.
Admin Web Site – Day End Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the number wheel and last accession number. This allows for the specification of day end transactions by number wheel and to allow for the capture of the last accession number used on that number wheel.
Admin Web Site – Day End Report – Modified this report to include the number wheel and last accession number fields.
Day End Utility – Modified the Assist day end utility to support the concept of day end by number wheel and to also allow for the capture of the last used accession number. This can be very beneficial for multi-site facilities to keep up with last transactions when their shifts end at different times such as at multiple hospital grossing facilities.
Warehouse – Modified the warehouse module to correct an issue where outbound scans were incrementing the position counter for a drawer.

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August 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Warehouse Duplicate Object Report – Created this report to allow for the reporting of accession numbers in the warehouse that are indicating storage in multiple locations. This allows for auditing of potential clean up needs.
Check In Module – Chemical/Component Lot Assignment – Added functionality to allow for the assignment of chemicals/component lot tracking.
Report Maintenance – The screen quadrant was not loading correctly when a report was being modified (for Use Application Tracking feature). This was causing reports to move around on the report driver screen if the Assist administrator was not careful performing updates.
Screen Maintenance - The screen quadrant was not loading correctly when a screen was being modified (for Use Application Tracking feature). This was causing screens to move around on the screen driver if the Assist administrator was not careful performing updates.
Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – Added 4 new flags to the order category table to be able to further stratify order reporting by the functional area of the order(s). Added HistologyFlag, CytologyFlag, ENFDFlag, and FISHFlag.
Admin Web Site – Order Status Maintenance – Extended this maintenance screen to include the ability to specify an order status type filter. This will be used to filter out the various types of order statuses that are shown in the doctor closeout screen.
Admin Web Site – Order Status Filter Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of order status filter types. This data will be used to filter the status values that are shown in the order closeout screen to cut down on visual clutter on the screens.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Added maintenance capability for an ActiveFlag to inactive types and a field to store EquipmentUtilizationLimits. This numeric value will be used as a default to the equipment master table where the number of objects passing through a piece of equipment can generate a preventative maintenance/calibration order automatically.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Step Maintenance – Modified this screen to support the “UseEquipmentUtilizationLimit” checkbox which will allow the preventative maintenance agent that automatically generates PM jobs to determine if PM steps should be created if the utilization of a piece of equipment goes beyond the limitation count.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Extended this maintenance screen to allow for the entry of the utilization limit. It will default from the equipment type if no other record has been specified.
Scanner Engine – Modified this module to allow for the writing of equipment utilization records which captures each piece of equipment associated with a scanning session and applies this to the accession numbers as they are scanned in order to know what equipment touched what accession numbers.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Made the changes to the equipment maintenance tab inside the PM module to include the equipment utilization limit field.
Check In Module - Modified this module to allow for the writing of equipment utilization records which captures each piece of equipment associated with a scanning session and applies this to the accession numbers as they are scanned in order to know what equipment touched what accession numbers. This works whether batch mode is used or individual scans are performed.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Detail Report – Moved the SOURCE column next to the employee name based on end user request. The source (i.e. where the scan transaction was generated) was off the right and sometimes required a user to scroll horizontally to see the collection point.
Main Scanner Engine – Corrected issue where specimen type tracking could get created in error. If a “grossing override” was performed of the specimen type, but AFTER a cassette scan with multiple part information (i.e. A2), the specimen type would get created as A-2 which would make it subsequently not pull correctly since the specimen information should be at the bottle level.
Order Closeout – Put the logic in place to allow for the filtering of status values using the application of the order status filter type.
Warehouse Module – Modified this module so that the selection of a drawer either via the dropdown list or by scanning will change the object type to match the object type of the drawer if one was specified.
Quality Control Module – Added an “Acknowledge” check box to the QC entry tab to allow for the idea of a quality administrator or manager acknowledging errors that have been made for tracking purposes.
Quality Control Module – On the QC Information tab, added selection criteria to the top of the QA grid to allow for multiple records to be retrieved at once for review. Previously, only one case at a time could be retrieved from the criteria on the top part of the screen.
Admin Web Site – QC Report – Modified the main quality report to include the acknowledged flag and also added to the selection criteria. Cleaned the report up to make it more visually appealing by lining up fields in the selection criteria area.
Quality Control Module – Removed the Patient First and Patient Last fields and replaced with Patient Name. Also added a button to allow for the pulling of patient name information from the LIS interface in Assist if this is active.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Machine Assignment Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the inventory machine assignment table. This is the table that holds the Assist scan stations and what inventory items (i.e. Chemicals and lot tracking components) are currently associated with a station. This includes lot numbers and expiration dates.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Corrected issue where Facility locations were not loading correctly to the screen on the equipment maintenance tab. The data was saving, it was just not being retrieved to reflect the maintenance that had been performed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Added the “CheckInEnabled” flag to the maintenance screen to provide for greater flexibility in using the equipment drop down inside the Check In module. This flag will now drive the equipment that shows in the dropdown box on the check in screen.
Check In Module – Modified this module to filter equipment based on equipment type, the check in enabled flag, or both. This provides greater flexibility for filtering valid equipment choices in the dropdown box.
Admin Web Site – Tissue Size Maintenance – Added multiple fields to this maintenance screen. Active flag, Equipment Capacity, Always available flag, and an equipment dropdown box. This will be used in the extensions that are being made to the check in module to provide extended run length and equipment capacity tracking/reporting. Added the equipment type filter to the selection criteria to allow for filtering out just tissue values for specific equipment.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Complete Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the shipment complete table. There will be data in this table if the shipment tracking feature of the manufacturing module is used where outbound vendor shipping is tracked. It indicates when a tracking number has been fully shipped or verification scanned.
Check In Module – Added logic to have the selection of the equipment value filter the run length drop down box to reflect specific run lengths that are associated with the equipment and to also provide the ability to display or hide the “Always Available” choices.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of medical types that will be used with the diagnosis modifications and grossing notes modifications that are going into the doctor module and grossing module respectively.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Equipment Template Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the lot tracking/equipment section of Assist. This allows for the assignment of lot components to equipment that are different from an Assist station. This is relevant for the check in module and other modules where multiple pieces of equipment are serviced by a single Assist station.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of medical code categories that will be used with the diagnosis modifications inside the doctor module. This allows for the categorization and quick retrieval of diagnosis codes.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of medical codes. These will be used with the diagnosis modifications inside the doctor module.
Admin Web Site – Medical Comment Code Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of medical comment codes. These will be used with the diagnosis modifications inside the doctor module.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Report – Created this report to allow for the display of grossing notes that can be captured during the processing of a specimen at grossing.
Admin Web Site – Work Task Maintenance – Extended this maintenance screen to include a checkbox for “Allow Scheduling”. This provides the ability to note specific tasks as capable of being assigned to a calendar.
Accessioning Module – Added the ability to not prompt for a patient name when on the same accession number as different bottles are scanned. Changed display to show the active patient name.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of status values associated with the office queue.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of office queue types. These types allow for the categorization of office queue transactions.
Scanner Engine – Component/Lot Tracking – Modified this screen to pull information at the inventory type level when displaying component templates rather than at the inventory level.
Admin Web Site - Inventory Detail Maintenance – Added ProductNumber to the maintenance screen to allow for entry of the vendor product number.
Admin Web Site - Inventory Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of inventory categories which will be used to group inventory items together (ex. Office Supplies, Laboratory Supplies, Chemicals, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Inventory Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for inventory types to be assigned to inventory categories for better organization.
Doctor Module – Completed the diagnosis tab to allow for doctor diagnosis data to be tracked and stored.
Doctor Module – Images tab – Added the ability to save, delete images and associate them with the medical report for diagnosis.
Main Scanner Engine – Added functionality to allow for the capture of specimen measurements and grossing notes. Put a button on the main screen to show this information if relevant. Grossing notes and measurements are then available to other touch points inside Assist and can also be delivered to the doctor module.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Type Suppression Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the suppression of specific types of office queue traffic from the office queue closeout screen.

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September 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Body Source Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of body sources, which are used in the diagnosis section of the doctor module and grossing notes to indicate the spot on the patient body from which a specimen is derived.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Report – Extended this report to include the body source and clinical information fields which have been added to the grossing notes capture area of the main scanner engine.
Admin Web Site – Medical Billing Code Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of medical billing codes.
Admin Web Site – Medical Service Code Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of medical service codes.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow the enforcement of uniqueness of short codes.
Doctor Module – Active Images – Added the ability to write a record to the active images table on the retrieval of a case. This will be used when using the image viewer to automatically show an image (typically an Rx) when a case is retrieved.
Doctor Order Closeout – Modified the closeout to allow for the automatic creation of office queue records when a new doctor order is encountered in the order closeout screen. This allows for the office queue creation whether the doctor module is the source of the order or if it was submitted manually via the closeout screen.
Active Image Viewer Module – Created this new image viewer module. When launched, the software monitors the active images table and automatically displays any images that are found. This works in conjunction with the doctor module. When a case is retrieved, a record can be written to the active image table (i.e. requisition scanned image). This new module can be placed on a second monitor and can immediately display the RX is a full screen scenario to allow a doctor to go paperless with the requisition.
Main Scanner Engine – Grossing Notes – Added body source and clinical information fields to the grossing notes pop up window to allow for comprehensive capture of information associated with the capture of grossing notes.
Main Scanner Engine – Added a display button and view for the employee work calendar. This is the feature set where tasks can be associated with employees. This button gives employees visibility as to which employee has the tasks assigned for the given date. Examples would be taking out trash, emptying water baths, etc. These would be tasks that are assigned to employees on a rotating calendar basis.
Admin Web Site – Active Image Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of active images. The active image database table allows for the immediate display of information in the active image module when a picture is sent to the table. This maintenance screen was created to allow for the “flushing” of any records that might get there by mistake or to allow images to be “sent” to a machine.
Check In Module – Modified this module to add a “downtime” button to allow for the marking of equipment as “down”. A second button allows the equipment to be taken back on line with the total elapsed time it was non-operational being tracked. While not operational, the equipment does not show up as a choice for loading. The button to bring back on line can be hidden to force the preventative maintenance module or a manager to be authorized to mark as active again.
Admin Web Site - Equipment Master Maintenance – Modified to include a check box to mark equipment as using inventory slots (chemicals loaded into a tissue processor or slide stainer) along with a maximum number of slots that can be assigned to a piece of equipment.
Admin Web Site - Equipment Downtime Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the equipment downtime table to provide visibility to equipment that has been down along with the elapsed time.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Downtime Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the equipment downtime table. This allows for bringing equipment back on line and for the complete creation of a downtime record if necessary.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Added the UseInventorySlots and MaximumInventorySlots fields to the equipment master maintenance section of this module.
Admin Web Site – Active Image Maintenance – added the ability to maintain the accession prefix and number fields to the maintenance screen.
Doctor Module – Added the “Send Active Image” button to the images tab to allow for a displayed image to be sent to the full active image window. Also included a drop down of employees so that an active image can be sent to another employee that uses the active image viewer.
Active Image Module – Added a “details” button to allow for the details associated with an active image to be displayed.
Admin Web Site – Image Type Maintenance – Added the “AvailableOnReport” checkbox choice so that different image types can be marked as available to be included on a diagnostic report. Also added the “FinalReport’ checkbox choice so that images of final reports can be categorized.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Slot Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory slot types. These types will be used in the inventory/equipment tracking where there are multiple inventory slots present inside equipment (i.e. tissue processors, object printers, etc.).
Inventory Slot Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory slots. These types will be used in the inventory/equipment tracking area where they allow for the assignment of inventory to slots inside equipment.
Warehouse Module – Modified the label template routine to allow for leading zeros to be included in the human readable printing of the template labels for cabinets and drawers.
Courier Closeout – Modified the courier closeout screen to clear the contact information fields when the “New” button is pressed and the screen is displayed the first time. Previously, this screen was carrying placeholders that were non-sensical. Also modified the date entered field to include the timestamp. Previously, it was just the date.
Customer Service – Modified the screen layout of the first “tab” to widen the client and client facility drop down boxes to better display long client names.
Warehouse Module – Pick List – Modified the retrieval routine to resolve an issue where the wildcard accession number was not retrieving correctly.
Admin Web Site - Equipment Inventory Slot Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment/inventory slot data. This is the assignment of the inventory slots that exist for each piece of equipment as part of the inventory/lot tracking area of Assist. An example would be the assignment of the number of slots for chemicals inside a tissue processor.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Equipment Slot Template – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory equipment slot templates that are used as part of the preventative maintenance feature set.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Report – Modified this report to allow it to also report over trash storage. Previously, because drawers are not assigned to trash transactions, there was no visibility to trash tracking data from inside this report.

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October 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Check In Module – Batch Label Printing – Added the capability to print a batch label when the “Process” button is pressed so that a label can be placed on the process batch log if necessary for batch tracking.
Admin Web Site – Batch Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include flags for “LIS Interface Batches” and “Equipment Batches” so that processing can be different based on these additional types of batches.
Warehouse Module – Redesigned the menu options inside the warehouse module and added the ability to suppress each of the menu options if necessary.
Warehouse Module – Changed the way that “Drawer Capacity” was shown/calculated. Outbound transactions were counting against the capacity of the drawer rather than being ignored since they did not represent a transaction that increased the objects stored.
Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry – Added Object Type to the selection criteria and set the ability to default an individual warehouse configuration to a specific object type to cut down on clutter when researching a specific object.
Batch Tracking Module – Modified this module to allow for the scanning of batch bar codes that can be printed by the check in module when a group of objects are loaded into equipment. This bar code shows the objects that have been loaded and provides tracking time stamps for the batch.
Admin Web Site - MFG Tasks Maintenance – Modified this screen to support the MFG Task type to allow for the categorization of manufacturing tasks for sites that use the Assist manufacturing tracking module.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing task types. These are used to categorize or filter manufacturing task types which can subsequently be used for the filtering of drop down boxes on the various screens inside the Assist manufacturing module.
Admin Web Site – Medical Billing Code Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of an ICD code to be associated with a diagnosis billing code for sites that make use of the diagnostic submission feature set inside the doctor module.
Admin Web Site – Medical Service Code Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of an ICD code to be associated with a diagnosis service code for sites that make use of the diagnostic submission feature set inside the doctor module.
Doctor Module – Full Case Button – Added this button to the diagnostic tab inside the doctor module to allow for better reporting/display of case diagnostic information.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to add a client name wildcard search field to assist in finding clients.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Modified the “slide recipe” section of this maintenance screen to allow for the flagging of protocols as “Special Stain” or not.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Audit Report – Added the Rush flag.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Listing Report – Added the Rush Flag.
Admin Web Site – Order Master Listing – Added the Rush flag.
Call Tracking – Set the screen positioning to allow for permanent defaulting to screen 2 if there are more than one. Previously, the screen was sliding back to the primary screen.
Doctor Module – Rush Order Flag – Added the ability to capture the rush order flag.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Added the “Office Queue Interface” checkbox to the screen. This checkbox determines whether or not an office queue transaction will be generated when specific order types are encountered for sites that are using the office queue.
Doctor Order Closeout – Added the rush order flag to the display with a “Y/N” value that is red when “Y”. Added the ability to maintain this value as well.
Doctor Module – Added the Rush flag to the object print queue for sites that are using the doctor module to send the slide print requests directly to the printer. The rush flag goes into the request so that a rush case can be printed.
Slide Queue – Put logic in place to pull the RUSH flag forward and print on a slide template. Also gave the ability to maintain the flag. Added the “rush” choice as a criteria choice to the slide queue. Color coded the status column to red if the order is flagged as a rush slide.
Slide Queue – Added a “Active Count” button to the upper right corner of the screen. Pressing this button displays the count of active slides inside each of the defined slide queues for ease of telling where slide requests reside.
Cassette Queue - Added a “Active Count” button to the upper right corner of the screen. Pressing this button displays the count of active cassettes inside each of the defined cassette queues for ease of telling where cassette requests reside.
Accessioning Module – Added a RUSH checkbox to the screen to allow for the designation of a case as a rush case. This flag is passed into the cassette queue for use in printing on cassettes as needed. The fact that a case was marked RUSH is also written to a separate database table for reporting purposes and long term analysis.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Report – Added an ObjectType drop down to allow for appropriate filtering of data to match the data collection point.
Admin Web Site – Image Type Maintenance – Added a “Show Record Number” check box to allow for visibility of the image type record number in case it is needed for cross reference purposes.
Admin Web Site – Image Viewer – Added the accession prefix to the criteria and also added a “wildcard” checkbox to determine whether the accession number and keyword fields are data specific when performing the lookup or are wildcard searches.
Scanner Engine – Modified the routine that generates slide transactions automatically when objects are scanned. Placed a check back to the Rush Case table to check if the case was accessioned as a Rush Case. If the case IS a rush case, the flag will be flipped in the slide queue to allow for the printing of the rush text on the slide.
Admin Web Site – Case Rush Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for an administrator via the web site to create and change case rush records.
Doctor Module – Modified to write case rush records if the rush flag is used when creating a slide queue record so that tracking can be kept of how often rush orders are submitted by Doctors. This data is captured at the order type level in order to let management know specifically how many slides are ordered as rushes.
Queue Viewer - Put logic in place to pull the RUSH flag forward and print on a cassette template. Also gave the ability to maintain the flag. Added the “rush” choice as a criteria choice to the cassette queue. Color coded the status column to red if the order is flagged as a rush case.
Warehouse Module – Fixed an issue where the manual entry pop up screen (i.e. unscannable) was only working correctly for labs using the Pathway LIS.
Warehouse Module – Inquiry – Change the grid on the inquiry and the detail section to both show the data in the font color of red if they reflect a delete warehouse transaction. Also reflecting objects that have been sent out (i.e. storage status = “O”) to blue to make them stand out as well.
Warehouse Module – Main Storage Screen – Introduced an object type drop down box to eliminate the need for a bar code to switch object types.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of warehouse types. These types allow warehouses to be broken down into “banking” warehouses vs. Inventory control warehouses for the tracking of inventory items and supplies.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Maintenance – Added the warehouse type drop down list to allow for a warehouse to be classified as inventory supplies vs. object banking (i.e. slides, cassettes, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Added the “Automatic Ordering” and “Corporate Tracking” checkboxes to allow for maintenance of this data. Automatic ordering flags an inventory items for automatic order generation, which will be used by labs taking advantage of the Assist inventory module. “Corporate Tracking” is used to indicate inventory levels of different products in a multi-site environment to allow for the tracking of which sites have what quantities of what inventory items (i.e. antibodies, etc.).

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November 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Doctor Module – Added the ability to mark a diagnosis as “Preliminary” and have it save when a diagnosis is submitted.
Admin Web Site – Vendor Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a cross reference field so that a vendor record can be cross referenced to an alternative inventory management/purchasing system.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Order Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory order status values. These values are used to track the status of inventory orders as part of the Assist inventory tracking module.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Transaction Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the inventory transaction types to be used for debit/credit transactions inside the Assist Inventory Tracking Module.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Details Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the unit of measure, inventory location, serial number, tracking reference number, and date received fields for data collection.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Sourcing Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the list of which inventory items may be ordered by which vendors. If there records in this table, the vendor list will be filtered on the inventory ordering screens.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the reorder lead time, reorder quantity, and reorder amount fields to assist in the detection of when to generate inventory orders in the Assist inventory module.
Admin Web Site – Product Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the association of product master entries (client order fulfillment) to be associated with inventory items (inventory management) to allow for the use of the inventory management module of Assist to track inventory levels of client order fulfillment items.
Accessioning Module – Modified the routine that defaults the label printer to accept wildcard naming of printers so that the name does not have to match exactly.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Added a description search wildcard field to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Added a protocol category to this maintenance to allow for filtering of slide protocols.
Admin Web Site – Protocol Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of protocol categories that are used to filter protocols.
Print Center – Label Queue – Added the protocol category drop down box to the label queue screen to allow for filtering of the protocol drop down list to allow employees to have filtered lists instead of having to scroll through all values.
LIS Interface Module – Modified the module to allow for the specification of a distribution location override to communicate exactly what doctor should get a case. Also added the ability to put a case on hold from inside this module.
Distribution Module – Modified to have the module look for case holds when scanning the requisition or the slide as needed. This alerts distribution personnel to not distribute a case if it has been held by a different department.
Distribution Module – Modified this module to pull forward the doctor override logic from the LIS Interface and accessioning screen. The employee has the ability to cancel the override if necessary.
Doctor Module – Added a check box to allow for the suppression of the microscopic automatic image capture routine on demand. This toggle turns the feature on and off for facilities that have integrated the doctor module with microscope cameras.
Interface Module – Added a new capability to watch grossing scans at the accession number level and allow for automatic creation of grossing office queue transactions to notify other departments of the cases that have been grossed.
Doctor Module – Modified the accession order tab so that it is capable of generating an office queue record when an order is placed. This is typically used to communicate to the office so that insurance calls can be made or entry into a billing system can be performed.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the office queues.
Scanner Engine – Added the ability to generate an office queue transaction when a requisition is scanned. This allows for office queue transactions to be made to signify the processing of a grossing case. This would be used instead of the interface module outlined above.
Doctor Order Closeout – Print Log – Added a column for “Rush Orders” to the log and also added a check box for rush order criteria to the selection screen for the printing of rush orders.
Doctor Order Closeout – For sites that automatically send slide print requests to the slide queue when an order for a stain, recut, etc. is placed, added logic to check the queue loader settings table to send the request to the correct slide queue based on the doctor that is selected when placing the manual order.
Doctor Module – Diagnosis Tab – Added the ability on the report preview to provide drag and drop on images to track the preferred order of the images to be passed into the database for reporting purposes.
Accessioning Module – LIS Interface – Added the doctor override dropdown logic to this screen. Also added the ability to “auto update” the record on save rather than sending an error message that the record already exists OR doing the process of deactivating the record and writing a new one.
Queue Viewer – Corrected a flaw in the LIS Interface retrieval process where the “Active flag” was not included in the retrieval which was causing issues when multiple records existed for a single accession (some de-activated). The routine will only pull active = ‘Y’ values currently.
Doctor Module – Modified the “Active Image” logic. It was not clearing all “requisition” image types at load so the old Requisitions were just piling up in the screen.
Doctor Module – Modified the image selection screen inside the diagnosis area to allow for a setting that indicates whether or not to default images as selected on the report.
Doctor Module – Grossing Notes tab – For sites that make use of the diagnostic tab along with the display of grossing notes, added the configurable capability of allowing changes to the data on the tab (e.g. body source, grossing notes, clinical information, measurements, etc.).
Office Queue – Added logic to allow for the display of images and the sending of images to the active imager.

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December 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Print Queue Report – Created this report to allow for display of data from the print queue history report. This allows for inquiry into the printed history of items.
Scanner Engine – Modified the way that the slide number is pulled into the write to the slide queue. There are multiple methods for determine how the slide number is calculated and added logic to allow for ANY method of identifying a slide record to override another method that determines no slide record.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Modified this routine to allow for no printer to be specified and still allow slide magazines to be specified.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Statistics Report – Created this report to provide multiple totals within a timeframe.
Scanner Engine – Modified the “Enforce Scan Order” logic to not attempt to read through the cassettes that were printed in order to determine the correct order, but rather to use +1 logic to the last cassette identifier scanned. Note that this only works for sites that use numeric specimen parts (e.g. A1, A2, B1, etc.) and will not work for the reverse (e.g. 1A, 2A, 1B).
Office Queue Closeout – Added the ability to support the use of a scanner. This allows for the scanning of requisitions and badges for operations.
Office Queue Closeout – Added a log print feature to allow for the printing of a work list.
Print Center – Modified to allow for X/Y screen size coordinates to be passed in to change the size of the main screen at launch in case it does not need to be full size.
Print Center – Label Queue – Modified the Print Center module to provide the option of “auto launching” the label queue when the module is launched.
Assist Scanner – Added an “ErrorForward” flag to the main scanner engine to allow it to pull forward in front of all screens when an error condition is made. Previously, this feature was only allowed if Assist was in borderless mode.
Scoreboard – Added a “pause” feature to the scoreboard to allow for a start/end time when the scoreboard should stop showing data. When the pause time is encountered, the scoreboard will minimize itself. When the pause time is over, it will maximize itself again and begin rotating.
Admin Web Site – Scan Details Report – Added the ink color field that can now be captured at grossing to allow for reporting of this data element if it was specified at grossing.
Assist Scanner – Modified the scanner engine to allow for the capture of ink colors. These are typically specified at grossing. Once captured, this data can be displayed at other scan touch point by showing a color swatch above the tool bar at the bottom of the screen to reflect the ink color that was used by the grosser.
Assist Scanner – Grossing Notes – Modified the main scanner engine to allow the screen to become slightly larger horizontally. At the bottom of this screen, the grossing notes can be shown when a bottle is scanned if grossing notes were captured in Assist or are available for display. The full grossing notes “sub screen” can still be displayed using the grossing notes button and it will still turn red when notes are encountered, but this new features provides a quick few of the notes themselves without having to click on the grossing notes button.
Print Center – Label Queue – Built an interface between the label queue and the Assist StainLISInterface table for sites that print labels to slide label printers and also have an active stain interface back to their LIS. Additionally, a tie into the LISInterface table (e.g. Patient demographics) was added to pull full patient name, body source, referring physician and referring medical record number for sites that have an interface loading this information. That makes this data available for inclusion on the slide label as needed.
Print Center – Label Queue – Added a label template that maps to a DataMax Mark III label printer using .75 x .75 inch labels. Fields can be enabled as needed and moved around on the template using X/Y coordinates in the configuration.
Scanner Engine – Modified the processor batch check in process. Processor batches have always defaulted to a batch name that matches the user ID of the grosser that is working. The change now SHOWS the user ID in the processor active message at the top of the screen. It also supports the creation of unique batch names that are not user based for sites that prepare cases for “routine” runs but then have special runs that are different and are outside of the employee. This is accomplished by use of a bar code to switch to a different processor batch as needed and then toggling back to the main user batch.
Scoreboard – Added a “pause” feature to the scoreboard. This can be trigged by From/To times. For sites that do not run 24 hours, the scoreboard does not need to continue toggling through data (or if network access goes dark at certain times of day). The new feature pause the scoreboard and minimized the software to reduce any risk of screen burn. At the end of the pause time, the graphs are re-activated and the screen is automatically maximized again.
Scoreboard – Error Message Suppression – Added logic to allow for error messages encountered by the scoreboard to be suppressed and not “pop” on the scoreboard screen. If the scoreboard is deployed using “Stick PCs” or wireless devices and connectivity is occasionally sketchy, this suppression causes the scoreboard to not pop messages which can be difficult to clear if no mouse/keyboard are attached to the computing device. The data will not reflect on the board correctly, but the next time the database comes back online and can be reached, the scoreboard will sync back up and display the data correctly.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Reporting – Corrected an error in the processor report where the summary toggle button caused the summary and detail grids to display at the same time creating a report that could not be viewed.
Scanner Engine – Modified the grossing notes save routine to include the last maintained date and last maintained user.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Report – Modified to display the last maintained date and last maintained user.
Admin Web Site – Ink Color Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of ink colors for sites that track this information.
Scanner Engine – Modified the Ink color swatch feature. Moved the swatch over into the tool bar ribbon. Changed the logic to pull the actual color from the ink color master table where the displayed color can be a different color palette value from the perspective of Windows. Modified the scan feature to allow the color to be scanned in by color number from the maintenance screen. Also display the Ink Color Short name on the swatch for color blind people or to help with differences in color shade.
Print Center – Label Queue – Modified the label queue routine to include an “Active Only” choice when working with the LIS Stain Interface so that the protocol combination of labels will not be reprinted every time an accession number is passed into the label queue.
Doctor Module – Slide Scanning – Resolved an issue where the doctor module was not scanning slides correctly when there was no multi bottle identifier but there was a multi cassette identifier. The screen was rendering the slide incorrectly.
Admin Web Site – Stain LIS Interface Maintenance – Created this screen to support the maintenance of Stain LIS Interface data for sites that have this feature active.
Admin Web Site – Stain LIS Interface Inquiry – Created this screen to support the display of Stain LIS Interface data for sites that have this feature active.
Doctor Module – Added CTRL-R key press functionality inside the diagnosis area to allow for the finding and highlighting of any text that matches a configuration string (e.g. []) for replacement by dictation.
Assist Scanner – Modified the manual login screen so that the user ID field holds focus when the screen first loads so that a mouse click does not need to be done before starting to type in the user ID.
Assist Scanner – Modified the “Grossing Notes” area that was added to the main screen to allow for the inclusion of clinical information on the main screen as well if it is needed. This can be turned on/off by configuration.
Admin Web Site – Hidden Feature Maintenance – Corrected an issue with this screen where the object type filter was not operating correctly in the selection criteria area of the screen.
Admin Web Site – LIS Electronic Connection Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the LIS message queue connections for sites that have an LIS message queue interface.
Admin Web Site – LIS MSQ Inquiry – Created this inquiry to allow for visibility to the message queue/accession data that has been downloaded from the LIS for sites that use this feature.
Admin Web Site – Referring Physician Maintenance – Modified to allow for the specification of extra slide copies and quantities for sites that have clients that want copies of slides.
Print Center – Label Queue – Made changes to implement the “double derm” logic where the extra slide quantity is pulled from the referring physician table assuming it has been passed into Assist for the case.
Slide Queue - Made changes to implement the “double derm” logic where the extra slide quantity is pulled from the referring physician table assuming it has been passed into Assist for the case.

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January 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Accession Printer Maintenance – Added the equipment type to the grid of data (i.e. cassette or slide printer) and also added equipment type filtering capability.
Admin Web Site – Scan History Report – Added a “Use Wildcard” checkbox to the report criteria so that a wildcard accession number can be specified by default but a specific accession can be looked up by de-selecting the check box.
Scanner Engine – Changed the print queue logic to allow for a flag to override the default print queue to the printer specified on the specimen type/slide recipes. This is only needed if the facility wants to split cases across multiple slide printers to have multiple color slides managed.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Modified the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a printer choice for each child slide.
Print Center – Disposal Bin Print – Added a feature to allow for the printing of multiple labels at once instead of one at a time.
Admin Web Site – Employee Work Statistics Flexible – Created this report to work similar to the Employee Work Statistics report, but allows for the on demand selection of employees and collection points to provide a more flexible method of reporting. It only works for transaction log collection points.
Admin Web Site – Print History Report – Added the machine name and printed by user to this report and also to the selection criteria. This provides some more information regarding the printing of slides and from which pieces of equipment they were printed.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Corrected a flaw in this screen where a record could be opened for maintenance and if the user ID was changed to match an existing user ID, it allowed the save, which creates a duplicate user iD.

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February 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Distribution Items Not Returned Report – Reworked the method for determining if a record has been returned. Prior to the “extended tracking” logic, this report ran by comparing inbound to outbound records and was inefficient. There is now a flag for check in that gets set on the outbound record. Changed the logic of this report to access this flag for determination of whether or not the object was returned. This makes the report more accurate and also runs much faster.
Print Center – Slide Tray Labels – Modified to print the tray text to the side of the bar code instead of underneath. This is more conducive to cutting labels out and sticking them on slide trays.
Doctor Module – Modified to add a flag to allow for the pressing of the multiple block save button to clear the selected protocols. This is to allow for panels to be added and then cleared so that the panel override can be done without accidentally selecting things again.
Distribution Module – Modified the slide tray label print routine to put the tray text to the side of the bar code instead of underneath. This is more conducive to cutting labels out and sticking them on slide trays.
Admin Web Site – Print Queue Statistics Report – Extended this report to add another option where daily cassette/slide totals can be shown to provide laboratory management with some idea of the total objects printed in the facility.
Distribution – Added the extended Assist error tracking functionality to the distribution module.
Slide Queue – Added specimen type to the grid so that it is visually apparent what specimen type is applicable to the slide. Also widened the screen slightly to show this information and also to stretch out the magazine description slightly so that all of the information shows.
Slide Queue – Modified so that the queue can maximize and minimize to account for larger screens.
Document Capture – Added a transport bin to the capture logic. This allows for images of objects being sent via courier to be captured. This will tie into the ability to review pictures of objects picked up from one site via courier to be compared to the same object when it is delivered at the receiving site and the image can be “accepted”.
Admin Web Site – Image Review – Modified this screen to include the transport bin and the Image Closed information that is now captured via the document capture/courier interface that was outlined above.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Modified to include the TimeClockReference field to support the interface into time clock data for employee performance.
Accessioning – Added the extended Assist error tracking functionality to the accessioning module.
Admin Web Site – Employee Timeclock Maintenance Screen – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance and/or override of the timeclock data that is used in some of the employee work reports. If a timeclock interface is in use, this allows for overriding the punch data. If no time clock is in place, it allows for manual entry of actual employee time worked.
Admin Web Site – Client Pickup Detail Report – Created this report to provide visibility to detailed courier pickup requests that have been entered via the customer service module.
Check In/Out Module - Added the extended Assist error tracking functionality to the check in/out module.
Check In Module – Added a drop down to the selection criteria for batches to allow for people to select batches from people other than themselves. Also added a check box to exclude specimen types from the batches so that all cases except a certain specimen type can be selected.
Customer Service Module – Added logic for computer telephony (CTI) and screen pop functionality. This allows for the module to load the phone number for any call being delivered to the module and have the customer automatically identify and load on the screen. For unidentified customers, the number is provided so that simple client/number mapping can be performed for future successful screen pop.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report – Created this report to calculate the scanning rate of specific objects for employees at the various data collection points. Also provides ability to include timeclock information for sites that have timeclock data interfaces with Assist.
Admin Web Site – Phone Switch Call Log – Created this report to provide detailed information of the phone calls that have been received by the Assist customer service module via the CTI interface.
Print Center – Slide Label – Modified the slide label to include a template for the small zebra bar code printer instead of just a layout that matches a Dymo 30332 label. Added the ability to print a cassette label with the slide label.
Scoreboard – Added a configuration flag to allow for the display of today’s date in the header of the various graphs and charts.
Check In – Modified the check in module to support image verification for sites that take remote pictures and then verify when a courier delivers.
Admin Web Site – Collection Point Maintenance – Added the “DBTable” field to this maintenance screen via a drop down box. While this data element should really only be used by experienced Assist administrators, there was no way to adjust the settings if needed other than going directly into the database. This eliminated the ability for even a super user to tweak settings unless they were a database administrator.
Print Center – Cassette Label – Modified the cassette label to include a template for the small zebra bar code printer instead of just a layout that matches a Dymo 30332 label.
Assist Scanner – Added a feature for the additional block and slide request pop up screen. Now, when this screen is called, an optional flag can be set to go and pull back the magazine that the last object scanned was printed from and default the printer magazine to this same magazine to stay consistent with cassette/slide colors and reduce chances for a time wasting error.
Admin Web Site – Windows Server Listing Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of machines that the Windows server event logging module should pull data from. This utility can be used to monitor Assist servers around a WAN for error conditions.
Admin Web Site – Assist Rotator Maintenance – Introduced the new drop down for Graph type which will allow for appropriate branching by the scoreboard application to the correct type of display engine.
Admin Web Site – Graph Type Maintenance – Created the graph type maintenance screen to allow for the creation and updating of the graph type table that is used in the scoreboard module.

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March 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Customer Service Module – Added a customer filter to the phone number tab so that either all phone numbers can be shown in the drop down or they can be filtered by the client and facility that are active.
Scoreboard – Extended the functionality of the scoreboard to include the ability to show images in a slideshow type of format. Built the ability to provide captions for the images that will display across the top of the screen and also image details that can display down the right hand side of the screen.
Admin Web Site – Graph Image Maintenance – Modified to include a check box for the display of image text and the actual image text.
Scoreboard – Extended the functionality of the scoreboard to include the ability to show videos in a slideshow type of format.
Admin Web Site – Accession Stain Report – Created this report to show by accession number, all the specimen types, protocols, and detail instructions that have been assigned.
Doctor Module – Modified to check the PersonalConfigurationOverride table so that individual configuration settings can be made to override the configurations at a user level for a module.
Admin Web Site – Personal Configuration Override – Added this screen to allow for the maintenance of personal overrides for the configuration settings of the various modules in Assist.
Document Management – Modified this module to make sure that an accession number was specified when the retrieval button is pressed so that it will not attempt to load thumbnails for every image taken by the system.
Admin Web Site – Quality Client Analysis Report – Created this report to allow for the analysis of quality errors that are placed against cases. It ties the accession numbers back to the LIS Interface (for sites using it) to allow for analysis of the types of errors that are being logged summarized by client so that laboratory management can use the information for educating clients.
Leica POU – Modified the module to add a configuration flag so that the duplicates field can be reset to 1 after printing.
Admin Web Site – Job Title Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of job titles to be assigned to client contacts for sites that are using the customer service module.
LIS Interface – Modified this module to add edit checks to enforce no duplicate entry of an accession number or an alias number if one is input against a different accession number.
Distribution Module – Modified the manifest print to display the facility abbreviation field instead of the full facility name to better fit the existing column widths.
Admin Web Site – Facility Maintenance – Modified this screen to support the maintenance of the new facility abbreviation that was created for printing on a variety of reports and manifests.
Scanner Engine – Checklist Items – Allowed for default values to cut down on the interaction by the technician with the keyboard.
Admin Web Site - Environmental Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of environmental types, which are part of the environmental testing module of Assist. This is the “type” of environmental test. For example: Water, air, soil, etc.
Admin Web Site – Testing Substance Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the substances that need to be tested inside the Environmental Testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Monitor Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the monitoring types that will be used for the entities performing environmental testing inside the environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Analysis Methods Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the analysis methods that are specified by the testing organization when environmental testing is recorded inside the environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – All Screen/Reports – Modified the application usage logic to allow for the tracking of the launch all each report/screen if necessary using the check box on the screen and report maintenance screen respectively. Previously, only a handful of reports were mapped to the utilization tracking logic.
Admin Web Site – Accession History Report – Added “max rows” logic to this report to help prevent the creation of runaway reports. Also defaulted the from/to date to “today”.
Admin Web Site – Missing Objects Report – Added “max rows” logic to this report to help prevent the creation of runaway reports. Also default the from/to date to “today”. Also removed the default check of “Accession Compare Only”
Admin Web Site – Application Utilization Report – Modified to add max rows and current date logic. Also replaced the free form text box with a drop down that includes only reports and screens (reports first) that have the “UseApplicationTracking” flag turned on.
Assist Scanner – Modified to check the PersonalConfigurationOverride table so that individual configuration settings can be made to override the configurations at a user level for a module.
Call Tracking - Modified to check the PersonalConfigurationOverride table so that individual configuration settings can be made to override the configurations at a user level for a module.
Accessioning Module - Modified to check the PersonalConfigurationOverride table so that individual configuration settings can be made to override the configurations at a user level for a module.
Leica POU Module - Modified to check the PersonalConfigurationOverride table so that individual configuration settings can be made to override the configurations at a user level for a module.
Distribution Module - Modified to check the PersonalConfigurationOverride table so that individual configuration settings can be made to override the configurations at a user level for a module.
Admin Web Site – Client Contact Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of client contacts outside of only being embedded inside the customer service module.
Doctor Module – Modified the panel routine to eliminate pulling order types that are not active. If a panel was built with an order type that has subsequently been disabled, it was still not showing it in the order tab but it was still visible in the web screens which was confusing.
Admin Web Site – Kit Detail Maintenance – Modified this screen so that a selection from the grid gets cleared when the retrieve button is pressed so that a selection does not continue to show as the grid is loaded with different data.
Admin Web Site – Kit Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a drop down for user and allow this as selection criteria for filtering only the specific kits that are associated with that user.
Admin Web Site – Phone Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the phone numbers as part of the courier and customer service modules.
Admin Web Site – Address Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of address records as part of the courier and customer service modules. Typically this maintenance would occur as part of the client facility maintenance, but this screen is provided for searching of addresses as well as maintenance outside of the assignment of the address to a client.
Admin Web Site - Monitor Condition Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of monitor conditions. These are the values associated with a monitor type (i.e. satisfactory, unsatisfactory, etc.) as part of the environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Federal Standards Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of federal standards. These are the placeholders to reflect the federal regulations that are applied to the various tests that are performed and monitored as part of the environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Testing Frequency Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the frequency with which environmental substances should be tested. This is part of the Assist environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Environmental Facility Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the facilities where environmental testing is being conducted and tracked. This is part of the environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Monitor Area/Person Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the areas and/or people where environment testing is applied. These are locations or staff within and environmental facility. This is part of the environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Testing Company Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the companies that will be performing environmental testing so that the correct entity can be specified and associated with testing. This is part of the environmental testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Queue Loader Settings Maintenance – Cleaned up a couple of issues with this screen that were causing it to not always show data correctly in the detail area of the screen. Also added selection criteria for the object type so that cassettes and slides can be visually seen and filtered while performing maintenance.
Admin Web Site – Environmental Facility Substance Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the facilities and what substance should be tested inside each site.
Admin Web Site – Block/Slide Instructions Maintenance – Cleaned up the various equipment type drop down lists on this screen to only allow the selection of cassette or slide printers instead of showing all types of equipment types.
Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Maintenance – Changed this screen to filter the equipment type drop downs to only include cassette and slide equipment types.
Warehouse Module – Discovered an issue on the object outbound scan where it was prompting with the multiple object selection pop up box inappropriately. It was showing this screen when there was only one object because it was not including object type in the query to count objects. In other words, a block scan outbound was counting as multiple if it found the slide and the block.
Check In Module – Added the equipment assignment functionality so that Preventative maintenance equipment can be assigned to the session.
Check In Module – Added the checklist functionality to this module as part of the preventative maintenance module.
Admin Web Site – Checklist Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the checklistareaflag field. This field allows for PM checklists to be divided from “station related” such as grossing or embedding vs. areas of the lab.
Admin Web Site – Checklist Area Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of checklist areas. This allow for a facility to be broken down into an area where physical checklist items should be assigned and taken care of and monitored.
Slide Queue – Added a flag to allow for the suppress of specimen type logic if the specimen type is active for tissue tracking/report, but is NOT being used to drive slide printing.
Assist Scanner – Modified the specimen type logic. No longer keep inactive records in the specimen type tracking table as this was sometimes causing issues with the slide queue and the inactive specimen types. Now records are deleted from the specimen type tracking table when the type is specified or overridden and the transaction details are writing into the specimen type tracking audit log for historical review.
Accessioning Module – Modified the specimen type logic to match that shown above for the assist scanner module.
Admin Web Site – Created the Specimen Type Tracking Audit Log report. This report gives visibility into all of the specimen type transactions that have been performed over time.
Admin Web Site – Checklist Assignment Maintenance – Modified this screen so that the checklist type is present for the filtering of the items and also filtered out any checklist area items that are not assigned to individual data collection stations but rather are relevant as facility checklist items.
Admin Web Site – Checklist Area Assignment – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of “interval” checklist items to be assigned to checklist areas. This is part of the preventative maintenance module and allows for repetitive interval tasks (Clean floor, check room temperature, etc.) to be built into templates that can then be used.

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April 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Customer Service Module – Added auto login capability to this module to cut down on having to type the user id/password combination to get into the module if the Assist administrator configures them in this way.
Customer Service Module – Modified the “Info” tab to include client contacts and to revamp the way this entire tab works. Default contacts for addresses and phone numbers was also added.
Customer Service Module – Modified this module to allow for the screen to shift sizes (width and height) based on the tab that is clicked.
Control Tracking Module – Added the control number to the batch retrieval screen so that it can be used to pull batch batches that include a specific control.
Doctor Module – Added a flag to this module’s configuration to allow for the panel override check box to be deselected after each scan of a requisition, bottle, or the pressing of the retrieve button.
Print Center – Label Queue – Modified the label queue to expressly specify the table to use for matching up the printer number since this field now exists in the AccessionSlideCount table and caused a problem in the label queue for sites that use this to print slide labels automatically.
Doctor Module – Modified so that the order type panel changes background color if the check box for panel overrides is deselected so that it is more visually apparent that no changes are allowed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Added the new ControlTrackingFlag to allow for an equipment type to be marked as a type that should allow control tracking module interfacing.
Control Tracking Module – Added the equipment drop down so that controls can be saved with the equipment.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Added the Control Processing check box to allow for a differentiation between users that are authorized to enter control batches and people that are allowed to verify control batches.
Admin Web Site – Address Master Maintenance – Modified the address master maintenance screen to reflect the new logic of assigning a default contact to an address.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Pathologist Summary Report – Modified this report to add an “Include Date” checkbox. This allows the person running the report to get summary data by distribution location/date or just distribution location to provide different levels of information.
Control Tracking Module – Added logic so that a scan of a slide can be marked as a “batch retrieval” scan and pull back the batches associated with the slide that was scanned. These can then be immediately loaded to the history area of the screen for processing.
Manufacturing Module – Modified to include a “Shipment Tracking” functionality set. This provides sites with the ability to show UPS/Fedex (for example) tracking numbers that have been scanned and can then tie back to the ERP to pull all items that were shipped using that tracking number so that an auditor can then spot check by scanning that the items are not mixed on the shipment.
Admin Web Site – Corrective Action Type Maintenance – Modified to include the control flag check box. This allows for a corrective action type to be marked as being control object specific so that it can be correctly shown as a drop down choice on the screen.
Admin Web Site – Reactivity Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the corrective action flag check box. This allows for a specific reactivity to be marked as needing a corrective action. In the slide control tracking module, the selection of a reactivity with this flag checked will prompt for a corrective action.
Slide Control Module – Modified so that reactivity choices can cause the display of corrective actions. These can be marked as mandatory so that a corrective action can be required when certain reactivity values are specified. This can be marked as mandatory or not.
Distribution Module – Added logic to print QC notes underneath each object (i.e. slide) as they are printed on the manifest to reflect any notes and/or comments that were captured with the case.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Added DefaultCaseCapacity and DefaultSlideCapacity for sites that are using workload/credit tracking of cases distributed to locations. Also added default workload hours, default form of capacity tracking (i.e. case vs. slide) and whether or not a location should be considered as eligible for workflow tracking.
Admin Web Site – Workload Credit Reasons Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of workload credit reasons. These are reasons that are given for exceptions to a doctor’s workload and have the ability to give case and slide reading credits when planning out and capturing doctor work loads.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Workload Credit Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the assignment of doctors to workload credits as part of the workload credit section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Maintenance – Modified this screen to include doctor slide capacity in addition to normal case capacity for sites that need to perform workload capacity planning at the slide rather than case level.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Workload Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the manual maintenance of the doctor workload/quota assignment process. Individual overrides can be performed, calculations to refresh planned volumes can be done, along with refreshing the automatic feeds from Assist and the entry of manual items such as cases/slides from cytology.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Workload Generation – Created this screen to allow for the generation of doctor workload records in an automated and holistic method. These placeholder records can be updated using the Doctor Workload Maintenance screen. This screen can also be used after distribution to generate the workflow records for tracking purposes.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Workload Tracking – Created this report to pull together all of the data associated with doctors and workload tracking. This is basically a +/- report of performance vs. workload quota for a date range.
Courier Module – Corrected issue where the status was not defaulting correctly based on the value stored in the configuration.
Distribution Module – Modified the unscannable to allow for the default to slides instead of requisitions since slide would be the most likely object to cause a manual entry to be performed. Also changed the accession number field to select all when the number is clicked for entry to keep from having to backspace.
Assist Easy Print – Created this simple module to streamline the Print Center even further. Individual label print routines can now be shown with minimal interaction needed from the end user in order to make labels print. The requisition routine is the first option built in the easy print.
Print Center – Slide Tray Labels – Moved the human readable information slightly over to the right to correct an issue where the bar code was overlaying the outer edge of the human readable information.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Pathologist Summary – Added options for Inbound, Outbound, and both as choices in the selection criteria to allow the report to be filtered by those options to allow users to better retrieve exactly the data they need.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – added the flag AllowPrefixMagazineOverride for labs that need to be able to override specimen type magazine protocol printing with the prefix controlling the magazine over the protocol where specified.
Admin Web Site – Prefix Printer Override Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of printer overrides. This logic will be applied to the slide queue to allow for an accession prefix to drive the magazine color used for a slide and can override protocols that have been specified at the specimen type level if the choice is made to allow for this under specimen type maintenance.
Slide Queue – Prefix Magazine Override – Added functionality to the slide queue to allow a flag to be flipped to check for prefix magazine override to cancel out the specimen type/protocol magazine settings if needed. If no overrides have been specified for the magazine, then the normal logic applies.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Specimen Log – Extended this report to include Accession notes, specimen type, and protocol instructions. Added notes, client, facility, referring physician as selection criteria. Also provided filters to include and not include instructions and notes. Also added a filter for only active notes.
Admin Web Site – Shipping Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a drop down for the selection of an “external data” connection. There is separate maintenance for this screen but it basically allows for the retrieval of data to show shipment related items.
Assist Manufacturing Module – Modified so that tracking number scanning of shipment type information can pull all items that were included on the tracking number and then allow for verification/audit scanning to make sure all is well.
Admin Web Site – External Data Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of external data feeds. This allows for SQL Strings to be saved along with a replacement variable so that data can be pulled from outside of Assist from time to time as situations arise where there would be benefit to this. The first implementation of this is pulling shipping information based on UPS/Fedex tracking numbers.
Admin Web Site – Error Master Maintenance – Added the case hold flag to this maintenance screen so that individual error codes can be marked as codes that put a case on hold from workflow processing. While there is a full case hold logic/process inside Assist, for some labs this simplifies the process.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Specimen Log – Modified to include a column to reflect the error message for the error codes that are marked as hold codes.
Customer Service Module – Added a client drop down listing instead of a free form entry choice and load from the contact lists. Also changed to display the salutation (i.e. Mr., Mrs. Dr., etc.) on the screen and the job title assuming they have been specified.
Customer Service Module – Added the stored comment append logic to allow for multiple stored comments to be appended to one another.
Customer Service Module – Added a new screen to handle the entry of new phone number information when the add button is pressed as part of the extended CTI functionality.
Assist Scanner – Modified the pop up print screens for add on cassettes and slides to allow for a configuration setting to drive the maximum number of values in the multicassette drop down. Previously, this number maximum was hard coded at 50.
Admin Web Site – Windows Error Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility into any windows errors that have been recorded by the Assist windows error tracking agent. This is used to monitor error conditions on Assist machines by allowing administrators to configure the agent to pull Windows event logs back into the Assist database for analysis.
Admin Web Site – Windows Error Tracking Purge – Created this screen to allow for the purging of error transactions so that the database does not get full if multiple servers/computers are being pulled.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Listing – Added the billing code to this report.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Maintenance – Modified to correct an error where records were being excluded because they did not have an active number on the doctor schedule.
Admin Web Site – Order Report – Added row count logic to the report to protect against a max rows retrieval and also removed the location description from the report to provide more data. Also added a checkbox to suppress closed orders.
Admin Web Site – Order Billing Report – Created this new report to provide a streamlined view or doctor orders. The intent of this report is to be used by the billing group when ensuring that all doctor orders have been billed.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Maintenance – Modified to clean up the process of deleting the schedule for a day.
Print Center – Doctor Order Billing – Created this screen to serve as an inquiry into doctor orders. It is a departure from the normal operations of the print center as it is really a specific report/inquiry that is designed to show all doctor orders that were handled from the perspective of a billing department. It is redundant to some web reports (Order billing report) but offers fat client functionality rather than the timeout activity associated with the web site.

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May 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Print Center – Slide Tray Bar Code Print – Modified this screen to pull the X/Y coordinates for the bar code, human readable description, and slide tray number from the configuration so that the positions of these objects can be tweaked by the local Assist administrator.
Batch Tracker – Extended this module to allow for the ability to generate a slide tray flush only feature. This is used in facilities that use batches (such as slide tray tracking) where the trays are flushed at a specific point.
Distribution Module – Modified to include the ability to show a slide tray and the cases that are being associated with the slide tray as it is being built. The screen widens out a little to include this information.
Batch Tracker – Modified this module to allow for the loading of history when the user badges into the system. This allows for data to be pulled forward to provide all transactions for review in case the user has been away from the system and has logged out.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Extended the security maintenance screen to include a check box for “Allow Office Task Assignment”. This is part of the new Task tab that has been added to the customer service module. This check box marks an employee for eligibility for task assignment via this new feature set.
Admin Web Site – Task Assignment Group Maintenance – Created this new maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of task assignment groups. These are part of the office task area of Assist and will allow for groupings of employees to be created.
Admin Web Site – Task Group/User Assignment Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of users being assigned to task groups.
Assist MFG Module – Added the Assist error tracking logic so that any errors made in the software can be logged in the error tracking database.
Assist MFG Module – Added a clear shipment button for sites that are making use of the shipment/tracking number tracking features of the manufacturing module of Assist. This button allows all of the details associated with a tracking number to be cleared.
Distribution Module – Corrected an issue with slides not reflected as checked off when a slide is scanned and microtomy history is being displayed. There was a specific instance where this could occur.
Check In Module – Modified the way that batch load pulls so that User ID of the person logged into the module does not filter the pull of data as it is loaded from the drop down of the user that actually performed the creation of the grossing batch.
Doctor Module – Added the “Use User ID” to the open orders pop up box selection criteria so that order status for people other than the doctor working in the module can be displayed.
Admin Web Site – Batch Tracking Assignment Report – Added a case count entry at the top of the report to show the number of cases (Prefix + Accession) that are on the report in the detail area.
Order Closeout Module – Pulled the maximum lines on a page for the order log into the configuration so that adjustments can be made without any hard coding.
Admin Web Site – Case Trace Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of cases that need to be traced through Assist. This feature allows for “hunts” to be placed on cases and have them alert any time they are encountered by Assist.
Admin Web Site – Case Trace Report – Created this report to show the case trace records that have been found and identified to close the loop on cases that have been marked for tracing.
Assist Management/Error Agent – Extended this utility to also display case trace alerts in addition to errors.
Assist Scanner – Added logic to this module to put “Case Trace” logic in place to check for any cases that might have a trace placed on them and alert if they are encountered.
Check In/Out - Added logic to this module to put “Case Trace” logic in place to check for any cases that might have a trace placed on them and alert if they are encountered.
Warehouse - Added logic to this module to put “Case Trace” logic in place to check for any cases that might have a trace placed on them and alert if they are encountered.
Distribution - Added logic to this module to put “Case Trace” logic in place to check for any cases that might have a trace placed on them and alert if they are encountered.
Assist Scanner – Modified this routine for QA note indications. Added two flags to cassette and slide transactions to not have the scanner alert twice (at Microtomy) when a QC note is encountered. Before this change, the QC note would alert on the scan of the cassette and again on the scan of the slide.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to include flags to allow for instructions and the printer magazine to stick on the screen if they were changed and a bottle was scanned that causes the auto identifier logic to kick in. The changes were being lost previously and an incorrect cassette record was sent to the queue if auto print on scan was enabled.
Distribution Module – Modified this module to include a flag to allow for the distribution location to stay if a change to configuration is made.
Accessioning Module – Added the toolbar ribbon to this module to allow for login, logout, verification, and reset via buttons instead of just bar codes.

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June 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Accessioning Module – Added logic to allow for the reading of the specimen quantity in the bar code if it was printed in the bottle bar code. Typically, this would happen if the LIS is printing the bar codes and knows the cassette quantity.
Accessioning Module – Added logic to allow for the reading of the specimen protocol in the bar code if it was included in the bottle bar code. Typically, this would happen if the LIS is printing the bar codes and knows the protocol. The protocol can be specified as the block/slide protocol number, the description, or the abbreviation.
Admin Web Site – Error Message Listing – Added the sort order and the print grouping code to the error listing for better filtering in Excel.
Admin Web Site – Block/Slide Instructions Maintenance – Screen was not refreshing correctly when a protocol with detailed instructions was clicked followed by one with no instructions. The second choice was still showing the values from the original.
Admin Web Site - Change Control Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of change control types. Examples would be things such as: Documentation, SOPs, Software, etc. This is part of the Assist change control tracking feature set.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Component Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of change control components. Examples would be specific components within an overall software application, areas of the SOPs or documentation, etc. This is part of the Assist change control tracking feature set.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the change control records. These would be the actual notes tracking the items that have been changed. This is part of the Assist change control tracking feature set.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the change control records. This is part of the Assist change control tracking feature set.
Admin Web Site – Office Task History Report – Created this report to allow for the viewing of historical office task transactions.
Check In/Out – Added the ability to scan QC codes to this module to add it as part of the QA process.
Check In/Out – Added the QC button with pop up screen for detailed quality information tracking.
Admin Web Site – Lab Workflow Times Report – Modified this report so that distribution data and equipment tracking data are included as choices. Previously, distribution scans and check in/out scans were not valid choices.
Easy Print – Moved much of the logic for the location, font size, boldness, font into the configuration so that the look of the linear label can be modified without requiring coding changes.
Print Center Module - Moved much of the logic for the location, font size, boldness, font into the configuration so that the look of the linear label can be modified without requiring coding changes.
Document Capture – Modified this module to include the ability to upload images that were captured via a different camera than the live feed. This could be from third parties sending in images to things that were captured via a cell phone or regular camera. Once the pictures are placed somewhere on the network, this new functionality can be used to upload and associate the data as if it originated in this module which also makes the images available via the administrative web site image viewer screen.
Admin Web Site – Location Maintenance – Added TimeClock Reference for sites that have time clock integration capabilities with Assist. This allows for the time logged into the clocks to be included in some employee efficiency reports.

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July 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Distribution Slide Tray Report – Added the “Slide Tray Number Original” field to the report to reflect the original batch number for the distribution record to also go with the “current” batch number which was originally reflected. Also added a flag to filter by outbound distribution only for sites that use inbound distribution and/or warehouse.
Slide Point of Use – Added logic to the slide printing logic. For the slide protocols that are tied to the BlockSlideInstructions, the routine was ignoring situations where the active flag was set to “No” and also was not filtering correctly if a slide parent was assigned to multiple block/slide combinations. Corrected this flaw.
Accessioning – Increased the “maximum” value on the quantity numeric field to be 1,000 instead of 100.
Scanner Engine – Increased the “maximum” value on the quantity numeric field to be 1,000 instead of 100.
Manufacturing Module – Modified this module to allow for a different matching data from the shipment data when using the extended shipment tracking number logic when using external data.
Manufacturing Module – Extended to allow for the identification of shipment vendor (i.e. UPS or FedEx) number based on “starts with” or “Wildcard” logic.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Type Maintenance – Added the check box for the maintenance of the new WildCard Flag field that was added to support the logic explained above.
Admin Web Site – Feature Finder – Created this utility that is attached to the main maintenance screen of Assist. It is used to help the end user in locating screens and reports inside the Assist administrative screens. Sometimes, given the number of screens/reports, it can be difficult to remember where to go to find them and this screen simplifies the location process.
Admin Web Site – Feature Finder – Modified this screen to include a column to indicate whether or not the user logged into the web site has rights to the objects or not to cut down on confusion regarding an item that exists vs. an object that exists but the user cannot see it.
Warehouse – Modified the “lookup” routine on an inbound storage scan. This algorithm looks to see if the object is shown as “out” before storing it and closing the out transaction. This lookup query was missing the “location number” in the where clause which was causing slow transaction speeds in high volume facilities.
Distribution – Modified the void routine to include slide tray counts and the build list if slide tray tracking is being done.
Print Center – Label Queue – Modified this screen to give the choice of going to the LIS Interface table to pull back patient name and include it on the slide label.
Customer Service Module – Modified the scan history tab to pull data from the Equipment Tracking (i.e. Check In) and Distribution tables in addition to the transaction log. On distribution records, modified the “Scan Type” column to include the name of the distribution location to which the accession was distributed.
Distribution Module – Modified this screen to include a check box (which is optional) for “Rework Cases”. This lets the distribution data be segmented differently for reporting purposes.
Scoreboard – Modified the distribution grid to show the rework totals along with the ability to break down totals by Pathway or not Pathway labs.
Admin Web Site – Sales Rep Maintenance – Built this screen to allow for the maintenance of sales representatives.
Admin Web Site – Client Master maintenance – Modified to include the ability to assign a sales rep to the client.
Customer Service – On the maintenance tab area where clients are added, included maintenance of the sales representative to support this data.
Customer Service – Modified the comment tab area. When a client is specified, a check is made of the client master file and if a sales rep is specified, the sales representative name is shown on the screen.
Customer Service – Modified the client master retrieval routine to include the client code so that short code retrieval and positioning of the drop down box can be done.
Scoreboard – Modified the distribution grid to allow for the customization of the total column and row to be a different background color.
Scanner Engine – The scan history button for Pathway labs was pulling prior years because the location identifier was not included in the retrieval.
Scoreboard – Made some cosmetic changes to the special requests grid to show different data and suppress things differently. Gave options for comments and case notes to be displayed.
Admin Web Site – Added the “AvailableInCustomerService” flag to the stored comment type maintenance screen to allow for the stored comments that are shown in the customer service module to be filtered.
Customer Service – Modified the screen load to factor in the Available in customer service flag when loading the stored comment drop down list.
Customer Service – Modified the info tab to insure on the addition of a new phone number that the phone number field itself is not blank.

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August 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Request Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of request templates. These are used as part of the customer service module and allow for flexible creation of multiple types of special request templates that control the types of special requests that can be entered by customer service representatives.
Admin Web Site – Incident Severity Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of incident severities. This data is part of the incident management that is present inside the Assist customer service module and allows for severity (major and minor) to be assigned to the types of incidents tracked by the lab.
Customer Service Module – Extended the special requests tab to allow for the specification of incidents that might be encountered and report to lab management via the customer service department. HIPAA violations would be an example of an item that could be tracked via incident management.
Admin Web Site – Incident Error Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of incident errors. These are the types of errors that can occur and be logged against an incident.
Print Center – Label Queue – Modified the label queue print screen to allow for the modification of the linear bar code height and x dimension via configuration flags to provide more functionality.
Warehouse – Modified the inquiry screen to all criteria for all transaction types (including returns and destroyed), employee that performed the warehouse scan transaction and the from/to date of the transaction.
Warehouse – Added the employee as a drop down choice so that on an outbound transaction, the employee that requested the object can be noted and tracked.
Admin Web Site – Incident Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of incident categories. These are the categories of errors that can occur and be logged against an incident.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Report – Modified this report to include the “reported by” employee.
Admin Web Site – Incident Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of incident types. These are the types of incidents that can be tracked using Assist. Flags allow for incidents to be marked as HIPAA related or other types.
Print Center – Created a new screen inside the print center module to allow for the creation of UDI labels for medical devices that require UDI labelling. The screen allows for the creation of the labels and the immediate scan/display of validation transactions associated with the labelling.
Admin Web Site – UDI Validation Report – Created this report to allow for reporting against the validation activities that can be done as part of the UDI labelling process that has recently been added to Assist.
Admin Web Site – UDI Print Transaction Report – Created this report to allow for reporting against the UDI labels that have been printed. Every label that is printed is captured in the database so that controls can be established on how often and when labels are printed. Re-print transactions can also be done from this data.
Customer Service Module – Added the appointment scheduling template to the special reports area (tab) of this module. This added functionality allows the customer service representative to create appointments for clients for different types of medical services.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the different types of status (i.e. Open, Closed, Pending) that can be assigned to an appointment transaction in the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the different types of appointments (i.e. Frozen Sections, FNA, Bone Marrows) that can be selected in the appointment scheduling template section of the special requests tab in the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Log Report – Created this report to allow for the detail level reporting of appointments that have been captured using the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Application User Authorized Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the user authorization table, where users can be flagged as authorized for different feature sets inside Assists. Historically, this was accomplished with checkboxes on the security maintenance screen, but this will be used to replace that concept long term to remove the need to make constant tweaks to the database for new security feature turn ups.
Cassette Queue – Fixed an issue with manually printing cassettes where the cassette identifier was not printing.
Scanner Engine – Add the ability to adjust the leading zero count after processing the requisition to account for entities such as hospital requisitions where their numbering sequence would be larger than the bottles and/or cassettes/slides printed via Assist.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report – The “remove” button to filter out employees from the selection list was not working. This was corrected.
Accessioning Module – Resolved an issue with the label print routine inside the accessioning module. If toggling between configurations from an LIS number wheel with a location identifier and one without a location identifier, the identifier was “sticking” and printing out on the number wheel bottle labels that should not have them. Suppressed this value on a toggle operation.
Customer Service Module – Added the “Technical Component” flag and the client type to the “add client” section which is accessed via the “Maintain” button on the “Info” tab. Previously, these two fields were only available via the web front end for Client maintenance.
Customer Service Module – Added phone number masked editing to the various phone number fields.
Admin Web Site – UDI Label Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation and maintenance of the UDI label types for sites that make use of the UDI label printing utility. This allows for manufacturer information, UDI tags, and disclaimers to be maintained dynamically in the software.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Facility Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the appointment facilities. These are used inside the customer service module when the feature to allow for the scheduling of appointments (i.e. Frozens, FNA, etc.) to be performed.
Scanner Engine – Modified the void subroutine to change around slightly the text that is written to the scan history box and also modified the font color to reflect as red.
Admin Web Site – Report Template Maintenance – Created this report to allow for tweaks to be made to the various settings associated with the “canned” reports/forms that are associated with different types of transactions that are created inside the special requests section of the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Incident Log Report – Created this report to allow for the web based reporting of incidents that are created via the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Add On Priority Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the priority assignment capability of the “Add on” orders that can be captured via the Assist customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of the “Add On Available” check box to allow an order type to be modified to make it show up in the drop down list of choices for the type of order that is being placed on an add on.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of the “Add On Available” check box to allow a specimen type to be modified to make it show up in the drop down list of choices for the specimen type when data is being created in the customer service add on order section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – User Authorized Count Report – Created this report to show, and an object type (i.e. Report vs. Screen) level, how many objects a user has rights granted. This allows Assist administrators to have some level of visibility holistically to how many end users are accessing the various Assist administrative objects.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of doctor licenses on a screen by itself. Previously, this functionality was provided only on the Doctor Maintenance screen. This screen allowed for multiple facets of a doctor to be maintained. This new screen was created so that rights could be granted to only license maintenance without exposing the other data elements.
Distribution Module – Created Distribution auto assignment logic.
Admin Web Site – Client Pickup Detail Report – Added the Call Start date to this report so analysis can be performed of when a pickup request was captured by customer service and when it was entered as a pickup request for comparison purposes by the logistics department.
Admin Web Site – Add On Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of status values for the Add On order area of Special Requests inside the Assist customer service module.
Admin Web Site – User Favorites List Box – Added this section to the administrative web site to allow for “quick launch” items to be specified for screens and reports for frequently used items.
Admin Web Site – User Favorites Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of favorites by employee.
Customer Service Module – Removed the First Call Resolution logic from the client add on order tab and added it to the main call screen since the flag is relevant to the entire call and not just an add on order.
Admin Web Site – Call Notification Report – Modified this report to reflect the change in the location of the first call resolution and to show the reason description rather than just the “Y/N” first call flag. Also moved this report to the customer service report quadrant.
Admin Web Site – Call Resolution Summary Report – Created this report to show a call count summary by call resolution reason.
Customer Service Module – Modified so that Add on client orders, appointments, and incidents would all show under the call summary and call history areas of the application.
Admin Web Site – UDI Label Type Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to record versions of labels into the database for tracking purposes.
Admin Web Site – Accessioning Module – Modified the accessioning module to capture the case type. This is being done by going to the specimen type table to get the case type. This is used to then write the case type to the specimen type tracking table. For labs that use auto assignment distribution, this is important in adding this level of filtering.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Information Report – Modified to include the case type.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Audit Log Report – Modified to include the case type.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified to include the ability to specify a case type and associate it with a specimen type.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Case Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of doctors and the case types they are allowed to read. This data is used by the distribution auto assignment feature for the handling of which doctors should get which cases for assignment.
Distribution Module – Modified the auto assignment to include case type logic.
Admin Web Site – Department Maintenance – Modified this screen to include “Chemical Department”. This allows for departments to be created/maintained with an indication as to whether or not chemicals are stored in the department.

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September 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Chemical Class Category Maintenance – Extended this screen to allow for check box classification of the chemical classes as Flammable, Oxidizer, Corrosive, or Combustible to better support chemical storage requirements.
Admin Web Site – Chemical Inventory Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the temperature storage section of Assist. This table allows for the chemical details to be tracked and associated with inventory items for sites that are using Assist to track chemical storage. Flash points, corrosiveness, etc. are entered via this screen and associated to inventory items to fill out the chemical profile of the items in storage.
Admin Web Site – Chemical Kit Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of chemical kits. This provides the ability to put products together into a kit or chemical combination to be used in the lab.
Admin Web Site – Chemical Storage Limits Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of chemical storage limits. These are the values, but chemical inventory item that allow for triggers to be set off if more of a chemical than is allowed is stored in an individual location inside the facility from a fresh chemical or waste storage/disposal perspective.
Order Closeout Module – Corrected an issue where the “Default Order Category” was not defaulting on the first screen (i.e. search criteria) but was leaving the value of “Not Specified” as selected.
Admin Web Site – Client Add On Order Report – Created this report to provide visibility to add on orders for clients that have been placed using the Assist customer service module.
Scanner Engine – Made changes to support a new bottle label that might include protocols and quantity. This new feature allows for bottle integration with an LIS where the information on the specimen is passed via the bottle bar code, but the screen needs to not let the bottle bar code impact matching. Admin Web Site – Chemical Inventory – Added the “Client Submitted” flag to note chemical inventory items that might be received FROM clients. This is used to filter the chemical drop down on the accessioning screen.
Accessioning Module – Modified to show a chemical assignment drop down list box to indicate what chemicals a specimen arrived in. This writes data to the Chemical Accession Assignment table so that records can be kept of what substances were involved in the receipt of the specimen.
Admin Web Site – Case Trace Resolution Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of resolution reasons for labs that use the case trace functionality.
Admin Web Site – Case Trace Report – Created this report to show the basics of the case trace data. Renamed the original Case Trace Report to Case Trace History Report to reflect the fact that this report includes historical information including when the case submitted for tracing has been encountered.
Admin Web Site – Case Trace Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the ability to maintain a resolved flag, resolved by, and resolution reason for enhanced tracing of cases.
Admin Web Site – Employee Availability Report – Created this report to allow for the reporting on the employee availability information.
Order Closeout – Modified the doctor order closeout to take the order type, order category, and status from the selection criteria to the print log pop up screen and point the drop down lists rather than make the technician make the changes again on the print log screen.
Admin Web Site – Special Request Summary Report – Added client name to the report and made is suppression enabled. Also added client to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Log Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of appointment log records. Normally, these records will be maintained via the customer service module. This screen simply provides an alternative for the maintenance of the records for employees that may not have the customer service module but need access to create and/or change appointment records.
Admin Web Site – Incident Approval Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the approval choices for an employee when working with incident maintenance inside the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Incident Log Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of incident log records. Normally, these records will be maintained via the customer service module. This screen simply provides an alternative for the maintenance of the records for employees that may not have the customer service module but need access to create and/or change incident records.
Admin Web Site – Performed a search through all reports and screens and changed the logic to consider a “verification” badge to be any user record flagged with the verification flag from the security maintenance screen instead of having the hard coded hunt for ID8888 as the factor. This cleans up some old logic to match the more efficient manner of tracking verification badges.
Scoreboard – Created a new Employee availability scoreboard view to show the data for the employee availability feature set inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Assist Rotator Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the department drop down in the detailed section of the screen so that the department flag can be associated with an individual machine so that department filtering scoreboard choices can function.
Admin Web Site – Scoreboard Alert Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a font color drop down and color swatch. This allows for each alert to have a font color picked from the drop down (with the color displayed in the little text color swatch area for confirmation). This value will be read by the scoreboard message display when displaying the alert. Previously, messages could only be shown in black.
Admin Web Site – Scoreboard Message Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a font color drop down and color swatch. This allows for each alert to have a font color picked from the drop down (with the color displayed in the little text color swatch area for confirmation). This value will be read by the scoreboard message display when displaying the message. Previously, alerts could only be shown in red.
Admin Web Site – Employee Availability Start/End Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the default start/end time for employees to be specified. This will be used in the employee availability portion of Assist when defaulting the starting and ending time for employees.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Case Type Capacity Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of doctor/case type limits associated with the distribution module when auto assignment logic is in place. This allows for doctors to have their assignment counts halted based on capacity limitations specified at the case type level.
Slide Queue – Modified to correct an issue where the “auto purge” of items that are older than the threshold did not include the status flag so that “Active” objects are left behind.
Admin Web Site – Accession History Report – Removed the location description from the various grids. This data is not really necessary and was limiting the amount of data that could be displayed in the grid overall.
Print Center – Modified the badge print routine to include a “suppress unscannable” option to turn off the unscannable bar code on the badges when checked.
Leica POU – Modified this routine to include the WarnVerificationScanCount logic to warn a user if they stay logged into the application with a verification badge beyond the count set in the configuration.
Check In/Out – Modified this routine to include the WarnVerificationScanCount logic to warn a user if they stay logged into the application with a verification badge beyond the count set in the configuration.
Distribution Module – Modified this routine to include the WarnVerificationScanCount logic to warn a user if they stay logged into the application with a verification badge beyond the count set in the configuration.
Warehouse Module - Modified this routine to include the WarnVerificationScanCount logic to warn a user if they stay logged into the application with a verification badge beyond the count set in the configuration.
Warehouse Module – Modified to generate a Object Storage Transaction record for each transaction that takes place in the warehouse.
Warehouse Module – Added a pick list feature to allow for the building of a grouping of objects (i.e. slides) to pull out of the warehouse. This printed list can be used to walk into the warehouse and physically pull the items. LIS Interface Module – Modified to allow for duplicate alias numbers if they are blank. Modified the “Edit” pop up screen to filter client facilities when a client is selected. Added the Assist Processing checkbox and the doctor override drop down box for clients that have these data elements enabled and are flagged as visible.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Override Maintenance – Created this screen to work with the LIS Interface for sites that make use of the auto distribution feature inside Assist. This table represents automatic doctor overrides that can be called by the LIS Interface.
Warehouse Module – Modified so that based on configuration options, if an object is scanned “inbound” and the object is showing as currently not in the warehouse due to a “send out” of some sort, generate an error indicating that a refile needs to be performed.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Transactions Report – Created this report to show all of the warehouse transactions that have been generated by the warehouse module to provide a granular view of all of the actions performed as a form of audit trail.
Distribution Module – Modified the auto assignment logic to include the doctor override feature where all logic is bypassed if an accession number is marked for distribution to a specific doctor.
Admin Web Site – Client Add on Order Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of client add on orders that are processed via the Assist customer service module. This provides the ability to maintain orders if the client service module is not installed on an individual machine.
Admin Web Site – Case Type Maintenance – Added Case Priority to this maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a priority value for ordering of case types outside of the visual order which is driven by the sort order field. This is used in various places inside Assist such as the distribution auto assignment to handle split case type accessions.
LIS Interface Module – Removed the location description from the inquiry/edit grid to allow for more “relevant” data to fit on the initial grid view on the screen.
Order Closeout Module – Modified to look at the Closeout Category Suppression screen to determine whether what order categories to display when the closeout screen is loaded.
Warehouse Module – Modified to support the suppression of protocols in the slide bar code if a configuration flag indicates that they are present.
Warehouse Module – Modified to show drop down boxes for cabinets and drawers for use typically in a “smaller” warehouse environments.
Admin Web Site – Closeout Category Suppression Maintenance Screen – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the order category/machine combinations that can be suppressed from view inside the doctor order closeout screen.
Customer Service Module – Added the Choose Phone option to the main screen. This is relevant when CTI is not in use in a facility. A list of phone numbers has been captured for the client and toggling this checkbox (after choosing the client) allows for the selection of an existing phone number for the client. Once selected from a visible drop down that appears, the phone number will go forward to the various other tabs as if it had been input on the original text box for phone number.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Transactions Report – Modified this report to include the protocol value for the object being stored if there is one.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Report – Modified this report to include the protocol value for the object being stored if there is one.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen so that maintenance can be performed on the detail specimen type tracking information. Normally, this data is created via the data capture screens inside Assist. This screen allows for changes if needed by management and also for the creation/maintenance of specimen type records if a specimen does not pass through histology but needs specimen type information for distribution purposes.

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October 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Warehouse Module – Modified to show drop down boxes for cabinets and drawers for use typically in a “smaller” warehouse environments.
Admin Web Site – Closeout Category Suppression Maintenance Screen – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the order category/machine combinations that can be suppressed from view inside the doctor order closeout screen.
Customer Service Module – Added the Choose Phone option to the main screen. This is relevant when CTI is not in use in a facility. A list of phone numbers has been captured for the client and toggling this checkbox (after choosing the client) allows for the selection of an existing phone number for the client. Once selected from a visible drop down that appears, the phone number will go forward to the various other tabs as if it had been input on the original text box for phone number.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Transactions Report – Modified this report to include the protocol value for the object being stored if there is one.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Report – Modified this report to include the protocol value for the object being stored if there is one.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen so that maintenance can be performed on the detail specimen type tracking information. Normally, this data is created via the data capture screens inside Assist. This screen allows for changes if needed by management and also for the creation/maintenance of specimen type records if a specimen does not pass through histology but needs specimen type information for distribution purposes.
Order Closeout – Made slide change to have the selection of an order category in the main selection criteria area filter the order type selection criteria value to only show types for the category.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of object request status values which are part of the “send out” template (named Object Request) of the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of object request type values. These represent the types of object requests that can be made in the customer service module. Examples would include Send outs, warehouse pulls, etc.
Manufacturing Module – Modified this module to handle the different shipment type logic of FedEx where the tracking bar code is embedded at the end of the bar code instead of beginning with it. Added logic to truncate from the right based on flags being set on the shipment type table.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a flag to indicate if there is the need to process a shipment tracking number by taking a certain number of digits from the right of the bar code instead of from the front.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Reason Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of object request reason values which are part of the customer service object request section of Assist.
Manufacturing Module – Modified this module to pull the Bypass bar code value out of the configuration instead of being hard coded inside the Assist routine. Also added a flag to allow for the scanning of the bypass bar code to clear the shipment type information if indicated that this was allowed.
Print Center – Badge Print – Added the ability to include the bypass bar code on a badge when printing. This can only be done at the expense of the unscannable bar code.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Priority Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of object request priorities. These are used in the object request section of the Assist customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Summary Report – Modified to add a “Monthly View” check box to allow for the specimen type summary to be reported at a daily level, which was the original default, and also now at a Year/Month view to summarize further.
Doctor Order Closeout – Added scanner functionality to this module to allow for badge scans and also multiple accession type scans (i.e. block or slide) and also the ability to automatically retrieve the orders for the object that was scanned.
Doctor Order Closeout – Added logic to allow for the module to skip protocols if they were found in the object bar code.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the maintenance of a font color associated with the distribution location. This is used in various places in Assist to make the DL show up with a different font color on screens.
Distribution Module – Modified to allow for the auto distribution grid to display using the font color of the distribution location if this was specified under distribution location maintenance.
Distribution Module – Modified the “all slides must be scanned” option to allow for a “hard halt without confirmation” in addition to a confirmation option. In other words, give the configuration option to not allow the tech to skip intentionally the scanning of all slides.
Assist Backup – Added Error capture logic to several of the subroutine to write data to the ApplicationErrors table to allow for troubleshooting if the backup routine is not working as it should.
Microtomy Point of Use – Modified this routine to allow for the capture of patient information and writing into the LIS Interface table. This is for facilities that have patient information in the bar code.
Assist Scanner – Modified to allow for the slide queue generation routine to also include an override magazine based on protocol. Previously, this only worked for the printer.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Tracking Summary – Created this report to provide a summary/count view of shipments that have been placed and tracked via Assist. Previously, there was only a detail view of this data.
Distribution Module – Modified the auto distribution logic to also include the concept of accession prefix (i.e. number wheel) overrides for doctors for sites that need that functionality.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Prefix Override – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of prefix override records for sites that use auto distribution and need the ability to grant assignment criteria and/or elimination to distribution locations (i.e. doctors) based on number wheel.
Admin Web Site – Employee Time Work Card Report – Modified this report to correct a bug where the report did not work correctly when the “group before” checkbox was used.
Admin Web Site – Feature Object Naming Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of custom naming conventions for various objects on some screens. This is really used for non-lab installations where some of the reports do not need to make reference to lab names for objects such as accession numbers and prefixes (i.e. number wheels).
Check In/Out Module – Added the logic to handle the Void situation where a record needs to be deleted. Pulled in the same void logic that exits in other modules using a button on the screen or a bar code.

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November 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin web site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Modified to remove the location description to provide more visible area for data. Also added a prefix free form search criteria to make it easier to find a specific number wheel for sites with lots of them. Added a duplicate check to ensure on an add transaction that the number wheel does not already exist.
Doctor Module – The “Show All Types” check box on the accession orders tab was not filtering back to the original state when unselected. It was still showing all types.
Admin Web Site – Prefix Hourly Count Report – Modified to filter out error message scan transactions. They were showing up with blank prefixes.
Admin Web Site – Peer Review Report – added the result description column to reflect more detailed result information on the doctor peer review.
Admin Web Site – Client Pickup Detail Report – Modified to include the notes column in the report.
Admin Web Site – Peer Review Result Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation and editing of result reasons for better and more detailed reporting on the peer review tab of the doctor module.
Doctor Module – Modified the peer review tab to include the result reason drop down rather than simple checkboxes for agree and disagree. This allows for more detailed decisions and indications regarding the review process.
Doctor Module – Added specimen notes to the module. The button can now be displayed and will turn red when specimen notes are encountered. A new tab titled “Information” is now visible to show specimen notes. This tab becomes active when the specimen notes button is pressed.
Doctor Module – Modified the Quality tab to include “***” in the tab description to make it visually apparent when quality information exists for the case to prompt users to click on the tab if they wish to see QC information.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the object request items that are typically entered via the customer service module. This provides an alternative for maintenance of these objects when a user does not have the actual customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Report – Created this report to allow for reporting of the object request items that are typically entered via the customer service module.
Queue Viewer – Added the “delete multiple” button to allow for more than one cassette to be deleted at a time. This feature already existed in the slide queue.
Distribution Module – Modified the Case Statistics logic to include a new scenario for showing “Bottle Count” that is driven by the configuration. Bottle statistics can be driven by the bottle scans that take place at another scan touch point in the workflow (i.e. grossing or accessioning) rather than from Distribution. This is relevant if the facility wants to show distribution totals that are at the container level but they are only scanning requisitions at distribution where this data is not in the data being scanned.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Prefix Summary Report – Created this report to show the requisition, specimen, and slide totals summarized by distribution location and prefix. The prefix can be suppressed. The specimen (i.e. container/bottle count) can be pulled from distribution transactions or from any other scan point prior in the workflow in case only requisitions are scanned at distribution.
Manufacturing Module – Include logic to allow for a timeclock user ID to be scanned instead of the Assist bar code and load it successfully.
Scanner Engine – Modified the “Slide” scan to include a protocol value if one was found in the bar code in the write to the transaction log.
Scanner Engine – Modified to back out the “timeout” time on auto logoff to subtract the auto logoff time to make the logout time more accurate.
Slide Queue – Included the logic to write the protocol into the bar code.
Slide Queue – Included logic to allow for the writing of a specimen class to the slide. Specimen class would be used for indicating if the specimen was a histology vs. cytology vs. frozen section.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Listing – Modified this report to show the protocol value field that has been added to the transaction log table, distribution table, and object storage (warehouse) table.
Distribution Module – Modified the “Slide” scan to include a protocol value if one was found in the bar code in the write to the distribution log.
Distribution Module – Modified to back out the “timeout” time on auto logoff to subtract the auto logoff time to make the logout time more accurate.
Distribution Module – Extended the auto assignment algorithm to include the DoctorSpecimenAssignment table where a specimen is definitively overridden to a doctor.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Detail Report – Modified to include the protocol value.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Tracking Report – Extended this report to include the specimen class.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Audit Log – Extended this report to include the specimen class.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Maintenance – Extended this screen to allow for the maintenance of the specimen class when working on specimen type tracking records.
Check In/Out Module – Modified to back out the “timeout” time on auto logoff to subtract the auto logoff time to make the logout time more accurate.
Accessioning Module – Modified to back out the “timeout” time on auto logoff to subtract the auto logoff time to make the logout time more accurate.
Slide Point of Use - Modified to back out the “timeout” time on auto logoff to subtract the auto logoff time to make the logout time more accurate.
Slide Point of Use - Included logic to allow for the writing of a specimen class to the slide. Specimen class would be used for indicating if the specimen was a histology vs. cytology vs. frozen section.
Slide Point of Use – Made the changes necessary to include the protocol in the bar code.
Queue Viewer – Modified to include writing the specimen class to the cassette. This allows for things such as “Frozen” or “Cytology” to be marked on the case.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Class Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen classes that are used to group specimen types into their departmental categories.
Accessioning Module – Added the specimen class drop down to the list and then write it into the specimen type tracking table.
Scanner Engine – Added the specimen class drop down to the embedded specimen type override panel to allow for the specification of specimen classes as needed.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Class Summary Report – Created this report to allow for the summary level reporting of the specimen class information if it is specified while engaged in specimen type tracking.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Specimen Assignment Maintenance – Created this screen to support the “auto” distribution feature. This allows for someone to show all of the cases (at the specimen level) that have passed a data collection point (ex. Accessioning or grossing). The cases that were at that point, can be assigned to a specific doctor. At distribution, the module can interrogate this table when a requisition is scanned to determine who should be given the case.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Specimen Assignment Report – Created this report to show the doctor assignment transactions that have been loaded in the database for clients that are using this functionality.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the specimen class.
Accessioning Module – Modified so that when a specimen type is selected, if a specimen class is assigned to that specimen type, it will position the specimen class drop down on the screen if it is visible.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Added department and “Active Only” selection criteria to help filter employees.
Admin Web Site – Employee Productivity Summary – Added department to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Employee Time Worked Report – Added department to the selection criteria.
Scanner Engine – Added the ability to provide a “wider” version of the main scanning screen to allow for the specification of Doctor Specimen Assignments via this engine (typically grossing).
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Listing – Modified this report to clean up the selection criteria area. Made the fields line up better and generally made it more visually appealing.
Check In/Out – Batch Mode – Modified to so that the scanner can be used to check items on the batch screen instead of just clicking with the mouse. Also worked out a few issues where the status was not getting set correctly.
Slide Queue – Printer Protocol Splitting – Created a new feature to allow for the slide queue to split up a case based on the protocols. If a portion of the protocol wants to be printed on a slide printer other than the “Active” printer, as the case is printed, it will create a record in the print queue table pointing the specimen to the other printer.
Scanner Engine – Modified the main scanner engine screen to provide an additional option when using the void bar code. Based on a configuration flag, the void can now delete “every scan point” for the accession number in question, or can be filtered to just delete scan transactions for the touch point where the void is performed. This provides enhanced capability for voiding out transactions at one point without impacting other points.
Day End Utility – Modified this utility to inactivate day end records when they are overridden by a secondary day end button press instead of deleting them. Accomplished this by adding an active flag to the database. Added a “revert” button to the screen to clear the current day end and go back to the prior date. Changed the selection of a day end type to reflect the date/time on the screen to provide visibility to the current.
Admin Web Site – Day End Maintenance – Modified to include the Active Flag to the maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Scan Rate Report – Made a few tweaks to this report. Added a check box to allow for the suppression of the collection point so that reporting can be done at the group level OR the group/point. Corrected a flaw with the Assist time so that it reflects correctly. Gave the ability to run for all collection groups at once.

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December 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Accessioning – Modified to include the option of specifying a default quantity in the configuration for initial screen loading.

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January 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Office Queue Closeout – For sites that use the office queue for grossing information, made a change to allow for defaulting of the body source, grossing information, and clinical information to potentially cut down on click events and streamline speed entry.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Case Task Report – Created this report for Assist manufacturing sites to provide better visibility to the manufacturing tasks associated with case scans.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Transaction Report – Created this report for Assist manufacturing sites to provide better visibility to the manufacturing tasks that are scanned by employees in a transactional format.
Admin Web Site – Hidden Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of screen/report categories so that entire categories of items can be suppressed from view on the Assist web site to cut down on visual clutter. Previously, items had to be individually hidden which could be more painful than hiding at this higher level.
Admin Web Site – Screen/Report Launchpad – Modified the main screen “launchpad” for both maintenance screens and reports to look at the hidden category table and not show categories if they have been marked as hidden. This allows sites to cut down on visual clutter for sections of Assist without having to hide the items one at a time.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of office queue data. This information is typically created via the office queue or agents that watch Assist transactions and create this data, but this screen allows for the explicit maintenance of the office queue data.
Warehouse Module – Bulk Mode – Modified the bulk entry screen to show drop down list boxes for added functionality rather than just making the values available via scan transactions. Scanning can still be performed to position, but will position the drop-down boxes.
Warehouse Module – Template Label Creation – Modified the template screen to position correctly for the warehouse area into which to create the template. Previously, these were not positioning correctly.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the office queue.
Assist Scanner – Modified the main scanner engine to allow for the clinical information to be set as read only on the grossing notes tab for sites that are using grossing note capture/display and do not want changes to be allowed inside the screen.
Check In Module – Modified the ability to capture the batch number of the processor and write into the “office queue” for sites that are using the equipment check in transaction to generate an office transaction. This change allows those sites to see the data logically grouped.
Check In Module – Provided the ability to suppress the run length (e.g. tissue size) when processing a batch to cut down on visual clutter where the size is not significant.
Office Queue Closeout – Modified this screen to show the batch description if office queue items have batches in play and added as a potential selection criteria value. Also added the ability to suppress the batch type in case only one type is used and this is visual clutter.
Admin Web Site – Void Transaction Report – Corrected an issue where the grid headers on this report were inaccurate.
Scanner Engine – Modified the cassette add on block screen pop up to check the queue loader settings to allow for the target cassette printer to default in a custom manner based on the mappings to allow for different employees to default to different printers.
Doctor Module – Added an “Open Scan” check box to allow for the next scan transaction after checking this box to go directly into the comments text box. This is to allow a doctor the ability to pass comments along to the lab from other bar codes.
Doctor Module – Modified the “Auto Print” routine to react to the “suppress slide” check box from the order type maintenance screen to allow for the sending of an order to the histology order closeout screen without sending slide print requests to the slide queue.
Doctor Module – Created the ability for a static bar code scan (flexible based on configuration) to perform the save orders button press. This allows for a scan sheet to be created to drive the save order (multiple or single) to be done without touching a mouse/keyboard.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Assignment History Report – Created this report to display the office queue assignment audit trail. It is basically a listing of all the assignment transactions that are performed as employees take ownership of office queue tasks.
Office Closeout – Added the ability to default the image type if the image tab is available on the office closeout modification form.
Office Closeout – Added full image list processing to allow for images to be processed and maintenance from inside the office queue modification pop up screen.
Interface Utility – Image Filing – Modified the image filing “spider” to allow for the writing of images to a “bad” folder if they cannot be automatically filed to keep from having to address the same files repeatedly. Also made a configuration change to allow for an opt out on using the date/time stamp and just run on source folder contents.
Doctor Module – Added visibility to the patient history information from the grossing notes table.
Office Closeout – Added the ability to view and update Patient History in the grossing notes section of the closeout screen.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Report – Extended this report to include the patient history field that has been added to the table.
Admin Web Site – Diagnostic Group Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of diagnostic groups. These are used inside the doctor module as a logical grouping of diagnostic codes into common “stain” groupings.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Maintenance – Modified the medical code maintenance screen to include a diagnostics group drop down to allow for this additional information to be provided.

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February 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Department Template Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for visibility of task templates when the department is “not specified” for tasks that are applicable across all departments.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Stains Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of medical code stain data which helps to further break out diagnosis text to accommodate stain results. This is relevant to sites using the doctor module with diagnosis capability.
Admin Web Site – Calibration/Verification Report – Modified this report to include a summary view of the data to augment the detailed view that was created originally.
Office Queue Closeout – Cleaned up a scenario where an end user could click the login button, cancel the transaction, and then have access to the “Retrieve” and “New” buttons. Enforced the concept that a login transaction must take place before any operations may proceed.
Active Imager – Modified this screen to allow for the support and notification of multiple images that have been submitted. The change provides a visual if more than one image is available and provides a vehicle for toggling through them. Added support for a “no image exists” scenario where a record gets written, but simply reflects an ImageFound = “N” in order to drive the message.
Active Imager – Added the ability to display patient demographics on the screen assuming the LIS Interface is active.
Distribution Module – Provided the ability to suppress the “Refresh Statistics” button for sites that do not want the information available.
Office Queue Closeout – Modified to not allow the entry of new grossing notes if grossing notes already exist.
Admin Web Site – Diagnosis Code Unlock Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to unlock medical diagnosis cases when they get unintentionally locked. This is only relevant if a site is using doctor module with medical diagnosis.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Added a checkbox to allow for a new maintenance field titled “requires manifest” which allows individual distribution locations to be assigned a Y/N value to indicate whether or not a distribution location should require a manifest in the distribution module.
Distribution Module – Added a “requires manifest” check box to the screen that requires a manifest depending on whether or not the flag is set for individual distribution locations. The value can also be set across the board and not check as distribution locations are changed if needed.
Admin Web Site – Employee Daily Work Statistics Report – Created a new variation of the Employee Work Statistics report that includes the date with the various totals displayed on the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Listing Report – Added Facility to the selection criteria and facility location description to the detail area of the report to allow for the reporting of the facility and specific location where equipment is stored.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Machine Assignment Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the inventory/machine assignment records. Normally, this data is maintained via the Assist data collection stations themselves. This screen allows for overriding or modifying the assignment without having to visit the work stations.
Admin Web Site – Employee Group Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of employee groups. These new groups will be used for assigning a variety of tasks to groupings of employees for projects rather than assigning to individuals.
Admin Web Site – Group Title Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of employee group titles. These are used in the assignment of employees to teams where there might be a title (e.g. Leader, Member, etc.) associated with the assignment of the employee to the team.
Admin Web Site – Team Item Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the team item types. Item types are used to classify the project items into the types of project items. Examples are: Ideas, Suggestions, Recognitions, and Issues.
Admin Web Site – Team Project Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of team projects. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist and holds the main areas where projects or team environments can be built (e.g. Histology, Cytology, Logistics, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Team Initiative Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of team project initiatives. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist and holds the name of the initiatives or projects that can be launched and tracked against. Entries could be here for continuing improvement, surge meetings, Kaizen blitzes, etc. where project items should be tracked against specific projects.
Admin Web Site – Team Project Impact Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of team project impact associated with the completion of a project item. Examples of impacts would be: High, Medium, Low. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Team Impact Area Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of team project impact areas associated with the completion of a project item. Examples of areas would: Logistics, Customer Satisfaction, Employee Satisfaction, etc. They represent the areas of the business that a project completion would impact. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Team Project Implementation Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of team project implementation choices associated with project items. Examples would be: Hard, Medium, Easy. These values represent the level of effort associated with a project item. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Project Item Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of project items. These are the base entities in the Team/Project functional area of Assist. They represent the individual items (e.g. suggestions, recognition entries, project improvement ideas) that are being tracked. While client software exists for the entry of this data, this screen allows for the override and entry of the data outside of the client software.

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March 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Equipment Retirement Report – Created this brief report to offer listings of equipment along with the date of purchase and disposal. While all status values of reports can be retrieved, it is really designed to be used for reporting to accounting groups on the equipment that has been retired and/or disposed of and the relevant dates.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Maintenance – Added a field to allow for the capture of reference text inside medical code definitions for use in the doctor module where diagnosis specification capability is enabled. Also added medical code category into the selection criteria.
Doctor Module – Diagnostics – Added the ability to default the medical code category area to default a doctor to a specific medical code category when the module is first launched.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Stain Definition Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the diagnostic area of the doctor module. It allows for the creation of diagnostic result combinations (e.g. PAS-, GMS-) to be associated with medical diagnostic codes.
Admin Web Site – Project Item Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the active items in the Team/Project item database. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist. Project items are the main items that are tracked.
Admin Web Site – Project Item History Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the transactional items in the Team/Project item database. This provides visibility to the audit trail information on all data that has been changed. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist. Project items are the main items that are tracked.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Type Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to add the ability to specify shipment types (e.g. Fedex, UPS) where the tracking number contained in the vendor bar code is driven by an algorithm that includes the length of the bar code rather than the starting characters of the bar code.
Admin Web Site – Team Project Assignment – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of employees and/or employee groups to team projects. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist.
Doctor Module – Diagnosis Tab – Changed the image count metric on the screen to only reflect an image count if the images is an “available on report” image type to more appropriately designate to a doctor how many images have been taken.
Admin Web Site – Project/Team Assignment History Report – Created this report to allow for the reporting of the historical assignment of employees and/or employee groups to projects/teams. This provides management with date/time information of who was assigned to what within a time frame for analysis purposes. This data is part of the Team/Project functional area of Assist.
Accessioning Module – Modified to allow for the scanning of Accession “bins” while performing the accessioning process. If a facility serializes the bins that the specimen bottles are placed in, this allows for the tracking of which bin contains which specimens. The data is written into the database for tracking purposes where different color bins may represent rush cases or special handling.
Accessioning Module – Modified the selection of the specimen type drop down to allow for a default cassette count to be loaded based on the selection.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified the specimen type maintenance to include the “default cassette quantity”. This new value will change the quantity on the accessioning screen when the specimen type is specified.
Thermo Slide Point of Use Module – Added two protocol definition buttons. One will display the protocol packages associated with specimen types and will default to the active specimen type for the case that is active. The other is a button that allows for the display of the definition of specific stains or protocols. The drop downs in the definition area will change depending on which button is pressed, but it provides visibility to the histotechs to see the slide combinations that will be printed when the options are taken.
Doctor Module – Print Log – Adjusted the print log functionality to allow for the specification of a single accession number, or all accessions within a number wheel when printing a log of orders. Also added a filter to only include orders for the specific doctor logged into the module.
Queue Viewer – Added additional selection criteria to the cassette queue. The accession prefix was introduced to allow for the filtering by number wheel and also a batch drop down for sites that accession into “bins” to allow for the printing of only cassettes in that “batch”.
Warehouse Module – Modified the manual entry (e.g. unscannable) to handle prior year location identifiers more correctly. Even when changed on the screen, they were reverting back to the current year. This fix is only relevant to labs using the Pathway LIS number wheel symbology.
Warehouse Module – Modified to make sure that leading zeros are not stored in the database along with the accession number base.
Warehouse Module – Modified the accession history from Microtomy window to include the location identifier. Previously, all data for an accession and suffix were being displayed regardless of year. This is only relevant to labs using the Pathway LIS number wheel symbology.
Thermo Slide Point of Use Module – Modified this module to allow for “split printing” between a Thermo slide printer and another printer, which is typically a label printer such as zebra. This allows for the automatic splitting based on protocol of which slides should print on a physical slide and which should automatically route to a label printer for IHC lables (for example). Also provided an “override” feature which allows for all label print transactions to be pointed to the IHC label printer.

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April 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Assist Scanner Engine – Modified the main scanner module to slightly alter the “case hold” logic. If case holds are used, a transaction type override can be done to modify the scan type via collection point based on the reason given for the hold. This provides flexibility to generate different transaction log scan data from a single station without having to produce different module configurations for each type of hold.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the capture of data collection points that can be used to override the scan type for a single case hold station to allow for enhanced data capture.
Admin Web Site – Employee Image Archive Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of employee archival paths. This is designed to allow for the support of archival of objects, typically pictures by the interface utility. For sites that use features such as image capture inside the doctor module, this can be used to move pictures out of a working directory and into a archive directory that is personalized and different by employee.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Scan Utilization Report – Created this report to allow for the display of which computers and scanners are creating the most scan traffic by data collection point with the oldest and most recent dates of scan also reflected.
Admin Web Site – Missing Specimen Type Report – Created this report to allow for the display of accession numbers that do not have specimen types associated with them. This report exists at both a detail and summary level. It can show accession numbers that were missed on the specimen type assignment as well as being used to see who assigned specimen types when they are specified.
Admin Web Site – Bypass Analysis Report – Created this report to allow for reporting into the usage of the “Bypass” bar code. Some sites allow for mandatory scan objects to be bypassed for a variety of reasons even when they are mandatory. The bypass process allows for employees to skip mandatory scan objects. This report provides visibility to who is using this feature and how often, time of day, etc.
Admin Web Site – Override Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of override types. These represent the categories of overrides that can be performed over the various transactions inside Assist but represent overrides around established procedures or rules. For example, the “bypass” ability in mandatory scan points would be an example of an override, so an override type of “Bypass” could be created to track the number of times that a bypass is performed.
Scanner Engine – Extra Cassette Request – Modified the extra cassette ordering process to check the specimen type tracking table and pull back the relevant specimen type to print on the cassette if relevant. Previously, on add on cassettes, the specimen type abbreviation was getting lost.
Print Center – Cassette Label – Modified the cassette label print routine to include the specimen type. This allows for the specimen type abbreviation field to be printed on the cassette label that is used to mark cassettes received from outside labs with the type of tissue that has been received.
Admin Web Site – Workflow Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of workflow templates. These templates are used to establish the order of workflow processing in the lab for reporting of transit times.
Thermo Slide Point of Use – Modified this module to include case hold logic to both show pre-existing case hold information and also allow for the creation and removal of case holds at the microtomy touch point.
Admin Web Site – Workflow Group Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of workflow group types. These types are used to categorize workflow groupings which are used to create assembly “lines” or “cells” to group the production efforts of machines or employees into logical groups for reporting purposes.
Admin Web Site – Workflow Outstanding Item Report – Created this report to serve as a new version of the missing objects report. As objects are scanned through the lab workflow, they are represented as a single row in this table. This report can then be used to analyze whether or not an object should have been removed from this table and whether it might reflect a missing object.
Admin Web Site – Workflow Tracking History Report – Created this report to provide visibility to all of the workflow tracking transactions that are performed inside the laboratory assuming workflow tracking is turned on and configured.
Admin Web Site – Workflow Group Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of workflow groups. These groups are used to combine data collection stations into a logical grouping for the creation of assembly “lines” or “cells” for the tracking of consolidated production efforts.
Admin Web Site – Image List Summary Report – This report was created to provide visibility to the number of images at a summary level that have been captured inside the various modules of Assist for sites that perform image processing. The report can summarize by date, image type, and number wheel.
Admin Web Site – Image List Detail Report – This report was created to provide visibility to the raw image capture data for images that have been captured inside the various modules of Assist for sites that perform image processing. This detail level report displays all detail information associated with the image including the path of the file(s).
Main Scanner – Auto Flush Disposal Bin – Provided the ability based on a configuration flag, to clear the warehouse of bottles that were stored as trash during grossing. The scan of the trash “bin” will flush any records stored in the bin as it will indicate that the bin is being re-used.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Listing – Modified the detailed transaction log report to include the disposal bin in the data if trash tracking is being performed in the facility.
Main Scanner – On the Scan History button, show the disposal bin in the history grid if trash tracking is enabled.
Admin Web Site – Accession History Report – This report was modified to include the disposal bin that was specified when the object was scanned. This data will only exist for sites performing trash tracking via Assist.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Accession Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the medical codes assigned to accession numbers as they have entered into the doctor module for sites that use the diagnosis features.
Interface Utility – Image Archival – Added a new feature to the Assist interface utility. This utility can now be scheduled to physically archive images that have been captured and/or processed via Assist. This provides a facility with a better method for handling disk space size constraints by automatically moving images around the network by employee as needed.
Admin Web Site – Workflow Grouping Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the grouping of workstations and scanner ports into logical workflow groups. These groupings are used to combine data collection stations into a logical grouping for the creation of assembly “lines” or “cells” for the tracking of consolidated production efforts. For each workflow group that has been created, this is the one to many relationships of equipment that makes up the group. It also saves historical group information so that retroactive reporting can be performed even after groups have been disbanded.
Admin Web Site – Missing Objects Report – Modified several logic issues on the “last touched” column that was causing false negatives. There were issues with the verification badge and location identifiers sometimes carrying forward to user scans and other transactions.
Scanner Engine/Point of Use – Employee Scan Totals – Added the ability to provide employees with the ability to query and see their scan totals for a date/time range and data collection point. This allows for object totals (e.g. Requisition, Bottle, Cassette, Slide) to be displayed at both a distinct and detail level. This feature is provided via the Elapsed Time button that has been present in the modules to show the amount of time logged into Assist. A new screen is displayed now when the button is pressed.
Accessioning Module – Added the employee elapsed time button to show time logged into Assist along with the ability to display employee scan totals, which has been added to the various other modules of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Image Type Maintenance – External Image Type – Added this new checkbox to the screen to allow for the specification of an image type as being “external” to Assist. This is used to allow the various Assist modules to “defer” to Windows for the display of any image type that is indicated as “external” which would mean the module programming interface cannot display the type of image natively and will just call Windows to display the image.

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May 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Quality Control Reporting – Modified this report to include the full accession number in a new column in addition to holding all of the components in the accession number in their appropriate columns.
Manufacturing Module – Modified this module to allow for the auto-launch of images when a case is scanned. This allows for the display of digital models (e.g. CAD) when some exist from either the Assist internal image database or even if coming from an external image repository.
Admin Web Site – Image Processing Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of image processing data. This data is used inside the manufacturing module to auto launch images associated with a case when it is scanned. This is typically a CAD diagram or an object of that nature.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Utilization Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the equipment utilization section of the Assist database. This allows for reporting of what case numbers passed through which equipment assuming equipment utilization tracking has been enabled. Both detail and summary versions of this data can be viewed using this report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Downtime Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen so that when equipment is marked as down or is brought back on line it changes the equipment master record status to match the equipment downtime status.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Due Report – Modified this report to include an “Operational Status Only” choice and also a choice for “Overdue Only” to cut down on noise with this report.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Modified the PM Module to provide equipment broken and equipment repaired buttons for the quick marking of equipment downtime. These buttons will also generate equipment downtime elapsed time records instead of just marking the equipment master status as changed. Also modified the equipment maintenance tab inside this module to perform the same transactions if the drop-down status list is used instead to mark equipment as up or down.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of repair status records. This information is part of the preventative maintenance functional area of Assist and represent the status values that can be assigned to equipment that has been submitted as broken and in need of repair.
Admin Web Site – Incident Status Maintenance – Added the ability to store font color coding with each status value.
Admin Web Site – Add On Status Maintenance – Added the ability to store font color coding with each status value.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Status Maintenance – Added the ability to store font color coding with each status value.
Admin Web Site – Incident Error Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the categorization of incident errors into incident categories. This allows for better groupings of errors for sites that use the Assist customer service module to track incidents.
Customer Service Module – Added logic to the incident management tab to allow for the filtering of incident errors by incident category.
Customer Service Module – Changed the toolbar to increase the size of the buttons on the screen. Also modified for the buttons for “open item” types of transactions such as courier pickup requests, open client orders, etc. to be summarized and displayed on the button to allow customer service module users to see where open items exist. The buttons will also turn red to indicate that there are items to be addressed.
Customer Service Module – Added a refresh totals button to the special request functional area inside of the customer service module. The special request area can handle multiple request templates ranging from incident tracking, to object requests, etc. The template drop down allows for the screen to change to support the collection of relevant data. In a prior change, the total aggregate number of all special requests that are open status was added to the toolbar button. The template drop-down list was modified to put the total of open items by template in the list to make it easier for the employees to see WHERE the open items reside. This data will not auto refresh, so the refresh button was added to update these figures.
Admin Web Site – Call Reason Detail Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of call reason details that provide more information that can be assigned to the call reason. This is used inside the customer service module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Call Reason Summary – Modified this report to allow for selection criteria for the call reason detail and to also allow this as a summary level choice in the report.
Admin Web Site – Call Log Detail Report – Created this report to dump out all of the details from the customer service module call log detail table. This holds the low level detail associated with calls that were logged and can be used for research or for trend analysis.
Customer Service Module – Modified the pickup tab to show the default courier for a client facility if one has been specified to allow customer service representatives to have a visual of what courier to call if they are handling courier calls.
Admin Web Site – Call Type Master Maintenance – Added the Client Flag to this screen to allow for call types to be associated as a client type of call.
Customer Service Module – Added the “Inbound Call” check box to the main call screen to allow for the flagging of calls as inbound vs. outbound to improve reporting.
Admin Web Site – Reminder Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reminder types. This data is used inside the customer service module to have reminders pop up for customer service representatives. Types allow for the categorization of reminders.
Admin Web Site – Call Type Summary Report – Created this report to provide for a display of call type metrics at a summary level. This reports on data that was captured in the Assist Customer Service module.
Admin Web Site – Client Order Summary Report – Modified this report to include the client and facility as choices for selection and to reflect in the details of the report.
Customer Service Module – Added the ability of the customer service module to record “Reminders” to allow for actions to be entered into Assist for future reminder notifications.
Admin Web Site – Reminder Tracking Report – Created this report to display active reminders that have been entered. Reminders are part of the customer service module and are used to provide customer service representatives with a method of recording task reminders.
Admin Web Site – Reminder Tracking History Report – Created this report to display active reminders that have been entered. Reminders are part of the customer service module and are used to provide customer service representatives with a method of recording task reminders. This report is a transactional history version of this data to show all of the data that has been entered over time.
Admin Web Site – Reminder Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reminders. Typically, reminders would be created and maintained via the customer service module, but this screen provides the ability to create it for employees that do not have the module. Reminders show up in the customer service module to prompt employees to perform some task.
Admin Web Site – Protocol Structure Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the specimen type/protocol structures that have been built in Assist. This simplifies discussions with Histology employees when they are discussing what protocols have been created and what modifications potentially need to be made in the future.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Task Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of repair tasks that can be associated with “break/fix” transactions in the preventative maintenance module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Quality Control Reporting – Modified this report to display the culpable error department. The error department can be specified for the error message. Often, the error is caught by a step later in the workflow than where it was made. This modification to the report allows for the display of this information.
Admin Web Site – Error Department Maintenance – Added the collection point grouping drop down box to this maintenance screen to allow for the specification of the data collection point group that is associated with an error department. This allows for better reporting of the last employee to touch a case at the culpable data collection point where an error was made.
Admin Web Site - Security Maintenance - Added a “datecreated” field to the database that reflects the date/time that an employee is originally created. This data will become relevant in a future release where the employee table can be archived so that a “start/end” date of an employee ID can be tracked.
Admin Web Site – Lock Box Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of lock box types. This is being added in order to allow for the tracking of lock boxes. Lock box types allow for the tracking of these assets by “brand”.
Admin Web Site – Override Type Values Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of override type values. These are used in the manufacturing module of Assist. These values can be set to serve as valid override scan choices (e.g. bypass) when manual override transactions need to be performed.
Admin Web Site – Quality Control Employee Error Assignment – Created this screen to help with the Quality Control tracking inside the various Assist modules. Using this screen, the “culpable” employee can be retrieved and assigned to actual QC records. The routine looks at all of the QC Information that matches the criteria specified. When the “Assignment” button is pressed, the routine looks in the main scanning table looking for the employee that last scanned the case at the collection point for the error department group.
Admin Web Site – Lock Box Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of lock boxes. This is part of the lock box tracking functionality that has been added to Assist. This is the main level of lock box where the individual boxes are created for tracking purposes.
Admin Web Site – Override Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the detailed information associated with shipment overrides which are used in the manufacturing module.
Admin Web Site – Employee Error Summary Report – Modified this report to provide a checkbox to toggle between summarizing at the user level where the employee is the person FINDING the error vs. the culpable employee that MADE the error. This provides management with more flexibility when analyzing QC information.
Admin Web Site – Employee Error Severity Summary Report - Modified this report to provide a checkbox to toggle between summarizing at the user level where the employee is the person FINDING the error vs. the culpable employee that MADE the error. This provides management with more flexibility when analyzing QC information.
Admin Web Site – Quality Control Reporting – Changed this report to include the culpable employee and culpable date assignment and also a check box to allow for the filtering of the report by culpable employee instead of regular employee.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – Added two new checkboxes titled “Diagnostic Suppress Microscopic” and “Diagnostic Suppress Therapeutic” to allow for the indication of whether or not the microscopic and therapeutic checkboxes should be on or off in the diagnostic area of the Assist doctor module based on the client being processed.
Admin Web Site – Employee Archive Utility – Created this utility/screen to allow for the archival of employees. It allows for employees to be taken out of the active employee master file, but to be kept in an archive table for record keeping purposes along with the date/time they were archived and by whom. This allows laboratory management to clean up the employee master file while also keeping traceability records.
Admin Web Site – Employee Archive Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the employees that exist in the archive database table.
Interface Utility – Accessioning/Office Queue – Created a new variation of the interface utility to take accessioning data and load into the office queue for each unique accession/part number combination.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Archive Utility – Created this utility/screen to allow for the archival of office queue records. It allows for transactions to be taken out of the active office queue table, but to be kept in an archive table for record keeping and reporting purposes.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Archive Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the office queue transactions that exist in the archive database table.
Admin Web Site – Lock Box Client Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of lock boxes to client facilities to allow for tracking of these assets and their assignment to physical locations.
Admin Web Site – Vendor Type Maintenance – Added the “Repair Flag” to the vendor type maintenance to allow for a vendor type of repair in order to mark repair vendors that are used to send out equipment for repair.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment repair records. Typically, the repair records will have been entered via the preventative maintenance module. This screen provides the ability to change, delete, or override records that have been created. All transactions from screen also get written into a transactional history table.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Tracking Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the equipment “break/fix” repair transactions that are logged in the Assist database. The report allows for branching between “active” records and the transactional history records to provide full visibility to all repair transactions entered in the preventative maintenance/equipment management functional area of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Lock Box Report – Created this report to provide visibility to all of the lock boxes that have been created in the environment along with where they have been deployed from a client facility perspective.
Admin Web Site – Prompt Template Maintenance – Created this report to support the storage of prompt templates. The simplest example of a prompt template would be grossing notes templates where much of the text can be presented to a grosser making use of dictation software and variables are encoded around the text to make the capture of grossing notes or other dictation scenarios simple. Basically, text plus variables to enable “fill in the blank” data capture scenarios.
Customer Service Module – Lock Box Tracking – Added the ability to track lock boxes into the “Info” tab of the customer service module. This provides the ability to associate lock boxes with client facilities.
Doctor Module – Quality Control Button – Added the “standard” QC button to the button toolbar in the doctor module. Set it to turn red if QC data exists when a case is activated to make it more visually apparent that data exists that might need to be reviewed.
Thermo Slide Point of Use – Changed the old manual “Print” button to now be smaller and reflect an icon image of a printer to reduce button size and be consistent with the other buttons on the screen. Also added a magnifying glass button beside this printer button that is only visible when in manual mode. This button can be used to retrieve details about the case when it is keyed into manual mode instead of scanned. Previously, the only way to get case detail information was to either scan the cassette or print the manual record in which case it might be too late to get information that was needed before printing.
Thermo Slide Point of Use – Added a “doctor order” button to the bottom of the screen. This is a “toggle” button that will turn red when a case is processed (via scanning or manual selection with magnifying glass button) and there are ACTIVE (e.g. not closed status) doctor orders for the case. Toggling the button will replace the scan history window with the doctor order window. From this screen, all outstanding doctor orders for the case are visible with the status. The ability to select order types is provided along with a select all and unselect all choice. All slides matching the protocols tied to the orders can be printed directly from this small window as if they were selected individually (assuming protocols have been tied to doctor orders).
Doctor Module – Modified the diagnostics tab with fast codes to attempt to load a grossing body source short code if the fast code used for diagnostics does not find a medical code. This allows the one fast code entry area to drive the selection of a body source override. Added the body source drop down list to the grossing notes area to allow for an override of the body source.
Admin Web Site – Body Source Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the ability to specify a “short code” to allow for fast code retrieval in different modules.
Admin Web Site – Body Site Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the breakdown of grossing notes to separate “Body Source” into body source, body site, and surgical technical. This screen allows for the maintenance of the body site which is defined as the exact spot from which the specimen was taken.
Admin Web Site – Surgical Technique Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the breakdown of grossing notes to separate “Surgical Technique” into body source, body site, and surgical technique. This screen allows for the maintenance of the surgical technique which is defined as the type of technique used to retrieve the specimen (ex. Excision, Biopsy, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Activity – Created this report to consolidate the equipment preventative maintenance activity along with the equipment break/fix transactions. This one report provides visibility to all equipment transactions that have been performed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Step Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of “Step Cost” to allow for the reporting of costs associated with PM steps to provide the capability of financial reporting associated with preventative maintenance transactions.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Report – Modified the report to show the body site description and surgical technique description columns to coincide with the new modifications to break this information out separately from the body source information to support modification of individual components of the body source.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Report – Modified this report to include the preventative maintenance step cost.
LIS Interface – Reorganized the main screen to clean up the display. Also added the ability to record medical chart numbers to cross reference back to an EMS for client alias/cross reference purposes.
Admin Web Site – Client Accession Submission Report – Created this report to allow for the reporting of accession numbers and cross reference information for clients to provide reports of what cases were submitted for date criteria with the client and lab accession number cross reference information listed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Added the “Interface File Path” field to the maintenance screen to allow for storing the network file path to a location to swap files from a module of Assist to a piece of equipment where relevant.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Added a new tab and functional area to support equipment break/fix tracking. Previously, this module supported preventative maintenance activity only and did not allow for the tracking of broken equipment transactions. This is now done along with tracking of repair vendors and costs associated with sending equipment off site.
Stain Queue Module – Modified to show the interface file path on the screen that reflects the original override or default interface path and display the change as different stainers are selected in the drop-down list to reflect any overrides that have been entered into the equipment interface maintenance screen.
Closeout Screen – Modified the “grossing notes” closeout screen to allow for the breakdown of body source into component parts of source, site, and technique.
Equipment Assignment Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment assignment status that is used to tracking the assignment of equipment to employees.
Accessioning Module – Modified the module to allow for an instruction scan to be used to also find a specimen type. The instruction number scan, if no instructions are visible on the screen, will look for the instruction assignment in the cassette value of the specimen type and position that drop down.
Admin Web Site – Error Message Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of the silent flag at distribution to make an error only silent when scanned at the distribution module.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Added the Assignment Eligible field to support the assignment of equipment types as being eligible for assignment to clients in case equipment lending is performed.

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June 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Doctor Module – Inside the diagnosis section of the doctor module, added the ability to separate grossing notes into three separate categories of body source, body site, and surgical technique. These three separate drop-down boxes can be appended to one another to build complex body source descriptions. Individual components of the compound can be changed without having to change all components.
Closeout Module – Modified the office queue closeout version of this module to include “body kits”. A body kit is a combination of body source, body site, and surgical technique. The selection of a single value from this drop down can perform a selection of all three “child” selections. It was added to streamline the entry of the three components when grossing notes are being captured via the closeout module.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Body Kit – Created this maintenance screen to support the maintenance of grossing body kits. This is defined as a grouping of a body source, body site, and surgical technique and is used for speed entry of these data elements inside the transaction closeout, doctor module, and grossing notes section of the doctor module.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Employee Assignment Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the assignment of equipment to employees. This reflects the “loaning” of equipment to employees to keep track of who has what. It can also be used to track equipment that has been loaned out to clients/customers.
Assist Manufacturing – Modified the manufacturing module to allow for “generic” production task scans to be performed where production task identifiers are fixed length and do not conflict with manufacturing case numbers. This allows pre-existing task labels to be used in production.
Admin Web Site – LIS Electronic Audit Log – Created this inquiry/report to allow for the viewing of the audit log data associated with LIS Electronic interface transactions for facilities that have electronic interfaces enabled.
LIS Interface Module – Modified the LIS Interface module to include a routing designation field which can be used to indicate how the objects should be routed upon distribution back out to clients.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Tracking – Added equipment type and equipment drop down lists into the selection criteria. Also added equipment type to the maintenance area of the screen to allow for equipment filtering.
Admin Web Site – Script Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of script types. These are used inside the customer service module to categorize call scripts.
Admin Web Site – Script Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of scripts. These are typically used inside the customer service module to prompt customer interaction scripts.
Customer Service Module – Modified the customer service module to include a scripts button on the main toolbar to allow for the display of call scripts if any exist. If scripts have been entered, the script button will be yellow. Clicking on the button will launch a pop-up script button that displays all call scripts for display to the customer service representatives.
Warehouse Module – Modified the purge screen to allow for the specification of date range when purging from a warehouse and also to allow for the display of discrete items from the drawer contents to allow for individual item selection.
Warehouse Module – Purge Screen – Modified the purge routine to write any deleted items to an audit log table if the feature is activated to keep a trail of items that have been removed from the active warehouse.
Admin Web Site – Client Specialization Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of client specialization activity. These specializations can then be socialized to the client facilities on screens and reports.
Admin Web Site – Client Facility Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of the client specialization.
Customer Service Module – Added visibility to the client specialization to the client maintenance section of the information tab.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Purge Report – Created this report to provide visibility to objects that have been purged from the banking warehouse.
Admin Web Site – Script Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include flags to denote a script type as being an SOP Corporate and an SOP Local.
Admin Web Site – Script Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the document cross reference field to allow for the association of the script with an external document source (e.g. SOP).
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of questionnaire types. Questionnaires are used to ask questions of employees to get answers. Types allow for the categorization of questionnaires.
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Campaign Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of campaign inside the questionnaire section of Assist. This allows for Q&A scenarios inside human resources applications of Assist or from within the customer service module when creating customer call scripts.
Customer Service Module – Script Display – Modified the script display screen to show any document control reference information when a script is selected for review/display. This allows for cross reference to control document numbers or the reference number associated with a potential corporate or local standard operating procedure.
Slide Queue – Modified to allow for the inclusion of a specimen type abbreviation on the slide.
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of questionnaire master records. These are used inside the customer service module to allow for the capture of Q&A transactions with customers.
Slide Queue – Modified the slide queue to include the routing designation and the LIS Client cross reference variables to provide more choices for slide printing.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Modified the maintenance screen to include a “Suppress Slide Queue” check box to allow for the suppression of the automatic generation of slide queue records if monitored by the Assist modules.
Main Scanner Engine – When using the function of scanning an object (e.g. cassette typically) to generate a slide queue record, put logic in place to allow for the suppression of the slide queue record generation based on the accession prefix (e.g. number wheel). This provides the ability to suppress slide queue generation by number wheel without having to create separate configurations.
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Answer Type Maintenance – Created this screen to handle the maintenance of answer types that are used in the building of questionnaires that are used in the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Body Kit Maintenance – Modified to include the KitFastCode.
Admin Web Site – User Login Times Report – Modified this report to include a from/to time in the criteria to work in conjunction with the dates.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Information Report – Modified this report to include a from/to time in the criteria to work in conjunction with the dates.
Storage Tracking Module – Corrected the equipment master loading routine to look at status instead of the Active flag.
Check In Module – Added the ability on batch release mode to include a grossing batch type (e.g. small, medium, large, etc.) as criteria for release across all grossing batches or as part of a release for a specific person.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Batch Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of grossing batch types such as Small, medium, large, etc. that will be used at grossing for the classification of processer batches.
Main Scanner Engine – Modified the grossing version of this screen to allow for the specification of grossing processor batches in order to capture cassette scans into the different batch types which are typically broken down as small, medium, large, etc.
Distribution – Manual Entry Functionality – Resolved an issue where the manual entry functionality was not working correctly to build the accession number when used in the context of a Pathway LIS laboratory. The number was getting built incorrectly and part information was being omitted from slides.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Modified the outstanding PM tab to provide a retrieve button to pull back outstanding PM records. Previously, this was only happening when the equipment filter check box was toggled on/off which was not intuitive. Adding the button makes it more obvious how to find the records that are driving the work order button when in “red” status.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Activity – Extended this report to allow for reporting over all aspects of equipment maintenance. This includes preventative maintenance work orders, requests, and break/fix transactions. This provides one place to see all equipment related repair activities.
Interface Utility – Modified the message queue (e.g. mainframe) interface to truncate leading zeros from the base accession number if it is parsed from a full accession number wheel value in order to match the LIS interface lookup.

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July 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Slide Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of slide categories which are used to classify slide records.
Admin Web Site – Slide Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of slide status values which are used to determine the status of a slide that has been printed.
Admin Web Site – Slide Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the manual override of slide tracking records that have been generated as slides were printed.
Admin Web Site – Slide Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the slide tracking transactions for sites that track the actual printing of slides and their contents.
Admin Web Site – Client Submitted Information Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the client submitted information that has been loaded into the various modules of Assist. If clients do not submit information, this report will be empty.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log – Modified the report to show the manual entry flag and added this field as part of the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Scanning Manual Entry Summary – Created this report to allow for visibility to the number of times employees are performing the manual entry of data into the main Assist transactional table. This allows management to understand issues with print quality on bar codes and better understand potential specimen mismatches.
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Assignment Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of questionnaires to request templates. This is used inside the customer service module to tie Q&A interaction for specific request templates.
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Item Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of questionnaire items. Items are basically the questions themselves and can be created and then associated with questionnaires before they are associated with request templates inside the customer service module.
Admin Web Site – LIS Client Accession Report – Created this report to allow for reporting on the LIS interface data that has been captured in Assist and needs to be reported back out to clients. This report reflects the internal laboratory LIS accession number data mapped to the patient and client alias accession number if relevant.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type PM Listing – Created this report to provide visibility to the preventative maintenance steps that have been associated with equipment types. This allows management to make sure that a comprehensive PM system has been put into place for the various types of equipment that are in use inside a facility.
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Detail Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to build the questions that are present on a questionnaire. The details represent the marriage of the questionnaire to the questionnaire items (e.g. the questions themselves).
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Completion Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to enter/maintain questionnaire data from the administrative web site. This feature would typically be used for overrides or changes to questionnaire data that need to be made after the initial entry. While it COULD be used to allow as an entry point to data, it is more efficient to use the native software module to capture questionnaire data.
Admin Web Site – Camera Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintained of camera types which will be used in the camera monitoring functionality inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Questionnaire Completion Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the questionnaires that have been captured inside Assist as part of the customer service functional area.
Admin Web Site – Image Type Maintenance – Client Submitted Flag – Added this field to make it more obvious when an image type consists of client submitted records.
Doctor Module – Client Submitted Images – Added a client submitted button to the screen that will reflect as red if there are client submitted images when a case is retrieved. Pressing the button takes the doctor to the images tab where the filters are already in place to display the client submitted images and the first one is display. On the diagnostic tab, the images are available for inclusion on the report but are not pre-selected like they are for microscope images. The ability to default as selected can be turned on in the configuration if needed.
Admin Web Site – Camera Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of cameras that can be used inside different modules of Assist such as the camera box.
Admin Web Site – Camera Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of camera templates. These templates are used from a maintenance perspective to keep track of how many potential cameras exist in the various camera monitoring applications inside of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Camera Size Mode Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of camera size modes. These modes are the default Windows values that determine how a camera feed is handled within the screen. Whether an image is centered, zoomed, stretched, etc. Each panel shown in an Assist screen can be assigned a camera size mode.
Interface Utility – Created the ability to purge office queue records as needed.
Admin Web Site – Camera Orientation Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of camera orientations. These represent the “positions” of a camera (e.g. left, right, top, bottom, etc.) so that a tag can be save with an image taken to know WHICH camera feed was saved.
Admin Web Site – Camera Station Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of camera templates to individual computer/scanner workstation combinations to know how many cameras to allow when configuring.
Admin Web Site – Camera Station Assignment – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of actual cameras to computers for the capture of images.
Admin Web Site – Injury Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of injury types as part of the Assist tracking of OSHA injury information.
Admin Web Site – Injury Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the categorization of injury categories as part of the Assist tracking of OSHA injury information. Injury categories allow for the break down of “lost time” injuries as well as cross references back to OSHA data categories.
Admin Web Site – Injury Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of injury master records. These reflect the types of injuries that are tracked within the organization.
Admin Web Site – Injury Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of injury records that indicate what employee was injury with what type of injury and when.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of multiple print template types. These are used to classify the various print templates that can be created to allow for flexible cassette/slide templates for assignment to a laboratory and their clients to support multiple customizable object printing.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of print templates. These are used to allow for the consolidation of customized printing options for cassettes/slide to support multiple different layouts for facilities.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of cassette and slide templates at the client level. This allows for customized printing by client.

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August 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Injury Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the injury tracking data that is captured inside Assist.
LIS Interface Module – Added a tab to this module to allow for the maintenance of client information in addition to patient information.
Admin Web Site – Diagnosis Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of diagnosis types which will be used inside the diagnosis tracking section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Diagnosis Priority Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of diagnosis priorities. These are used as part of the diagnosis treatment tracking portion of Assist where call back types of activities or special handling/routing is handled through Assist.
Admin Web Site – Diagnosis Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of diagnosis master records. These are used as part of the diagnosis treatment tracking portion of Assist where call back types of activities or special handling/routing is handled through Assist.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Copy Screen – Created this screen to allow for the copy of print templates. Once a template has been created for cassettes and slides, this screen allows for simple replication of one template to another so that tweaks can then be made to the new template.
Stain Queue – Modified to include logic where credentials can be specified at the stainer level to allow for successful connection to the stainer server(s).
Doctor Order Closeout – Modified the print log feature to use the distribution location sort order before the doctor name when printing.
Scoreboard – Created the injury board that can be used to display a standard “lost time days” type of display as part of the safety section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Injury Lost Time History – Created this report to display the historical lost time due to injury data that is collected by day. This is generated by the scoreboard “Injury Board” and allows for the lost time data to be shown over history.
Admin Web Site – Injury Board Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of all injury board functionality. The injury board is the “lost time” reporting panel that runs over the injury tracking functional area of Assist. The font colors, types, message contents, etc. can be controlled via the screen to allow for flexible injury board deployments.
Scoreboard – Added an invoice grid to the scoreboard built over flexible generic SQL details. This allows for a grid to be displayed holding a description, status, invoice count, invoice amount for visual management purposes.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Added three new fields to allow for support of LIS interface processing where the interfaces will be driven by number wheel (Accession prefix) for sites that have multiple LIS functionality and number wheels.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Removed the “error noise” field from this maintenance screen. It was never really used and was visual clutter. Added the date of birth and date of hire fields for laboratories that wish to track this information. Typically, this data would be used to enable the use of celebratory scoreboard lists of birthdays or hire anniversaries.
Doctor Module – Added a configuration flag to allow for the doctor module rush flag to be automatically cleared on the scan of a new object or the pressing of the Retrieve button.
Admin Web Site – Course Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training course types. These are used as part of the curriculum/course tracking feature set inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Curriculum Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training curriculums. These are used as part of the curriculum/course tracking feature set inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Course Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training course status values. These are used as part of the curriculum/course tracking feature set inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – System Validation Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of system validation types. This allows for the categorization of validation types.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Modified this screen to add an “Active Only” filter to the selection criteria and have it on by default.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of grossing notes via the web site for maintenance needs where the employee does not have the grossing module.
Universal Slide Print Module – Added the ability to include the print date on slides with an opt in/out checkbox visible on the screen. Added all print coordinates and data to the database.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Modified the employee retrieval routine to not require an employee department to be assigned when retrieving. This requirement was hiding some employees (if they did not have a department assigned).
Admin Web Site – Equipment Reporting – Modified this report to change the loading of the equipment drop down list box. This criteria list box now only includes equipment that has been marked as “Check In Enabled”. This report only shows objects that have been checked into another piece of equipment so this cuts down on visual clutter on the report.
Admin Web Site – System Validation Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the system validation table which allows for tracking of the validation of Assist equipment in the facility.
Robot – System Validation – System validation has been changed from the use of a validation badge for testing equipment. This robot routine allows for the integration of the new method with the old method by reading through the “old” validation records and generating data into the system validation table. This allows for deployment and integration of the old method with the new method.
Robot – Block Instruction Tracking – The instruction (e.g. protocol) associated with blocks has historically been written into the print queue when a block is printed. Because the print queue gets flushed periodically, this does not allow for great tracking long term of block instructions. This robot routine was introduced to fill the new block instruction tracking table to pull the data. This new table will be filled automatically from accessioning and grossing in future releases of Assist, but this change allows for immediate use of the new table by filling the database appropriately.
Admin Web Site – Block Instruction Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the block instructions data that has been specified when cassettes are printed.
Admin Web Site – Control Print Log Report – Created this report to provide detailed visibility to the controls that are printed inside Assist. This allows for visibility of the control cassettes and slides that have been printed with the detailed information related to these controls.
Admin Web Site – SOP Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the SOP master table as part of the course tracking section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Universal POU – Added logic to correct the ability to pick out a leica slide magazine correctly.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a drop-down list of font colors for selection rather than manually typing in the color.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Copy – Created this screen to allow for the copy of all number wheels for a year when they need to be copied forward at the start of a new year.
Universal Point of Sale – Order Retrieval – Added criteria under the doctor order section to allow for retrieval of all doctor orders even if the block is not present for scanning.
Doctor Module – Distribution Information – Added the ability to show the cases that have been distributed to a doctor with selection criteria so that a doctor can see what their workload is going to be. Added the ability to display whether or not the case has been scanned and provide the ability to shrink this list as the case is either scanned into the doctor module or diagnosed if diagnosis functionality is being performed.
Doctor Module – Diagnosis History Display – Added this view to the doctor module information tab so that a doctor can have visibility to diagnostic information that has been submitted by the doctor.

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September 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Personal Configuration Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the machine name to be specified for configuration overrides as an exception to the user ID.
Scoreboard – Added an Office Queue view to the scoreboard. This office queue status board reflects the queue along with open, pending, closed, and assigned counts. It also reflects the effective time associated with the closed items.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Summary – Created this report to provide summary level visibility to office queue information for sites that use the Assist office queue to track different types of “to do” lists.
Universal POU Module – Added the slide queue purge capability to the slide queue tab inside the universal point of use module. This provides the same ability to flush the slide queue that existed in the original slide queue.
Universal POU Module – Added the same “auto purge” logic to the slide queue tab inside this module as exists inside the original slide queue so that the Assist database does not get full with printed slide objects being held indefinitely.
Admin Web Site – Shift Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to include an active flag and also a “facility standard” flag to mark a shift as standard to the environment and not as one that is tied to a data collection point (e.g. Grossing, embedding, etc.). This is in advance of starting to add shift level reporting.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to allow for the inclusion of an OverrideObjectIdentifier that can be used for sites that might have two iterations of the same number wheel that need to write cassettes differently. If the override is specified into the configuration, it is written into the print queue for processing by the cassette queue viewer.
Queue Viewer – Added logic to allow for the reading and processing of the OverrideObjectIdentifier if the flag is set to consider it and an override value is encountered in the cassette queue table which was passed in from accessioning.
Universal POU Module – Added the ability to pull the specimen type abbreviation into the slide print routine for inclusion on the slide. Provided a “suppress” check box at the top of the screen to opt out of this feature if needed.
Universal POU Module – Added a tab to allow for the modification of slide print templates from inside the main software rather than having to go the administrative web screen. This “Template” tab is only visible if a user has been granted rights to the Print Template Details maintenance screen in the administrative web site. If they have those Assist rights, the new tab will become visible after logging into the application.
Office Queue Closeout – Changed the “Pending” Button on the screen to have a white font to not get visually lost in the blue background. Fixed an issue on the print log where the status was not loading into the selection criteria correctly. Resolved an issue with the “From date” on the print log that was causing no data to display when logged.
Office Queue Closeout – The “Assignment” button was only showing the assignment count if an item was open. This was causing a loss of visibility to assignments that were made against pending records. Changed the logic to include “Not Closed” instead of “Open”.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Added “Active Only” and a description wildcard to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Case Relationship Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of case relationship types. These are used to classify the type of relationship between cases. Examples would be: Same Patient, Resubmissions, Remakes (for manufacturing tracking).
Office Queue Closeout – Modified the module to default the assignment drop down box on both the edit screen and the status mode change screen to default to the logged in employee. Modified the batch criteria drop down (if batch mode is used) to disappear from the dropdown list if all batch items are moved to a closed status.
Admin Web Site – Case Relationship Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of case relationships. This is part of the feature set to show prior cases that might exist in regard to a case.
Office Queue Closeout – Modified this module to allow for improved display of images when found for a case. Provided the ability to automatically launch an image if multiple are found and provided a full screen button to allow for the image to be maximized on the monitor for easier viewing.
Admin Web Site – Case Relationship Report – Created this report to provide visibility to case relationship data that might exist for a case.
Accessioning Module – Added logic to write data to the block instructions tracking table to be better able to track over time how a cassette was printed with what instructions for reporting purposes and analysis.
Grossing Module – Added logic to write data to the block instructions tracking table to be better able to track over time how a cassette was printed when sending add on blocks to the print queue. This will include the instructions and such that were placed on the block.
Admin Web Site – Database Size Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the table sizes in the database as well as overall aggregate database size and row counts.

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October 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Analysis – Added this report to provide a different view of the cases that are loaded into equipment (e.g. tissue processors, digital printers, slide stainers, etc.). This view provides data on how many “batches” are run on equipment on a given date (or across days) with case counts and run lengths. It provides a different slant on the data than is provided by the equipment utilization report or the equipment reporting reports in that it is focused more on the number of transactional runs performed rather than the discrete cases.
Admin Web Site – Assessment Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of assessment types which are used to indicate when an employee is entered into an assessment program so that their scans can be pulled into an assessment batch for validation.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Added the assessment type drop down to the screen to allow for the enrollment of an employee into an assessment program. The start/end dates of the assessment are logged in the employee assessment table and scan transactions will be logged into the assessment transactions table to record the transactions that were generated by type during the enrollment in the assessment.
Scanner Engine – Modified the scanner engine software to allow for the creation of Assessment Transaction data if an employee is scanning and has been marked as under an assessment program.
Accessioning Module - Modified the accessioning module to allow for the creation of Assessment Transaction data if an employee is scanning and has been marked as under an assessment program.
Admin Web Site – Assessment Transaction Report – Created this report to provide visibility to scan transactions that were performed for employees that are enrolled in an assessment program.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Added a “Hide On Slide” feature to allow for the suppression of the slide “parent” record if no child records are encountered.
Universal Point of Use – Modified this module to support the capture of Assessment Transaction data if an employee is scanning and has been marked as under an assessment program.
Universal Point of Use – Modified the module to allow for the suppression of printing a parent accession slide count description on a slide if either the check box is specified at the protocol level OR if a configuration override has been made at the module level.
Universal Point of Use – Modified this module to allow at the configuration level to enforce the specification of a printer magazine or not when printing protocol details on a slide. With the value on, a valid magazine must be specified when a protocol is built.
Universal Point of Use – Modified this module so that the change of a number wheel (e.g. prefix) looks in the prefix master file and changes the maximum number of characters allowed on the accession number to match the maximum value to cut down on data entry errors.
Admin Web Site – Stain Protocol Cross Reference Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the indication of a reference type on a cross reference record.
Admin Web Site – Stain Cross Reference Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reference types which can be used for splitting the behavior of protocol cross reference records if needed.
Admin Web Site – Employee Assessment Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the enrollment of employees into assessment programs along with a count of the transactions that have been performed by the employee while in the program.
Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the equipment check in runs that have been made for sites that use the equipment check in process inside the facility (e.g. tissue processors, 3D printers, slide stainers, etc.).
Doctor Module – Case Relationship Button – Added this button to provide a view for doctors when a prior case is encountered for the case that is retrieved. The button goes red when a previous case or related case for the patient is encountered. Clicking the button can display the report(s) from any previous cases. Also added an audit trail of the clicking of this button to be used in analysis.
Admin Web Site – Case Relationship Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the maintenance of the case relationship path field which allows for the launch of other programs, web sites, etc. that display previous case reports.
Admin Web Site – Case Relationship Report – Modified this report to include the case relationship path field that was added.
Scanner Engine – Modified the label queue write routine. When writing to the label queue, a configuration flag has been added to allow for looking in the doctor order table to see if there are any orders for the specimen. If found, a check is made (filtered by order category) to get any override extra notation to be mapped/printed on the label queue generated label.
Admin Web Site – Case Relationship Usage Report – Created this report to provide visibility to each time case relationship button inside the doctor module is clicked. This allows management to see how many times this feature is used.
Admin Web Site – Auto Login Maintenance – Modified this screen to place computer name and employee ID in the selection criteria to aid in finding existing records that need to be maintained.
Accessioning Module – Modified to change the chemical assignment routine to write to the InventoryAccessionAssignment table instead of the ChemicalAccessionAssignment table. This resolves a bug where chemical assignment transactions were not being successfully recorded.
Admin Web Site – External Data Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the grouping of external data records into types.
Admin Web Site – External Data Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of external data records (e.g. dynamic SQL queries) to types for assignment to different relevant sections of Assist.
Universal Slide POU – Modified this module to include an option for adding the bold setting to fonts for all of the objects that can be printed on a slide. This can be opted into for any field individually.
Universal Slide POU – Modified this module to add a configuration flag that allows for the clearing of the accession number and part information when the manual check box is clicked.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Maintenance – Corrected an issue where the template type selection criteria was being ignored when a retrieval was performed.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Summary – Modified this report to show the order category in the report results and to also add this value to the selection criteria.
Check In Module – Modified this module to provide functionality for the removal or modification of equipment countdown batches if they were entered in error.
Check In Module – Modified this module to allow for the printing of multiple “pieces” labels automatically if necessary. This is used more often in environments such as digital printers where multiple objects are printed for a case and they need to have bar code labels printed.
Check In Module – Modified this module to allow for the capture of a “Pieces” count by case number (e.g. accession). This would be used more commonly for applications such as digital printers where multiple objects are printed and they need to be tracked or recorded.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Utilization Report – Modified this report to include the “Pieces Count” for sites that keep track of different components or pieces of a case that pass through equipment. The best example of this would be 3D printing where multiple views of a case are checked into equipment.

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November 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Equipment Reporting (e.g. Processor Check In Report). Modified this report to provide visibility to the pieces count that can be captured when accession (case) numbers are loaded into equipment.
Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of the LISCrossReference on the magazines so that values for a magazine can be tied to different types of hardware.
LIS Interface Module – Cleaned up the screens in this module to align them better and straightened out the tab orders.
Admin Web Site – Number Wheel Group Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the grouping of number wheels. This can then be used in configurations to filter what number wheels are visible inside the dropdown lists in the screens. This can be useful where different departments or sites that use Assist may not need the visual clutter of all of the number wheels and to reduce the changes of mistakes.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Filter Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the filtering/exclusion of specimen types in the dropdown boxes on the “universal” point of use modules for the printing of cassettes and slides.
Universal Module Cassette POU – Added a “Clear Cassettes” button to clear out the cassettes that must be scanned before moving to a new case in situations where an error might have occurred on the sending of the cassettes to the printer.
Universal Module Cassette POU – If specimen types are being entered and no colors have been associated with the specimen types in the database, allowed for a default specimen type font color so that the specimen type designation stands out more in the scan history section of the screen.
Universal Module Cassette POU – If a reset from an error is performed, wrote the actual reset transaction into the Assist scan history window in a red font to provide visibility to the reset operations being performed.
Warehouse Module – Modified the routine that looks up the “last” drawer position to only consider inbound filing. There was a scenario where the outbound approximate position records on generic scan (e.g. Cyto slides) were causing an inaccurate positioning record.
Universal Module Cassette POU – The automatic logout routine had a flaw in the logic. Scanning activity was not resetting the timeout transaction which was causing the employee to be logged out every time the logout period was reached regardless of the scan activity that had occurred since login.
Universal Module Cassette POU – If manual mode is entered, the last successful requisition scanned accession number is brought forward into the manual accession number field to reduce the change of a mistyped number.
Office Queue – Added the ability to have the batch end time added to the dropdown list in the batch criteria drop down instead of the batch creation time. This is for facilities that use the batch processing of equipment loads to generate an office queue transaction. In conjunction with this, a visual indicator has been added to the top of the office queue closeout to indicate the number of items that are “overdue” based on a batch end date/time that is older than the current date/time. This visual queue will be a green/red section on the screen and the font color of the items in the batch drop down box are red if they are “overdue”.
Office Queue – Modified so that the “Assigned” drop down box always points to the employee currently logged into the system. Previously, it would position the first time the batch status change screen was displayed, but would not continue to position if the value in the drop-down list was changed.
Office Queue – In the main grid, modified to show the employee name that is assigned to an office queue transaction instead of just their employee ID to make it easier for management to have visibility of how is assigned an item.
Office Queue – Modified the process of clicking the status change mode on/off to reload the grid(s) of data. Previously, when toggling between modes, the data did not automatically refresh would could be confusing.
Office Queue – Print Log – Added batches to the selection criteria for facilities that are performing batch processing and also added a batch number column to the printed report.
Office Queue – Added a batch count value underneath the batch drop down box in the selection criteria for sites that make use of office queue batch processing.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to provide a check box to indicate whether or not a piece of equipment supports “outlets” where products can be routed. This is mainly relevant with cassette and slide printers.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Outlet Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment outlets. Outlets are typically associated with cassette and slide printers where the output can be routed out of different trays in the equipment.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Tracking Report – Added a comments field to the report to allow for display of any comments that are associated with a shipment tracking record.
Doctor Module – Diagnosis Tab – Added a “clear codes” button to allow for the clearing of all diagnostic codes.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of office queue and distribution types to allow for appropriate filtering of print templates by module.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the entry of print template codes for branching to different reports inside modules and also the selection of an external data entry field for sites that use external data to pull report information from other data sources than the Assist database.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Type Maintenance – Added a field for “Requires Validation” which will default to the inventory master records for inventory type items that require validation. Also added a type description search to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Details Maintenance – Added a field for “Validated” to note that an instance of an inventory item has been validated. If inventory items REQUIRE validation but the individual instance has not been validated, it cannot be issued to the floor.
Inventory Module – Added the unit of measure column to the various inventory grids.
Admin Web Site – Product Maintenance – Added a check box to the selection criteria for “Missing Inventory Item Assignment” for sites that are using Assist inventory control so that a list can be generated of products inside the customer service module that have not been mapped to the inventory control system.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Order Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of inventory order templates. These will be used to allow for the capture of different types of inventory orders based on the selection of this value.
Inventory Control Module – Added an inventory order template drop down box to the inventory order tab to allow for branching to different screens based on the selected template.
Inventory Control Module – On the inquiry tab, added an inventory transactions view of data to reflect what transactions have been entered inside the module.
Inventory Control Module – Added picklist capability in order to generate a picklist of the items that need to be pulled from inventory so that the person working in the warehouse can have a working physical list when they go into the storage area.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Reorder Status Maintenance – Created this screen to support the reorder tab inside the inventory control module of Assist. This allows for maintenance of the status values (e.g. Open, Pending, Closed) inside the drop-down box when reorder transactions are being handled.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Tracking Number Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory tracking number records. This is the spot where unique inventory assignment records are tracked. When inventory items are received and need to be labelled with an internal number, this table holds the assignment of these internal numbers.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Tracking Number Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over the inventory tracking numbers. These are generated as part of the inventory control module when an Assist tracking label is printed to put on received products that do not have a vendor bar code.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Reorder Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the transactions indicating that an inventory item reorder should be performed by the purchasing department to replenish supplies/products. This report will only contain data if a site is making use of the Assist Inventory Control Module. Reorder data can be generated by an explicit reorder request from employees or via the Assist Automatic Reorder agent.

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December 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Inventory Control Module – Added functionality to allow for the scanning of the Assist generated tracking number to register correctly on the Inventory Release tab to make for ease in issuing products to employees.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Order Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the transactions indication that an inventory order has been placed. Inventory orders would represent requests to provide inventory items and can be client fulfillment orders or re-supply requests of products within the enterprise.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Maintenance – Modified this screen to add an Active Flag to provide the ability to mark a warehouse as inactive.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Area Maintenance – Modified this screen to add an active flag to provide the capability of marking a warehouse area as inactive. Also modified the selection criteria to allow for ALL areas to be retrieved without specifying a warehouse.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to add an active flag to provide the capability of marking a warehouse location as inactive.
Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Report – Created this report to provide visibility of the data that has been sent to the stain queue.
Universal Slide POU – Modified this module to allow for the scan data collection code to be changed on the configuration change screen without having to change the entire configuration values. Just the code can be pulled and changed.
Universal Slide POU – Modified this routine to write a record to the Accession Stain Protocol History database table to provide visibility to the print history of what protocol slides were printed.
Admin Web Site – Stain Request Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the stain requests that have been submitted for processing by a slide stainer.
Stain Queue – Added the acknowledgement capability to the stain queue to pull back acknowledgements from Dako slide stainers. This can be done via a configuration flag that launches the routine after successful processing of a “send” transaction or via an on-demand button on the screen to load as needed. The acknowledgement transaction writes data to a tracking table in the database, captures a raw listing of the table names that have been processed and also updates the stain request transaction with the acknowledgement data.
Admin Web Site – Stain Request Tracking Report – Modified this report to include the acknowledged flag and the equipment serial number for sites that are using the stain queue and that have acknowledgments from the vendor equipment activated.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment interface types. These types are used to categorize equipment interface records that control the interaction of Assist with items such as slide stainers, tissue processors, etc.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Acknowledgement Report – Created this report to provide visibility to equipment acknowledgement information where equipment interfaces with acknowledgement are in place in the facility.
Admin Web Site – QA Category Maintenance – Added an active flag to this database table and the maintenance screen to provide more flexibility with managing the quality control system.
Admin Web Site – QA Severity Maintenance – Added an active flag to this database table and the maintenance screen to provide more flexibility with managing the quality control system.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Receiving Category Maintenance – Created this screen to support the quality control system and the expanded tracking of issues noted with the receipt of specimens. This category maintenance allows specimen receiving information and issues to be categorized as needed by department (e.g. Histology, Cytology, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Specimen Receiving Severity Maintenance – Created this screen to support the quality control system and the expanded tracking of issues noted with the receipt of specimens. This severity maintenance allows for the assignment of the degree of issue that is associated with the specimen.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Receiving Issue Maintenance – Created this screen to support the quality control system and the expanded tracking of issues noted with the receipt of specimens. This maintenance screens allows for the maintenance of the actual issues that can be associated with received specimens. In other words, the actual issues (ex. Frozen specimen that is not cold, wrong cryoprotectant, etc.).
Accessioning Module – Added the specimen receiving issue functionality to the accessioning module to allow for the capture and display of data that allows for the tracking of issues with specimens when they are brought into a facility.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Receiving Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the specimen receiving tracking information that can be captured at accessioning to report on issues associated with inbound specimens from clients.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Receiving Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen receiving tracking information that is typically captured via the accessioning module. If the data needs to be modified, this screen can be used, or alternatively this screen can be used instead of the accessioning module.
Admin Web Site – Report Master Custom Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the marking of reports as custom for an individual client/site and suppress them from other sites where the report would not be applicable.
Admin Web Site – Report Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a checkbox to allow a report to be marked as custom, which would make it available to a site where it was applicable and hide it from other sites.
Admin Web Site – Clinical Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of clinical site records. These are part of the clinical office tracking section of Assist and represent the clinical offices where a remote module of Assist can reside to assign tracking numbers to specimens when they are collected.
Scanner Engine – Modified the logic typically associated with the embedding scan transactions to allow for the display of tissue processing information associated with the block when it is scanned. The processor batch, the processor description and the run description are displayed below the cassette number.

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January 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of interface types. Interface types are used to categorize amongst the various types of interfaces that might exist between Assist and other systems. An HL7 interface would be an example of one of these types.
Universal POU Module – Modified to allow for the use of the enforce child scan logic to extend to “grandchildren” where any cassettes must also be scanned before switching to a different requisition.
Admin Web Site – Storage Area Maintenance – Made slight cosmetic change to fix the fact that this screen was displayed as “Fleet Management” when it was launched.
Admin Web Site – Storage Tracking Transaction Report – Modified this report to include the accession prefix, number, and bottle/cassette identifiers. This supports changes that have been made to the storage tracking module to allow for accession tracking inside equipment such as freezers.
Storage Tracking Module – Modified this module to allow for the tracking of individual accession numbers inside equipment. Previously, only “objects” could be stored.
Admin Web Site – Storage Tracking Report – Modified this report to include the accession prefix, number, and bottle/cassette identifiers. This supports changes that have been made to the storage tracking module to allow for accession tracking inside equipment such as freezers.
Admin Web Site – Clinical Physician Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the association of referring physicians to clinical locations for use inside the Assist clinical module.
Admin Web Site – Clinical Number Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the clinical tracking numbers that have been created and from which sites. This is part of the Assist clinical module and represents the clinical office definition of a “manifest”.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Transaction Mapping Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the Assist HL7 configuration utility to support the mapping of HL7 transactions.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Mapping Detail Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the Assist HL7 configuration utility. This screen allows for changes to the mapping details of HL7 transactions.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Message Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the Assist HL7 configuration utility. This screen allows for the assignment of HL7 messages types to an interface.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Message Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the Assist HL7 configuration utility. This screen allows for the creation of HL7 message header records (e.g. MSH, PID, PVI, etc.).
Admin Web Site – MFG Case Tasks Report – Added the machine name to this report to provide visibility to the source of a manufacturing case task transaction for sites using the manufacturing modules of Assist with an employee task scanning interface.
Admin Web Site – MFG Case Tasks Archive – Created this screen to provide for automated archival of the manufacturing case tasks table to provide optimized performance for Assist sites that are using task scanning inside the manufacturing module.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Added the LIS Cross Reference field to allow for the cross reference of Assist specimen types to an LIS.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Interface Details Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the HL7 detail information that has been downloaded into Assist via an HL7 interface if the site makes use of one.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Detail Report – Added a row count to this report to show the end user how many rows of data were retrieved.
Admin Web Site – Referring Physician Maintenance – Added the LIS Cross Reference field to this maintenance screen to allow for the pulling of Assist referring physicians based on a code in the LIS.
Admin Web Site – Client Facility Maintenance – Added the LIS Cross Reference field to this maintenance screen to allow for the pulling of Assist site sources based on a code in the LIS.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Added the LIS Cross Reference field to this maintenance screen to allow for the pulling of Assist order types based on a code in the LIS.
Admin Web Site – Clinical Tracking Status Maintenance – Created this screen to provide for maintenance of the clinical tracking status records. These are used to mark clinical tracking records as Open, Pending, Received, Deleted, etc. as part of the Assist Clinical Office module.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Check Maintenance – Created this screen to provide for the maintenance of the database transactions that will be checked when case component data is being calculated.

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February 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Winsurge Interface Robot – Created a Winsurge/Assist interface to allow for integration of patient demographics and tissue types (specimen types) directly into Assist automatically for use in the printing of blocks and slides.
Universal POU – Cassette Print POU – Modified this routine to allow for the cassette magazine to be handled using “fall through” logic. If data is found in the magazine/specimen/Equipment type table, it will be used to position the cassette magazine. If no record is found in the SpecimenMagazineOverride table, the magazine will be retrieved from the SpecimenType table. The magazine will never be changed if the override magazine checkbox (which is new) is checked as this serves as an override.
Storage Tracking Module – Added the unscannable feature to this screen to allow for manual entry.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Magazine Override Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen type magazine overrides as identified above.
Admin Web Site – Reporting Group Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reporting groups. Reporting groups are being introduced to allow management to save groupings of employees to be used for filtering various reports.
Admin Web Site – Reporting Group Membership – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of employees to reporting groups. These groups can then be used on reports to filter data.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge Organization Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of Winsurge organizations. This is relevant for sites that use Winsurge for their LIS with multiple sites that are interfaced with Assist.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge Interface Control – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of Winsurge interface types. This is only relevant for sites that use Winsurge for their LIS and that have an Assist interface active. It allows for the control of the various types of data that is being pulled across to Assist (ex. Patient, Specimens, Orders, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Winsurge LIS Patient Maintenance – Created this screen to provide visibility and allow for changes to the Winsurge/Assist raw patient interface table. This can be used to “re-run” an individual set of transactions if necessary or to research what was passed into Assist from a raw data standpoint.
Database Monitor – Modified this utility to include the site name for the servers that can be monitored for environments where there are multiple Assist installations. Also added the free space in the database for sites that are using SQLExpress and need to monitor the 10GB limit.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge Specimen Maintenance - Created this screen to provide visibility and allow for changes to the Winsurge/Assist raw specimen interface table. This can be used to “re-run” an individual set of transactions if necessary or to research what was passed into Assist from a raw data standpoint.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge LIS Patient Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the Winsurge/Assist raw patient interface table. This can be used to research an individual set of transactions if necessary.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge LIS Specimen Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the Winsurge/Assist raw specimen interface table. This can be used to research an individual set of transactions if necessary.
Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Report – Extended this report to include the actual run number (e.g. batch number) for visibility of the unique number.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Cross Reference Exception Report – Created this report to provide visibility to any exceptions that have occurred inside the HL7, Winsurge, or other types of LIS Interfaces. This allows the employees to have visibility to the types and frequency of errors.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Message Structure Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to maintain the HL7 message structure transactions that will be used for sites with the Assist HL7 interface active.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Message Structure Detail Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to maintain detail records associated with an HL7 message structure record. This would be the MSH-09.1, .2 etc. records that are details “below” the main level of message. This will only be relevant for sites that has active Assist HL7 interfaces.
Admin Web Site – QA Error Maintenance – Extended this maintenance screen to include a flag for suppressing error messages on the distribution manifest.
Distribution Module – Modified this module to consider the “Suppress On Manifest” flag when printing manifests with quality messages turned on.
Check In Module – Added the concept of batch “unloaded” which requires an employee to select an equipment run batch and click an unloaded button now on the screen to date/time stamp the unloading of the batch of product from the equipment. It also tags the employee that performed the transaction.
Assist Scanner Module – Embedding – Modified the logic that allows for the display of the cassettes that were scanned at grossing when scanning at the embedding touch point. Now allows for the display of a “tree view” of all the “sibling” cassettes on a case. If the tree is expanded, sub rows of data show who grossed the case and when, the type of specimen that was assigned, and what tissue processor run the cassette is on and when it should be complete (e.g. end time).
Admin Web Site – Assist Request Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of Assist request status records. This is part of the Assist issue tracking feature set where an end user can submit requests for help.
Admin Web Site – Assist Request Maintenance – Created this screen for the creation of Assist service requests. This can be used by employees to record the items they need or would like the Assist team to address. This can then be used by the appropriate people and added to work lists.
Database Monitor Module – Modified this module to include a column for assist requests so that an overall site administrator can quickly determine what sites might have support requests entered. This is mainly used in enterprises with multiple sites/Assist servers.
Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Report – Modified this report to include the unloaded date/time and the unloaded user for sites that are indicating when equipment run batches are unloaded.
Admin Web Site – Assist Request Closeout – Created this screen to allow an Assist administrator to close requests that have been submitted and provide resolution information (which is locked down on the main request screen).
Admin Web Site – Assist Request Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the Assist requests for support and/or recommendations that have been submitted by employees.
Admin Web Site – Assist Request Audit Log Report – Created this report to provide detailed reporting of the audit log data associated with requests that are entered via the Assist change request process.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Interface Audit Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the transaction counts and date/time stamps of the manufacturing tasks that have been pulled from the ERP for sites using the Assist manufacturing module that have a task interface active.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Accession Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to maintain medical code accession information. This data is typically created inside the doctor module, but this screen allows for override transactions to administrators that may not have access to the doctor module but need to change medical code/accession transactions. This is only relevant for sites that use the Assist doctor module for medical diagnosis functionality.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Accession Report – Modified this report to include body site and surgical technique fields for sites that use the Assist doctor module for medical diagnosis transactions.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Accession History Report – Created this report to provide an audit log of the medical code accession transactions that have been performed over time.
Admin Web Site – Added the reporting grouping criteria option to multiple reports: Employee Accession Log, Employee Daily Work Statistics, Employee Productivity Summary, Employee Scan Log, Employee Scan Rate Report, Employee Scan Time Report, Employee Task Summary, Employee Time Worked, Employee Work Statistics, Employee Work Statistics – Flexible.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of case component types. These are used to determine the sets of components that will be searched for components of a case when using full case distribution.
Stain Queue Module – Modified this screen to allow for the introduction of a configuration option to force all protocol values to only be passed on to the slide stainer platform in upper case if that is a requirement of the vendor platform.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Added a checkbox to the selection criteria for “Missing LIS Interface” for sites that use Assist LIS interface cross reference values so that a quick listing can be displayed of the employees that are missing a cross reference value.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of these types. This is the starting point for creating a “workflow” for determining complete cases to ensure a doctor has gotten a fully completed case during auto distribution.

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March 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Office Queue Status Maintenance – Added an urgent flag to this screen to allow a status to be marked as urgent in addition to open, closed, pending.
Office Queue Closeout – Modified this module to include a count of “Urgent” flag items inside the open status button box and moved items on the screen around to provide for this new data.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Step Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the Assist change management tracking to allow for verification steps to be created for a change control component. These can then be used as “reminders” of the various steps that should be taken to verify complete testing and assurance that a change control component functions as expected.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to include the ability to show all of the verification steps associated with the change control component. This is not changeable data but rather is provided as a visual reminder to the employee of all of the steps that should be taken before completing the change control record.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Archive – Created this utility to allow for the removal of LIS Interface records from the main database table into an archive version of the table to allow for more streamlined processing associated with patient LIS interface data.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge Prefix Interface Summary – Created this report to provide accession prefix summary data so that an administrator can keep track of how much data has been downloaded.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge Date Download Summary – Created this report for sites with the Winsurge LIS to be able to have metrics on the number of specimen records that were downloaded by date.
Universal POU Module – Corrected an issue with the slide queue tab where the magazines were not pulling correctly in the “Leica” version when the magazine selection drop down was not visible.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Report – Modified this report to allow for the display of the specimen type in the detailed grid for management analysis.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to include the lastmaintaineduser field when writing a record to the LISInterface table. Also modified the LISInterface routine to allow for an update to patient name if the rest of the data was delivered by an actual live interface.
Assist Scanner – Modified the main scanner engine to allow for a “check configuration override” ability where an employee can opt to situate themselves in an alternative configuration that sticks instead of rotating back based on the auto configuration settings.
Assist Scanner – Scan History Button – If this button is clicked with no active accession number, there was no message the history just did not display. This was confusing. Modified to send a message to the screen that there was no active accession.
Quality Control Module – Added the culpability tab to allow for the auto creation of culpability for employees making QC errors by tying the error capture back to the employee that performed the scan transaction at the data collection point that is established as the “owner” of the error that was caught later in the specimen workflow.
Admin Web Site – QA Severity Maintenance – Added the Track Culpability flag to this maintenance screen as part of the culpability tracking feature set. This allows the QC manager to flag entire severity classes to be excluded from any attempt to assign culpability.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Mapping Details Maintenance – Added two new flags to this maintenance screen to allow for the specification of CR Only and LF Only. Previously, there was only a feature to add a CRLF to the end of a transaction and some mappings require one or the other.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Protocol Bypass – Created this screen to allow for the creation and maintenance of LIS Interface protocol values that should be bypassed when an interface is in place to pull specimen add on orders but not all of them need to be loaded into Assist. For example, if all “orders” are pulled from the LIS, but some, such as a standard H&E would already have been addressed by the protocol for the tissue/specimen then this can suppress that data from loading.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge Raw Order Maintenance – Created this screen for sites that use the Winsurge LIS and have the interface active for doctor add on orders. This screen allows for the maintenance of these orders if necessary.
Admin Web Site – Winsurge Raw Order Report – Created this report for sites that use the Winsurge LIS and have the interface active for doctor add on orders. This report displays an audit trail of the raw data that is processed by the interface for research purposes.
Admin Web Site – QC Error Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a description wild card to the selection criteria. Also widened out the screen to reduce text overlap on the grid display. Also allowed for the display of items even if the error type associated with the error has been disabled.
Scanner Engine – Modified the way the mandatory specimen type warning works. Previously, if a specimen type was found to be missing at a collection point such as embedding, the red screen error was generated and there was no way to suppress the error condition outside of the reset process. Modified so that the assignment of a specimen type turns off the error condition immediately.
Slide Universal POU – Modified this module to correct some issues with the QC handling. Errors were not getting submitted cleanly from the embedded QC detail screen. The capture of quick scan QC messages were displaying on the cassette pou tab instead of the slide POU tab. This was resolved.
Grossing Universal POU – Modified the manual entry screen to allow for the larger entry of specimen bottle identifiers to support frozen sections (ex. FSA). Previously, the manual bottle entry was limiting entry to one character.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Check Maintenance – Added the ScanFieldFilter field to allow for the addition of the filtering field when case component check logic is used with the transaction log table.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance - Modified this screen to include a DoctorCaseValue field that will be used as part of the auto distribution portion of Assist where case value metrics can be calculated at distribution based on the type of case being sent to the doctor for reading.
Quality Module – Added a maintenance tab to this module. The maintenance tab includes all of the components of the quality control tracking system to allow for full maintenance of the system without having to go to the administrative web site.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Modified the slide details section of this screen to allow for the inclusion of the “Suppress Slide Queue” choice on the maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Inquiry – Added this screen/report to allow for the display of data that exists in the Assist LIS interface inquiry table.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of customizable closeout screen status values by order type so that they can be routed differently through the lab.
Inventory Module – On the receiving tab, added a quantity to the label area to allow for the printing of multiple labels for each product if needed.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Interface Statistics – Created this report to show the number of interface transactions that have been received via the HL7 interface by date.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Specimen Matching – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of Alias cross reference records that can be used to match LIS specimen types to Assist specimen types when a “one to many” relationship may exist.

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April 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Scanner Engine – Modified to allow for the inclusion of a check to generate a warning and/or error if certain interface states are encountered inside the workflow.
Admin Web Site – Collection Point State Limitation – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of special message/error handling on the main scanner screen when state/collection point combinations are encountered.
Scanner Engine – If collection point/state combination limitations are encountered, a prompt was added to the scanner engine that writes a record to the case acknowledgement table when the prompt is clicked.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the filtering of acknowledgements and reasons so that they can be stratified and displayed in logical groupings.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Maintenance – Added a field to allow for the specification of a case value capacity for sites that use the case value metric information for determining doctor capacity instead of case counts or slide counts. This is a value that is held at the specimen type level.
Admin Web Site - Distribution Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of a default case value capacity which works in the same way as the other capacity fields on this screen except to be used with case value metrics instead of raw counts. Also added a workflow tracking value to indicate that the doctor should be using case value metrics.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Maintenance – Modified this screen (and all admin screens) to not display doctors that are inactive.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the Alias Cassette Template, Alias Slide Template, and Prefix description fields. The two alias values and “direct” values allows for the universal POU module to automatically load a different print template when a prefix changes. The alias values allow for the same thing when an alias print is encountered at the number wheel level. The prefix description field provides an area where the prefix can be described if necessary.
Universal POU – Modified the slide POU tab to have the scan history window be a listview instead of a listbox control to allow for more graphical information to be presented.
Universal POU – Modified this module to take the case relationship table into account. The module can now alternate the printing of a slide (typically a label) with a second label that would go on the back of the slide and would represent the double labelling of the item (typically slide).
Admin Web Site - Case Relationship Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for a type choice checkbox of “Alternate LIS Number”.
Universal POU – Added an “opt out” check box to manually override the new feature to allow for the printing of alternate labels.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Maintenance – Modified this screen to include an “Active Only” selection criteria to the screen.
Admin Web Site – Case Relationship Report – Modified this report to include the new fields that were added to the case relationship table.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Modified this screen to add a check box titled “Dash in Slide Barcode” to allow for determination of whether or not a dash should exist in the bar code at the number wheel level to provide additional functionality/options.
Accessioning Module – Modified to allow for the quantity to load on the screen when a bottle is scanned by retrieving the specimen type and the default cassette quantity for the specimen type. Also modified to position the specimen type drop down and to write the specimen type (in color) to the scan history.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Interface Details Report – Modified the selection criteria on this report to allow for the specification of the field value as criteria.
HL7 Interface – Added knowledge of the OrderTypeInterfaceSkip database table to allow for specific order types found in the HL7 interface to be excluded from the order master load if they are order types that are not relevant for the laboratory (ex. Cytology orders inside a histology lab).
Doctor Closeout – Added logic to allow for the purging of orders automatically if a value is found in the OrderTypeInterfaceSkip table. Also added the ability to purge either closed or open orders based on separate “days back” configuration values when open orders are checked if that is needed.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Interface Skip – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the order type interface skip table which is used to exclude order types from inclusion in the HL7 interface and the doctor order closeout.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Summary – Created this report to allow for reporting on the order types that are placed via the doctor order closeout/doctor module, or HL7 interfaces. It provides the order types and counts. It provides the ability to stratify the data by date or in total across the selection criteria.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to allow for alerting if a bottle is not printed when scanning a new bottle. This is an attempt to prevent a user from accidentally scanning more than one bottle before printing.
Scoreboard Module – Modified the scoreboard to perform paging on the equipment timer countdown grid if there is more than one page. It suspends rolling through data and rolls through the paging of all records before resuming normal scoreboard activity. Also removed the “selected” first row so that the whole grid looks the same.
Scoreboard Module – Modified the doctor order view to put the total open order count in the grid header and removed the “selected” first cell to improve visual appeal.
HL7 Interface Module – Modified this module to allow for writing of unique cassette records to the LISInterfaceAccessionDetails table so that a comparison can be made between cassettes that are printed native out of Assist vs. ones that were originally known to the LIS so that entry can be made as necessary to keep the LIS up to date.
Universal Module – Modified the cassette queue and cassette POU tabs to check the interface accession details table if the configuration indicates it should and generate office queue records to indicate that a cassette was added via Assist that should be put into the LIS.
Admin Web Site – Interface Accession Details Report – Created this report to allow for inquiries into the raw data that is loaded into the LIS interface accession details table which can be loaded from the HL7 interface module for sites that use this feature.

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May 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Distribution Detail Listing – Removed the location description from the report. Increased the width of the grid and rearranged the selection criteria to improve visibility. Added the manual override field to the report for display of when a record was manually overridden when auto distribution is used. Added manual override check box to the selection criteria.
Distribution Module – Modified the auto logic to allow for distribution by case value metric instead of solely case count. This value is now available for display in the “Eligible doctor” grid as well as inside the case type statistics to show what has been sent. Also modified the eligible doctor grid so that a double click on existing data will display the metrics of how the case value metric data is being derived by display the case types and specimen types that drive the data.
Office Queue Closeout – Modified this screen to allow for the batch number to be toggle for selection criteria instead of the batch drop down list only. Added this same batch number retrieve option to the print log criteria. Also modified the from/to date in the selection criteria to allow for the date to branch to an external data source (e.g. LIS) based on the external date specifications.
Admin Web Site – External Data Maintenance – Modified this screen to increase the width of the SQL string and to add a checkbox to show the database record number.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Added an Export button to the maintenance screen where client machines are activated against modules of Assist to provide a method for a super user to get a listing of the machines/configurations without having to copy/paste the web screen or get into SQL to retrieve raw data.
Accessioning Module – Modified to show existing case holds when the bottle is scanned and do this with a red font inside the scan history area. Also make the case hold button background turn red. As new case holds are added, display them in the scan history with a blue font. Also added a check to not allow a duplicate to be created.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold – Added the Hold Object Level field to the maintenance screen, the case hold report, and the case hold history report to reflect the new field that has been added.
Scanner Engine – Added logic to the existing case hold feature. Make the case hold button background turn red when a hold is encountered and loaded the data to the scan history. Added a check to the entry screen to allow for case level entry and to also suppress the cassette level data if necessary.
Distribution Module – Modified to allow for the protocol history to be a full screen view to the right of the mainline data and allow it to be based on specimen type tracking instead of going back to grossing or using the microtomy. Also gave a Scan History/Microtomy History toggle check box and made the data views larger.
Universal POU – Added a configuration to ignore a second badge scan if a user is already logged in. This was originally done to address a lab where their slides begin with the ID number wheel. It was also determined that there was really no reason to error on a badge scan when already logged in, rather just ignore the scan.
Accessioning Module – Modified this screen so that the case level case hold choice can be default to the “on” position.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Accession Assignment Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the status values to be used with equipment accession assignment.
Admin Web Site – Maintenance Schedules Missed Report – Created this report to show the instances of missed preventative maintenance schedules. There was no real visibility to how many scheduled items were missed, reports focused on outstanding maintenance as opposed to how many missed scheduled items there were BEFORE maintenance took place.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Override Report – Created this report to be used by facilities that use Assist auto distribution. This report shows how many times the automatic distribution choice was manually overridden. There are both detail and summary views to allow management to have visibility of full details as well as summary counts by date/employee.
Universal POU – Modified the module to allow for the entry of grossing notes to close an office queue transaction if there is one open.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Metrics Report – Created this report to display the distribution of cases to distribution locations (e.g. doctors) with the date, case count, specimen count, specimen type, case type, and case metric value. For sites that distribute based on case value metrics, this allows for research and display of doctor workloads with comparison of the impact of specimen value changes.
Admin Web Site – LIS Electronic Connections Maintenance – Modified to allow for the specification of a purge days count for records that were successfully loaded in addition to not successfully loaded to allow for better management of data volumes.
Universal Module – Modified the cassette POU view to support a “bottle only” configuration so that the module can be used for simple printing of cassettes and/or scanning of bottles to print cassettes.
Universal Module – Modified the Slide Queue tab so that a “suppress duplicates” feature exists when loading the queue in case multiple copies of the same slide request gets submitted.
Universal Module – Slide Queue – Added logic to allow for protocols to be assigned to number wheels at the “non year” level. If this is done, the queue will take the value from the number wheel take and pull the protocol from there and ignore any specimen type protocols.
Universal Module – Routing Designation – Modified the slide POU tab to pull the routing designation from the LIS interface table along with the referring physician if one is mapped. Displays both on the screen. The routing designation can be modified if necessary and will flow through to the slide for printing.
Admin Web Site – Number Wheel Protocol Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the number wheel/protocol mapping. This is used for the printing of slides where a site needs to be able to override specimen type slide protocols based on the number wheel.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the doctor test case value to allow for test case values to be created for playing “what if” scenarios for sites that use Assist auto distribution. Also increased the size of the metrics by date control on the screen to show more information without having to scroll.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the specimen type test case value. This is helpful for sites that use Assist auto distribution for administrators to run “what if” scenarios when calculating what would happen if values were changed without impacting productions.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Metrics Report – Modified this report to display the test case metric values in addition to the regular case metrics so that “what if” scenarios an be analyzed. Also provided the ability to run the report over day end values as opposed to true date values for sites that run on a 24-hour basis and need some indication of the end of “today”.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the new slide designation. This value can be used to print a special value on a slide for sites that have an interface to their LIS and the doctor has been assigned to the slides before they are printed.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Detail Listing – Removed the location description from the report. Increased the width of the grid and rearranged the selection criteria to improve visibility. Added the manual override field to the report for display of when a record was manually overridden when auto distribution is used. Added manual override check box to the selection criteria.
Distribution Module – Modified the auto logic to allow for distribution by case value metric instead of solely case count. This value is now available for display in the “Eligible doctor” grid as well as inside the case type statistics to show what has been sent. Also modified the eligible doctor grid so that a double click on existing data will display the metrics of how the case value metric data is being derived by display the case types and specimen types that drive the data.
Office Queue Closeout – Modified this screen to allow for the batch number to be toggle for selection criteria instead of the batch drop down list only. Added this same batch number retrieve option to the print log criteria. Also modified the from/to date in the selection criteria to allow for the date to branch to an external data source (e.g. LIS) based on the external date specifications.
Admin Web Site – External Data Maintenance – Modified this screen to increase the width of the SQL string and to add a checkbox to show the database record number.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Added an Export button to the maintenance screen where client machines are activated against modules of Assist to provide a method for a super user to get a listing of the machines/configurations without having to copy/paste the web screen or get into SQL to retrieve raw data.
Accessioning Module – Modified to show existing case holds when the bottle is scanned and do this with a red font inside the scan history area. Also make the case hold button background turn red. As new case holds are added, display them in the scan history with a blue font. Also added a check to not allow a duplicate to be created.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold – Added the Hold Object Level field to the maintenance screen, the case hold report, and the case hold history report to reflect the new field that has been added.
Scanner Engine – Added logic to the existing case hold feature. Make the case hold button background turn red when a hold is encountered and loaded the data to the scan history. Added a check to the entry screen to allow for case level entry and to also suppress the cassette level data if necessary.
Distribution Module – Modified to allow for the protocol history to be a full screen view to the right of the mainline data and allow it to be based on specimen type tracking instead of going back to grossing or using the microtomy. Also gave a Scan History/Microtomy History toggle check box and made the data views larger.
Universal POU – Added a configuration to ignore a second badge scan if a user is already logged in. This was originally done to address a lab where their slides begin with the ID number wheel. It was also determined that there was really no reason to error on a badge scan when already logged in, rather just ignore the scan.
Accessioning Module – Modified this screen so that the case level case hold choice can be default to the “on” position.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Accession Assignment Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the status values to be used with equipment accession assignment.
Admin Web Site – Maintenance Schedules Missed Report – Created this report to show the instances of missed preventative maintenance schedules. There was no real visibility to how many scheduled items were missed, reports focused on outstanding maintenance as opposed to how many missed scheduled items there were BEFORE maintenance took place.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Override Report – Created this report to be used by facilities that use Assist auto distribution. This report shows how many times the automatic distribution choice was manually overridden. There are both detail and summary views to allow management to have visibility of full details as well as summary counts by date/employee.
Universal POU – Modified the module to allow for the entry of grossing notes to close an office queue transaction if there is one open.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Metrics Report – Created this report to display the distribution of cases to distribution locations (e.g. doctors) with the date, case count, specimen count, specimen type, case type, and case metric value. For sites that distribute based on case value metrics, this allows for research and display of doctor workloads with comparison of the impact of specimen value changes.
Admin Web Site – LIS Electronic Connections Maintenance – Modified to allow for the specification of a purge days count for records that were successfully loaded in addition to not successfully loaded to allow for better management of data volumes.
Universal Module – Modified the cassette POU view to support a “bottle only” configuration so that the module can be used for simple printing of cassettes and/or scanning of bottles to print cassettes.
Universal Module – Modified the Slide Queue tab so that a “suppress duplicates” feature exists when loading the queue in case multiple copies of the same slide request gets submitted.
Universal Module – Slide Queue – Added logic to allow for protocols to be assigned to number wheels at the “non year” level. If this is done, the queue will take the value from the number wheel take and pull the protocol from there and ignore any specimen type protocols.
Universal Module – Routing Designation – Modified the slide POU tab to pull the routing designation from the LIS interface table along with the referring physician if one is mapped. Displays both on the screen. The routing designation can be modified if necessary and will flow through to the slide for printing.
Admin Web Site – Number Wheel Protocol Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the number wheel/protocol mapping. This is used for the printing of slides where a site needs to be able to override specimen type slide protocols based on the number wheel.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the doctor test case value to allow for test case values to be created for playing “what if” scenarios for sites that use Assist auto distribution. Also increased the size of the metrics by date control on the screen to show more information without having to scroll.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the specimen type test case value. This is helpful for sites that use Assist auto distribution for administrators to run “what if” scenarios when calculating what would happen if values were changed without impacting productions.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Metrics Report – Modified this report to display the test case metric values in addition to the regular case metrics so that “what if” scenarios an be analyzed. Also provided the ability to run the report over day end values as opposed to true date values for sites that run on a 24-hour basis and need some indication of the end of “today”.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the new slide designation. This value can be used to print a special value on a slide for sites that have an interface to their LIS and the doctor has been assigned to the slides before they are printed.

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June 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Universal Module – Added a demographics tab to the module. There is a new button for demographics on the main button ribbon for the slide point of use tab. If the Assist LIS Interface is in place, the module will look for all patient/doctor demographics associated with a specimen when the cassette is processed. The demographics button will turn red to notify that data exists. Clicking the button will take the user to the tab and show all of the patient demographic information. The tab can, of course, also be manually clicked.
Admin Web Site – Referring Physician Maintenance – Added selection criteria to this screen for cross reference value, active only, and name. Included the cross reference and slide designation values as visible columns.
Scanner Engine – Added two new checkboxes and features. “Send Key” and “Copy Clipboard” features now allow for data scanned by the Assist scanner to be shared with Windows. The Send Key takes the data from the requisition scan and immediately “sends” the keystrokes to Windows. If the user has another software product open such as an LIS and has the cursor in the accession field, the scan of the requisition then fills the accession field in the LIS. The “Copy Clipboard” provides the ability to place the requisition in the Windows clipboard so that it can be used multiple times via a paste command. If the user has multiple products that need the accession such as dictation and LIS, the Ctrl-V to paste can be used repeatedly.
Admin Web Site – Modified all of the report inside the administrative web site to all for the suppression of the export button based on a flag in the report master maintenance. If the export button is suppressed, it can be “enabled” by user via entry into the Enable Export Maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Report Master Maintenance – Added a check box titled “Disable Export” to the maintenance screen to allow for the suppression of the export data button that sends report data on the screen to Excel. This is to “protect” data as necessary.
Universal Module – Modified the slide point of use tab to include an “override routing” to allow for the designation to not load from the database in case it needs to be overridden.
Universal Module – Grossing Notes Screen – Added a “save with review” ability to generate a different office queue status.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Time Report – Added a column to the detail view of this report. The column is one for comments and reflects the “Correction Closed” value if the automatic logout time correction process has been used to close out a transaction.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Time Correction Utility – Created this utility to allow for the correction of employee scan time transactions that have gotten abandoned in the database. This allows for the auto-calculation of a logout date for an employee session if somehow the login transaction has gotten abandoned.
Admin Web Site – Report Enable Export Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance and control of override access to the export button on reports but only if the export disable option has been turned on in the report maintenance screen. This allows for the suppression of the export button for all employees other than people added via this maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Assist Help Modules Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the internal assist help module. This allows for the modification of the form level help placeholder information.
Admin Web Site – Assist Help Detail Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the help detail information. This is part of the internal Assist help maintenance. It allows for the storage of site-specific custom notes to allow for client specific help notes to be displayed for screen objects.
Manufacturing Module – Added the new Assist Help button to allow for the display of internal help information about the module.
Admin Web Site – Module Integration Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of integration types. Integration types allow for the sharing of data between Assist modules where a single scan transaction can drive multiple shared data transactions.
Admin Web Site – Safety Warning Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of safety warnings. This data can be presented to the various Assist modules to allow management to ensure that any inherent safety concerns at a data collection station are acknowledged on a periodic basis by employees.
Admin Web Site – Delimiter Package Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of delimiter packages. These are groupings of delimiters and variables that are used when parsing complex bar codes from other applications that need to be parsed and loaded into the Assist database. Typically, this would be for payloads embedded in a PDF417 bar code.
Admin Web Site – Delimiter Package Detail Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the detail data associated with delimiter packages. These are groupings of delimiters and variables that are used when parsing complex bar codes from other applications. The detail records maintained via this screen allow for the mapping of variables into Assist database table fields.

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July 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Safety Warning Station Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the assignment of safety warnings and protective equipment to data collection stations so that prompts can be generated to ensure employees are aware of requirements.
Quality Module Extended – Updated this module to allow for the display of customer complaints and/or feedback that has been captured inside the LIS using the custom external data features.
Quality Module Extended – Modified this module to allow for the presentation of acknowledgements to the user at case scan to force an acknowledgement that if external feedback/complaints exist for the customer that they have/will read them.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to add a rush flag to allow for object request types to be considered rush situations.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Tracking Report – Created this report to allow for reporting over acknowledgement tracking data.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Status Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of a default status that should be used by the web site when displaying this data. There can be more than one default.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to provide a “Missing case type only” checkbox. This is useful when attempting to determine what specimen types have not yet been matched up to case types.
Scoreboard – Object Request Board – Updated the object request board to include columns for accession prefix, accession number, and patient name. Also modified so that each column can be suppressed for visual clarity along with opting in/out of display the requested time when the date is displayed.
Stain Queue – Added the stain date to the grid to provide visibility to when the stain was created.
Universal POU – Slide Tab – Modified to allow for the scan of a cassette to display object request information such as case rush/stat information.
Universal POU – Doctor Order Area – Added the order category to the selection criteria for doctor orders.
Admin Web Site – Daily Specimen Metrics Report – Created this report to allow for information on specimen type case value metrics to be retrieved and analyzed. This information is valuable for sites that perform auto distribution using specimen type metrics.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the Business Area. This will allow specimen types to be filtered to the appropriate configurations by the business area that is relevant (e.g. Histology vs. ENFD vs. Cytology, etc.)
Admin Web Site – Business Area Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the ENFD and FISH flags to allow business areas to be marked as being in those business area categories.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Type Details Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the acknowledgement type details that are used as part of the note acknowledgement tracking section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Type Loading Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the marriage of acknowledgement types with data collection points. This allows for the appropriate prompting of active acknowledgements for sites that make use of the acknowledgement data collection section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Exemption Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for individual employee exemptions to be entered to allow for acknowledgement logic to be overridden where relevant.
Admin Web Site – Assist Rotator Maintenance – Modified this screen to add an “Active Only” choice to the selection criteria.
Scoreboard – Timer Countdown – Modified this scoreboard to allow for a “count up” feature that shows how long a processor run has been completed but no employee has marked it as unloaded at the processor check in screen.
Check In Module – Workflow Accession Tracking – Added the workflow accession tracking feature to the check in screen to allow for improved accession tracking.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Maintenance – Modified this screen to add the ability to join doctor order types to the protocols. This allows for the creation of automated doctor order generation for pre-ordered protocols based on specimen type.
Universal Module – Modified the cassette scan process for the Microtomy section of the universal module to allow for the creation of doctor orders based on the specimen type for the cassette.
Universal Module – Warehouse Scanning – Provided the ability to scan a warehouse drawer into the microtomy version of the universal module. This provides the ability to have the cassette scanning already become a block filing scan transaction for sites that use Assist Warehouse functionality for cassette banking.
Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – Added the active only criteria to this maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Step – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of end of month vs. frequency information for how the order agent should generate work orders. One of the two must be active. Also added an “overdue days” field to allow for the specification of a work order being overdue faster than the next PM date.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Missing Maintenance Report – Reworked this report to change the way it is generated and to add some additional fields to improve the information provided for sites that use the preventative maintenance feature set inside Assist.
Order Agent – Modified the order agent to accept day of month arguments in addition to frequency parameters and also added the overdue days field to the work order so that visibility can be provided for “at risk” work orders.
Admin Web Site – Work Order Report – Modified to include the overdue days field.
Admin Web Site – Image Type Suppression – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the image types that should be suppressed in the various modules that display and/or process images. Images can be suppressed by file suffix of file wild card name.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to allow for the selection of the specimen type to drive the cassette magazine. This is done by looking at the cassette protocol assigned to the specimen type and then getting the magazine(s) for that protocol. Note that if different magazines are defined in this protocol, that the LAST one will be chosen.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Check Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow the component information to be recorded at the collection group level and not just the collection point.

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August 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Facility Location Maintenance – Added the override scan source field to this maintenance screen to allow for scan source codes to be overridden in the transaction log to reflect custom values per site.
Admin Web Site – Object Tracking Report – Added the Active flag field to both the criteria and the data area. Also added accession prefix, number, and the multi identifier fields. This is to support reporting over the extended object tracking data.
Manufacturing Module – Modified this module to allow for facility location scanning. This allows for a manufacturing object scan to also indicate WHERE an object was when scanned. This allows for tracking of a “physical inventory” of objects inside the facility.
Interface Utility – Patient Encryption Job – Modified this routine to allow for processing of blank patient names. Previously, these were skipped in processing. Now, the routine will generate a “blank” encrypted value or will read the configuration for a static value to use for the replacement of the missing patient name. For example, the value of “None” or “Unknown” can be placed instead of blank.
Universal Cassette Queue – Added a bulk print option to allow for the bulk printing of cassettes for sites that need to print multiple cassettes without passing through the traditional process of printing cassettes.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – Modified this screen to capture date created, created by, and last maintained information and display it on the screen for improved accountability.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Report – Modified this report to include visibility to the created date, created by, last maintained date, and last maintained by fields.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Auto Metrics Report – Modified this report to provide additional columns that indicate the part counts along with part level value metrics for sites performing auto distribution.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Batch Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe batch status values that are used in the recipe tracking section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe batch categories. These are used in the Recipe tracking area of Assist. Examples would be: Reagents, Beer, etc.
Admin Web Site – Missing Objects Report – Modified this report to provide a check box to allow for the opt in/out of displaying the specimen type of the object that is missing.
Admin Web Site – Facility Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the indication of a “Product Location”. Previously, a site could be marked as an Equipment Location to tie into the preventative maintenance locations. This provides the ability to do that for physical locations that can hold product (e.g. accession numbers). Also added an “ERP Load” flag to indicate whether or not the ERP loading flag should be called when this item is scanned.
Admin Web Site – Object Tracking Report – Added Accession number as criteria and also added a total field that counts the rows and shows them at the top of the data grid.
Manufacturing Module – Added the ability to have a maximum scan quantity to the requisition scan to prevent accidental multiple bar codes scans.
Manufacturing Module – Added the capability of batch scanning an equipment tracking batch to retrieve all of the accession numbers that passed through an equipment batch to process them through then manufacturing tracking.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe type values for sites are using the recipe tracking portion of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Grouping Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe type values. These groups are used to categorize or group similar recipes and is used by sites that make use of the Assist recipe tracking.
Admin Web Site – Assist Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the various interface types that can be called by the Assist “Robot” routine that is used for processing automated tasks.
Admin Web Site – Interface Audit Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the various “robot” tasks that are run by the Assist schedule job engine. This report shows the name of the job, the date/time it started and completed, where it was run from, and how many records were impacted by the job.
Assist Interface/Job Engine – Modified the automated job routine to include a write to the audit log database for each type of transaction so that metrics on the jobs can be viewed.
Admin Web Site – ERP Load Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the ERP/Assist interface transactions for sites that use Assist scan transactions to update manufacturing/ERP systems.
Interface Module – Modified the interface routine to include the ability to replicate LIS Interface data from one database (site) to another. This provides the ability to replicate LIS information.
Admin Web Site – Protective Equipment Maintenance – Added a comments field to this maintenance screen to allow for storage of free form information associated with PPE.
Universal Module – Added the safety warnings button to the slide tab for the tracking of safety warning information.
Admin Web Site – Safety Warning Acknowledgement – Created this report to provide visibility to the acknowledgements of the safety warnings that are captured.
Universal Cassette Queue – Corrected an issue with original grossing and add on cassette orders. When multiple cassettes were ordered by number range (ex. on A1 add 2 – 6 cassettes) the cassettes were all coming out with the original cassette number for the number range quantity. Fixed this.
Admin Web Site – Facility Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to provide a cross reference field. This allows for the cross reference of Assist Facility locations to LIS/ERP locations. This is especially important for sites that perform object tracking zone scans.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of an acknowledgement type for sites that want to present acknowledgements to employees when scanning specimen types.
Main Scanner Engine – Added the acknowledgement functionality to this module.
Main Scanner Engine – Added the safety warning/PPE logic into this module to allow for the capture and acknowledgement of safety information at any collection points using the main scanner engine.
Accessioning Module – Added the ability for the clicking of the priority or rush check box to load a static value into the instruction free form text box.
Admin Web Site – Safety Warning Station Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen so that the selection of a safety warning value or a protective equipment value will bring the comments forward from those items to pre-load them as the comments for the station assignment to cut down on typing.
Admin Web Site – Safety Warning Inclusion – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of safety warning inclusions. This give the ability to mark employees for inclusion in the safety warning program.
Admin Web Site – Safety Warning Exclusion – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of safety warning exclusions. This give the ability to mark employees for exclusion in the safety warning program.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Type Maintenance – added Requisition type and User Type check boxes to this screen to allow for the specification of when the acknowledgement should fire.
Main Scanner Engine – User Acknowledgements – Added the ability in the main scanner module to prompt for acknowledgement information at the user login point. Previously, acknowledgements were tied solely to specimen type transactions. This provides an additional level of functionality for processing acknowledgements.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Inclusion Maintenance – Created this screen to support the concept of “opt in” employees for acknowledgements. Previously only the ability to have “all in” with exemptions was supported.
Main Scanner Engine – User Acknowledgements – Added the ability in the main scanner module to prompt for acknowledgement information at the requisition scan point. Previously, acknowledgements were tied to specimen type transactions or user login. This provides an additional level of functionality for processing acknowledgements at the start of each case or accession.
Main Scanner Engine – Clipboard/Send Keys – Provided the configurable ability for this feature to pad the accession number with zeros if needed.
Universal Cassette – Bulk Print Screen – Modified to include the ability to print multiple parts per specimen. Previously, this feature ended at the specimen level.
Accessioning Module – When cassette request quantities are defaulting from the specimen type table and a zero value is encountered, it was causing a problem with the quantity value on the screen. Corrected this to override any zero value to 1.
Universal Module – Modified the slide print routines (POU and Queue) to allow for the overlay of the site name at the bottom of the slide with a slide description from the client master table.
Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Updated this screen to include the client slide site name field to allow for the override specification of site names to be printed at the bottom of slides.

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September 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Case Component Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the case component tracking data that is generated by the case component job to help in ensuring complete cases are processed.
Admin Web Site – Sample Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of sample categories. These are the high-level organization for sample testing in the sample testing section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Report – Added a record count total to the top of the grid to show how many records were retrieved in the report.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Status Maintenance – Added a drop down to allow for the specification of status filter types so that status values in the office queue closeout screen can be filtered if needed.
Office Queue Closeout – Modified this module to allow for the use of the status filter to have customized status values on the office queue closeout screen. Also corrected issue that was happening when an error was made on the edit screen when also entering grossing notes. The successful grossing note entry was overwriting the error condition on the office queue update and allowing the update even though there was an error.
Admin Web Site – Sample Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation of sample types. These are the types of samples that could need to be tracked inside the Assist sample tracking practice area.
Print Center – UDI Labels – Modified the UDI print routine to allow for an “extra” label to be printed with no quantity and without the “File Copy” designation.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Added radio button choices for the setting of defaults on Return Expected and Inbound/Outbound so that the distribution module can default by distribution location.
Distribution Module – Modified the module to load defaults for the return expected and inbound/outbound values when the distribution location is changed.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to allow for the capture of data in the delimiter audit log for sites that use delimiters in inbound bar codes that are scanned to load patient information. This modification stores the data that is captured in an audit log.
Admin Web Site – Delimiter Package Audit Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the audit logs created by delimiter data from bar codes as outlined above.
Admin Web Site – Environment Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over environment types. This is part of the sample testing functional area of Assist and represents environment types to apply to sample testing (ex. Heating Chamber, Clean room, Pressure chamber, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Calibration Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance over calibration types. This is part of the sample testing functional area of Assist and represents the types of equipment calibration that may need to be performed (ex. Thermometer, Pressure, etc.)
Universal Slide Printing – Provided the ability to print a secondary 1D bar code with the accession number in it for sites that need both 1D and 2D bar codes.
Accessioning Module – Added a configuration option to leave the quantity when the configuration is changed.
Admin Web Site – Notifier Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the notifier type information.
Admin Web Site – Assist Notifier Report – Extended this report to include multiple new fields to provide visibility to acknowledgement dates.
Assist Notifier Agent – Created this new small communications module to serve as a “lighted button” to allow for notification of a completed task to serve as a notifier to other employees/computers with the button that a task has been completed. Can serve as a visual workflow “ready” button with the ability to track the acknowledgement of the “ready” state. Example is the completion of slide books where another department should come retrieve them.
Admin Web Site – Curriculum Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the curriculum type which can be used to categorize curriculums.
Admin Web Site – Course Location Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the course/curriculum functional area to allow for the specification of the physical locations where a course could be conducted/offered.
Admin Web Site – Curriculum Type Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the course/curriculum functional area to allow for the stratification of curriculums.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Calibration Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of calibration types to equipment types. This is part of the sample testing functional area of Assist and allows for the assignment of the types of calibration activity that can be performed on types of equipment.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to maintain material types. This information is used to categorize the materials that are received from a client as part of the enhanced material submitted tracking that has been added to Assist.
Admin Web Site – Business Area Maintenance – Extended the business area maintenance screen to allow for the inclusion of several more types of business areas.
Admin Web Site – Communication Log Type Maintenance – Created this screen to support the ability to categorize communication logs by type. This is part of the extended communication logs that have been added to Assist.
Admin Web Site – Instance Transaction Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of instance transaction types. This is part of the sample testing area of Assist and represents the types of transaction (e.g. Check In, Check Out) that might be performed on a sample being tested involving equipment or testing environments.
Admin Web Site – Vendor Maintenance – Modified this screen to provide an “Active Only” filter to cut down on the visual clutter of inactive vendors. Defaulted this value to on.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Item Detail Maintenance – Modified this screen to filter the vendor drop down fields to only include vendors for vendor types that are marked as product vendors.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturer Maintenance – Added indicator check boxes for inventory and equipment specification to be able to mark a manufacturer as one of those types for use in the various sections of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the “Never Expires” checkbox to denote products that have no expiration date and a detailed description to allow for longer notes to describe a product.
Universal Cassette – Modified this section of the universal cassette print routine to provide a check box to allow for the positioning of the printer magazine based on the Accession prefix assuming the magazine override checkbox is not selected.
Universal Cassette – Modified this section of the universal cassette module to include the ability to send cassette transactions to the grossing tissue processor batch.
Universal Cassette – Modified this section of the universal cassette module to provide the ability to add cassettes to an existing list of printed cassettes when in manual mode.
Admin Web Site – Communication Log Status Maintenance – Created this screen to provide maintenance of communication log status values. These will be used in the communication log portion of Assist to mark notifications as open, pending, closed, etc.
Admin Web Site – Communication Log Severity Maintenance – Created this screen to provide maintenance of communication log severity values. These will be used in the communication log portion of Assist to mark notifications as high, medium, low, informational.
Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Maintenance – Modified this screen to include an active flag.
Admin Web Site – Printer Prefix Override Maintenance – Removed the accession prefix drop down from this machine and made it a text box.
Universal Module – Slide Point of Use and Cassette Point of Use tabs. Added the communication log functionality to allow for messaging about specimens to be saved and also forwarded to the Assist notifier agent.
Admin Web Site – Collection Point Maintenance – Modified this screen to support the creation of a cross reference field. This is used to allow for a code cross reference for sites that have HL7 cross references or any other type where a code cross reference for the Assist data collection point needs to be held.

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October 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Inventory Detail Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for item detail values to hold a manufacturer. Previously, only a vendor could be specified. Multiple vendors can carry a specific manufacturer item and this change allows for this data to be captured.
Universal Cassette Module – Bulk Print Screen – Modified this screen to allow for the bulk print of multiple letter bottle/specimen identifiers. Previously, the screen did not like multiple character fields where a specimen quantity was used.
Universal Cassette Module – Modified this screen to suppress specimen types from being written to history if there is no value. In other words, do not show the value “None”.
Accessioning Module – Provided the ability to have the specimen type suppressed from showing up in the scan history if one was not specified to cut down on visual clutter especially for labs that do not use specimen types.
Warehouse Module – Added the employee group drop down list to the filing screen. This can be used to filter the employee assignment drop down by the employee membership of the groups. This cuts down on the full list of employees to reduce likelihood of choosing the wrong record.
Admin Web Site – Employee Group Assignment Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of employees to groups. These group assignments can be used in various areas of Assist where groupings or “teams” need to be managed and created.
Distribution Module – The “microtomy history” area of Assist can be used to determine what slides need to be scanned and what constitutes a complete case. Changed the definition of “microtomy history” to include any data reflected in the DistributionSourceFilter table which can indicate collection groups or individual collection point sources.
QC Module Extra – Inside the QC Module for manufacturing, adjusted the process for processing acknowledgements. Added an employee notes section to the screen to allow for the employee to make notes on the information that they are acknowledging.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Tracking Report – Modified this report to include the employee notes field that can be opted in/out based on the notes checkbox in the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Source Filter – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the sources that will be used by the distribution module to fill in the “microtomy history” section of the distribution module for sites that are not straightforward and have cases coming from different sections of the facility.
Admin Web Site – Facility Location Transaction Report – Created this report to provide visibility to facility location scanning transactions (e.g. Zone scans). Both detailed and summary views of this data has been provided.
Admin Web Site – Image Type Maintenance – Modified the image type maintenance screen to include a check box for “Client Complaints” to provide the ability to indicate that an image in the system is a complaint image from a client for use inside quality systems.
Quality Module Extended – Added a manual Login button for employees that may not have a scanner or who have misplaced their badge for scanning in their user ID.
Quality Module Extended - Quality Tab – Added the entry to support the assignment of error culpability when a QC error is captured. This allows for the indication of which employee actually made the error.
Quality Module Extended - Added the culpability assignment tab for auto assignment of culpability (which can be hidden). This tab provides a button that can be clicked and the system will look at the error message that was logged. It will look at the department assigned to the error and determine what employee performed the scan at that department and will assign error culpability to that employee.
Quality Module Extended - MFG Scanning tab

Added a check box for completed tasks only
Added a sort order to allow tasks to be sorted by ascending date, descending date, or task order.
Added a refresh button to reload the manufacturing tasks if changes to the other values are made.

Quality Module Extended - Images tab

Added a check box to suppress duplicate images.
Added a check box to allow for messages to be pulled from the LIS which is driven by an external data connection.

Admin Web Site – Change Control Component Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the program name variable. This will be used in the display of the “what’s new” section of the help screen that is being added to the various modules.
Doctor Closeout – Modified this module to allow for a “green/red” button on the screen to indicate whether or not there are interface exceptions that need to be addressed. For sites that have interfaces with a LIS that rely on cross reference information, it can be tough to keep track of when a stain/order, referring doctor value, etc. that is not mapped correctly to Assist. This button shows the count of them for easy warning of the need to perform maintenance mapping. Clicking the button shows the count broken down by exception type (e.g. client vs. order, etc.).
Distribution Module – Professional Component Feature – Added the ability to handle professional component slides to distribution in order to keep track of the number of slides that are being distributed and sent out to doctors. When a requisition is scanned that has a number wheel (prefix) that is marked as a professional component prefix, the button turns red to indicate that PC data can be specified. This allows for the entry of slide counts to auto-generate the slides into the system.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Acknowledgement – Created this report to show the acknowledgements that are captured via the various modules of Assist. Change control has been introduced as a “what’s new” help feature with the ability to show employees when new features land so that you can track and prove that an employee was notified that a feature has been added.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Authorized – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of what employees are authorized to indicate that change controls by type have been verified.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the cross reference field to support the ability to cross reference Assist inventory items to external purchase systems and also added a “Requires Lot Control” check box to provide the ability to force the capture of lot numbers at receiving.
Inventory Module – Modified the maintenance tab to include the cross reference and the requires lot control values inside the module.
Inventory Module – Receiving Tab – Modified the process of receiving to look at the requires lot control value on the inventory master table and enforce that a lot number must be specified and show a note on the screen if the item selected is under inventory control.

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November 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Added the DictionaryCode field to this maintenance screen to provide for the ability to put a “data dictionary” value into the order type table. This would be used to aggregate order types across the databases of multiple facilities. Also added the TypeNotes field to allow for a detailed description of the order type.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Type Listing – Modified this report to provide visibility to the dictionary code and type notes fields that have been added.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Extended this screen to include the inventory code field. This allows for storing internal “part numbers” to go with the inventory item description.
Inventory Module – Maintenance Tab – Added the inventory code field to this screen. This allows for storing internal “part numbers” to go with the inventory item description.
Inventory Module – Added a Label Print tab for the printing of on demand labels for inventory items. This would typically be used to create labs for “bags” or issued quantities of inventory items where the relevant information might need to be in the bar code rather than just a tracking number (e.g. lot number, inventory code, quantity, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Status Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory request status values. This is part of the inventory module and represents the status values that can be associated with an inventory requests.
Inventory Module – Inquiry Tab – Added the Validate Only check box to allow for the filtering of inventory items to only display items that have been validated.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Added the inventory label description field to allow for an abbreviated version of the inventory description that can be printed on the inventory labels.
Inventory Module – Label Print Tab – Added a check box to allow for the determination of whether the full item description or the label description should be printed for on demand labels.
Inventory Module – Added an inventory code lookup feature on the label print tab and the maintenance tab. Also added a choice to include the inventory code in front of the inventory description in the drop-down lists.
Admin Web Site – Issue Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to add an Active Only choice to the selection criteria and also a wildcard for location description.
Print Center – Multiple Bottle Format – Modified this screen to provide a print template so that employees and local site administrators can modify the printing of the X/Y coordinates of the label.
Admin Web Site – Department Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to include a check box to allow for marking a department as an inventory department.
Inventory Module – Added the ability to filter the department drop down box based on whether or not the department was marked as an inventory department.
Universal Module – Added configuration settings to allow for changes to the cassette and slide queue print intervals.
Universal Module – Print Only Tracking – Previously, if anyone performed the print only transaction, the transaction was not recorded in the transaction log. This was modified to capture all transactions.
Universal Module – Cassette Bulk Print – Modified the cassette bulk print screen (the “HistoPal” type of screen) to allow for the specification of instructions, pieces, specimen type and extra notation as needed for printing on the cassettes.
Accessioning Module – Modified the accessioning module to accept bar codes that have patient demographics in the bar code. This makes use of the delimiter package logic that was created a few months ago for requisitions.

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December 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – QC Error Message Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a flag to mark an error as “rework required” if the error will involve some level of rework.
Inventory Module – Inquiry Tab – Order History Option – Modified this option to show closed inventory orders, not reorders.
Universal Module – Suppress Printing Feature – This feature had an issue where using the screen for simple matching of the cassette/slide scan was not working as expected. The redundant “Do Not Print” feature DID work. Modified the Suppress Print to match the “Do Not Print” and this resolved the issue.
Universal Module – Position Protocol By Specimen – This check box was not always working due to a bug. Corrected this issue so that the position by protocol always works as expected.
LIS Interface Robot – Added the ability to automatically load the patient and referring doctor information into Assist via the LIS Interface table for sites that use the Pathway LIS. There is a manual step of making a “Cognos” patient data report available to Assist but once this step is taken, Assist can load the patients which allows for the printing of patient names on slides.
Doctor Order Interface Robot – Added the ability to automatically load the doctor orders into Assist via the order master table for sites that use the Pathway LIS. There is a manual step of making a “Cognos” order report available to Assist, but once this step is taken, Assist can load the doctor orders which allows for automated printing of orders.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Acknowledgement Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the number of times that a case component acknowledgement was performed. Case component logic has been added to the distribution module to allow for the warning of an employee if they attempt to distribute a case that has missing parts. If the employee chooses to distribute anyway, a reason has to be provided and this data is capture. This report provides access to that data.
Distribution Module – Case Component Logic – Added the ability for the distribution module to include case component logic when performing distribution. A case component “robot” runs on the Assist server and gathers all components of a case that has passed through the lab workflow. This is based on the touchpoints that are configured in the Case Component Checking maintenance. This data is then used at distribution to make sure that there is not another component of a case that is not scanned at distribution. If a component is missing, the employee can choose to NOT distribute the case until the discrepancy can be resolved, or they can distribute anyway (providing a reason).
Universal POU – Cassette Universal POU – Modified the Grossing Information pop up window to include customized fast code names for the Clinical, Body Source, and Grossing fast codes. These values can now be specified in the configuration to add customization for a site.
Universal POU – Cassette Universal POU – Resolved an issue where the Print button was not visible. This was hindering the ability to print without manual mode being on.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Order Type Matching – Created this screen to allow for the mapping of order types that come into Assist via an HL7 interface to the order types in the system. Previously, there was a single cross reference field in the order type master file. This provides the ability to map multiple inbound values to a single Assist order type.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of HL7 interface types. These are used to categorize the HL7 transaction mappings for sites that use interfaces.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Interface Exception Cross Reference – Added the interface type to the cross-reference report to allow for filtering of exceptions based on interface type.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Outbound Touchpoint Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to maintain the outbound HL7 touchpoint records. These are used for sites that are sending Assist information outbound with scan transactions.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Detail Inquiry – Created this screen to provide visibility from the administrative web site to the data contained in the LIS Interface table. The specimen type tracking audit trail is also shown. Any “doctor” orders are also visible. The data is presented in a “single page” format to provide a detailed view of all of the information.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Number Wheel Interface Type Maintenance – This screen was created to provide visibility to the mapping of number wheels to interface types. This mapping is used typically for outbound HL7 messages so that the Assist data “robot” knows what scan transaction prefixes to send for each interface type.
Print Center – HL7 Bottle Labels – Created this screen to allow for the printing of bottle labels that have arrived via an HL7 interface. The screen is broken down so that selection criteria can be specified to show existing accession numbers that have come in via an HL7 interface. These records can then be selected and container labels can be printed. This is useful if labels need to be printed for a case OR if replacement labels are needed.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Collection Group Filter – Created this screen to allow for the filtering of what manufacturing tasks can be scanned at which data collection groups. This is used in sites that use the Assist manufacturing module to cut down on incorrect scanning of tasks by employees.
Manufacturing Module – Task/Collection Group Filter Logic – Added logic to the manufacturing module to support the filtering of what manufacturing tasks can be scanned at what data collection stations. If no tasks are provided for this filter, there are no rules. If ANY tasks are specified at a data collection group, then this list becomes the ONLY tasks that can be scanned at that station.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Collection Group Filter – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the creation of putting in the manufacturing tasks that are allowed at data collection station groupings for the Task/Collection Group Filter logic that has been added to the manufacturing module.
Manufacturing Module – Employee/Task Filter Logic – Added logic to the manufacturing module to support the filtering of what manufacturing tasks can be scanned by what employees. If no tasks are provided for this filter, there are no rules. If ANY tasks are specified for an employee, then this list becomes the ONLY tasks that the employee can scan.
Admin Web Site – MFG Employee Task Filter – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the creation of entry of the manufacturing tasks that are allowed for employees for the MFG employee task filter logic that has been added to the manufacturing module.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Outbound Information Inquiry – Created this inquiry to provide visibility to the data contained in the Outbound Information table in Assist. This table is filled by the HL7 outbound “robot” which pulls Assist transactions that are going to be sent outbound via an HL7 interface. This data subsequently gets encoded in HL7 format and transmitted. This inquiry shows the data prior to the outbound encoding.
Quality Module Extra – Change Control Acknowledgement – Modified the change control section of the quality module. Color coded any items showing up that have not been verified. They should up in red as opposed to green if they ARE verified.
Manufacturing Module – Change Control Acknowledgement – Added the whole change control management/acknowledgement process to the manufacturing module. As change control items are put into the database, they are presented to the end user at login as a “what’s new” type of feature and the employee can read about the changes and acknowledge that they read them to provide management with an audit trail that employees were notified of changes.
Manufacturing Module – Copy Clipboard/Send Keys Logic – Modified the manufacturing module to add the checkboxes to the screen to allow for the case scan transaction to place the case scanned to the clipboard. The data can then be pasted as needed. The Send Keys check box allows for the transaction to immediately issue a paste transaction. If the Windows cursor is in another application, the paste transaction will propagate the data into that window.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Physician Matching – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the HL7/Physician cross reference table. This is used by the HL7 interface data matching process to allow for multiple wildcard values, spelling, etc. for an individual physician.
Quality Module Extra – Copy Clipboard/Send Keys Logic – Modified the QC Module Extra to add the checkboxes to the screen to allow for the scan transaction to place the case scanned on the Windows clipboard. The data can then be pasted as needed. The Send Keys check box allows for the transaction to immediately issue a paste transaction. If the Windows cursor is in another application, the past transaction will propagate the data into that window.
Universal Module – Slide POU Tab - Modified to add the checkboxes to the screen to allow for the scan transaction to place the case scanned on the Windows clipboard. The data can then be pasted as needed. The Send Keys check box allows for the transaction to immediately issue a paste transaction. If the Windows cursor is in another application, the past transaction will propagate the data into that window. This feature is triggered from the cassette scan transaction.
Universal Module – Cassette POU Tab - Modified to add the checkboxes to the screen to allow for the scan transaction to place the case scanned on the Windows clipboard. The data can then be pasted as needed. The Send Keys check box allows for the transaction to immediately issue a paste transaction. If the Windows cursor is in another application, the past transaction will propagate the data into that window. This feature is triggered from the requisition scan transaction.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory templates. Inventory templates will be used to allow for the mapping of combinations of inventory types (item groupings) to data collection stations.
Interface Utility – Case Component Robot – Modified this routine to handle a situation where records were getting incorrectly “abandoned” in the case component table if there was a pre-ordered protocol on an object. The original Microtomy scan would include the protocol and the scans coming from Grossing, Embedding, etc. would not. This caused the original non-protocol accession numbers to flag as missing when they are not. Basing the logic on a new flag that was added to the Case Component Check table that indicates whether or not protocol should be used when checking.
Distribution Module – Case Component Tracking – Modified the routine that checks for case components when scanning requisitions to only include items with an active status.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Check Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to include the check box to allow for the specification of the “Protocol Level Check” information.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Tracking Report – Modified this report to include the status field and the status changed date. Also added a check box (“Active Only”) to allow for the filtering of data to be active status only.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for entry of inventory requests via the web site. This is used to indicate that inventory items are needed by an employee or department.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the inventory requests that have been ordered. Inventory requests represent the request for inventory items by employees or departments that are fulfilled by the inventory department using the inventory module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Template Detail Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the details associated with inventory templates. The details are the specification of inventory types along with a minimum and maximum quantity. These templates and their details can then be married to data collection points for use in lot control/inventory tracking in the various Assist modules.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Collection Point Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the relationship between data collection points (e.g. Grossing, Manufacturing, etc.) and inventory templates.
Admin Web Site – Patient Package Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of patient package status values. These are used as part of the clinical package tracking feature set of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Patient Test Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of patient test types. These are used in the Assist clinical package tracking module and allow for patient tests to be categorized or grouped.

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January 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – HL7 Outbound Information Inquiry – Added the transaction processed date to this report.
Admin Web Site – Interface Accession Details Report – Added the Active Flag field to the report data that is displayed and added an “Active Only” check box for selection criteria filtering.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Assignment Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory assignment types. These types are used to clarify where the assignment of an inventory item to a case/accession number/lot number came from in the database. An example would be the Assist data collection station that generated the transaction.
Admin Web Site – Patient Test Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of patient tests. These are used in the clinical package tracking module of Assist and are used to define the quantity of specimen containers that are required when loading specimen data.
Universal Module – Encountered an issue where two number wheels that start with the same characters were not parsing correctly. One of the number wheels was de-activated, but the various routines in the universal module did not factor in the “Active Flag” when checking. Corrected this.
Admin Web Site – Patient Component Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of patient components. These are the individual components that make up a patient test.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Template Detail Maintenance – Added the Value Filter check box value to the screen. This will allow inventory template logic to be extended to support min/max values or a list of values by using this flag to branch to the value table.
Doctor Closeout – For sites that use the Pathway LIS, the accession prefix selection criteria were not allowing prior year cases to be retrieve IF the accession prefix drop down was used to filter the result set since it would not cross back to the prior year. Added a check box to “ignore year” for Pathway cases. It is defaulted to the OFF state, but allows for retrieval of Pathway orders regardless of year for the prefix.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Number Wheel Interface Type – Extended this screen to include the LastDoctorOrderDate so that the last order pulled can be integrated into the HL7 outbound interface for doctor orders.
Manufacturing Module – Added a “Show All Tasks” to the task scan history section of the manufacturing module. This provides the flexibility to the end user of showing all tasks that are ELIGIBLE to be scanned vs. just that tasks that HAVE been scanned.
Manufacturing Module – Added logic to allow for the scanning of component part bar codes with inventory codes and lot numbers against case numbers for lot control tracking.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Template Detail Maintenance – Modified this screen to include an active flag so that items can be inactivated while still being left attached to a template.
Accessioning Module – Delimiter Scan – Modified the delimiter routine inside the accessioning module. If a bad case date was encountered, it could throw out the routine without capturing the rest of the LIS information. Corrected the routine to survive bad data. Also modified it to truncate the leading zeros on the accession number if necessary.
Universal Slide Module – Added the ability to print the doctor initials on the slide and control the location and look of the data.
Universal Slide Module – Modified the module to respond to a bar code scan for the positioning of the slide protocol drop down listing. This can be done either by exact match of the text string in the drop down or via the number that represents the stain.
Universal Module – Control Tab – Enhanced the control tab inside the universal module. Added a drop down of control prefixes with the last used control number tracked at this level. Added several features to suppress the various values on the screen. Added the ability for the printing of the control to send that bar code to the stain queue for release to the staining platforms.
Admin Web Site – Control Prefix Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the control prefixes. These are used inside the control tracking module of Assist and also via the control slide print tab inside the universal slide module.
Stain Queue – Row Count – Added a row count to the top of the stain queue to make it easier to see how many records exist for processing.
Stain Queue – Save Fix – There was an issue with saving changes to an existing record in the stain queue. The stain cross reference value was being enforced as mandatory data when it should not be.
Stain Queue – Authentication Impersonation – Added authentication impersonation logic to the copy/paste to the slide stainer server platform so that a “net use” command or mapped drive do not need to be created.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – PH Level – Added the PH Level drop down to the slide protocol details section of this maintenance screen. It allows for the specification of a PH level, which can be subsequently printed on a slide for sites that want to carry the PH level of the stain to the staining platform visually.
Admin Web Site – PH Level Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the PH Levels discussed above.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Maintenance – Corrected an issue on this maintenance screen where the acknowledgement file type was overriding the acknowledgement file path on update transactions.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report – Identified and corrected a bug with the Assist time calculation. The logic was flawed when a time bucket of login/logout crossed beyond the to criteria. This was corrected.
Admin Web Site – Stain Request Acknowledgement – Created this report to provide visibility to the acknowledgement transactions that are sent back by the staining platforms in the facility for sites that have the Assist Stain tracking enabled and have acknowledgements from the instrument platform indicating completed transactions enabled.
Distribution Module – Modified the distribution module to capture the manifest type when a manifest is generated. This allows for the introduction of the concept of manifest types to group the types of shipping.
Admin Web Site – Manifest Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manifest types. Manifest types are used to keep track of the maximum capacity of items.
Admin Web Site – Truck Tracking Status – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the truck tracking status values. These are part of the truck tracking functional area of Assist.
Print Center – Requisition Label Screen – Modified this screen to have the accession number field set the maximum length to the size of the number wheel. Also modified to pull the X/Y coordinates to control the printing of where things are to the label so that an administrator can tweak the settings.
Admin Web Site – Patient Test Component Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of the various components of a patient test to be set. This is used inside the client/PSC tracking module of Assist and allows for the building of the “template” that defines what should be included in a patient test.
Admin Web Site – Patient Component Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the status values that will be associated with patient components as they are traced through the Assist clinical/PSC tracking feature set.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Slide Recipe Maintenance – Added a field for HumanTextOverride. This field provides the Assist administrator with a different value that can be printed via the Universal slide print than the value that goes into the barcode.
Universal Slide – Modified to take into account the ability for protocols to print something different inside the bar code than on the human readable. This is really done to support situations where special characters are desired in the human readable definition of a stain, but the same values might cause issues inside the bar code when scanned or read by equipment.
Universal Slide – Added the interface into StainTracking which allows for the capture of unique slide values inside the bar code. This allows for unique instances of a slide where each individual slide is numbered within its specimen part, number, and protocol. The scan of the slide is then written into the StainTracking database table. This is used to determine that another iteration of the slide has been “activated”. Just printing the slide does not cause this transaction.
Main Scanner Engine – Modified to handle the existence of the stain tracking data inside the bar code.
Distribution Module – Modified to handle the existence of the stain tracking data inside the bar code and also write the slide instance field to the Assist database.
Distribution Module – Modified the “Utility” button scan history view to include the protocol for greater ease in viewing what is being redistributed or otherwise worked with inside the distribution utility.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Detail Report – Added the protocol instance to this detailed report.
Universal Slide – Doctor Orders – Modified this routine so that when an “Open” status order is printed, it automatically moves the order status to a pre-configured status such as “Printed” so that it can automatically indicate that the order is being processed.
Admin Web Site – Stain Tracking Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of stain tracking status values. Stain tracking is used to indicate that a special stain protocol slide was created so that they can be uniquely numbered in the bar code.
Admin Web Site – Stain Tracking Status Change – Created this screen to allow for individual slide protocol instances to be marked as a status other than active.
HL7 Interface – Modified this utility to capture the machine name of computer/server that is running the HL7 interface utility and that processed the transaction.
Admin Web Site – Stain Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the stain tracking data inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Raw Messages – Created this report/inquiry to provide visibility to the raw HL7 messages received into Assist before any form of processing or parsing has been performed.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to allow for better LIS integration. If the LIS interface integration is in place, and a requisition is scanned, then all bottle labels for the case can be automatically printed as well as the cassette requests be automatically sent to the cassette queue for printing.

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February 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Inventory Accession Tracking Report – Created this report to provide better visibility to the assignment of inventory items to a scanning station. This is used as part of the lot control tracking and inventory control.
Admin Web Site – Product Maintenance – Added a ProductID and a cross reference field to the product master maintenance screen to allow for better matching up to external ERP or LIS systems and the product master file.
Admin Web Site – Product Training Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of product training records. These are used to allow for the association of training notes and web site links with products.
Distribution Module – Added the ability to have a bar code value (~MANIFEST by default) that can drive the clicking of the create manifest button.
Universal Cassette POU – Trash Tracking – Added the trash tracking feature to the cassette point of use module. This provides the same functionality the previously was resident inside the main Assist scanning module.
Universal Cassette POU – Added the ability to have the Pieces functionality be introduced via a drop-down listing opposed to only as a free form text box.
Universal Cassette POU – Modified the routine to display the name of the print queue that cassette transactions will be written to when the point of use screen is in play. This value comes from the queue loader settings maintenance screen and will visually provide an indicator to the employee of where their transactions are going (in a printed status) so that they can be reviewed and reprinted if necessary.
Admin Web Site – Multiple Piece Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the drop-down values that are displayed on the various screens that allow for the entry of multiple piece information.
Admin Web Site – Personal Configuration Override Screen – Rearranged some of the values on the screen and the positions to improve the appearance of the screen.
Universal Cassette POU – Trash Tracking Modification – Added the ability to specify a default “drawer” for trash tracking scans. Previously, trash scans went into the Assist banking warehouse with no “drawer” which made the inquiry not ideal for looking them up. If a default drawer of “Wet Tissue” is created, the trash scans can be defaulted into this drawer.
Universal Cassette POU – Processor Batch Scanning – Modified the logic associated with the formatting of the processor batches on the screen. The formatting was different in the human readable format when scanning processor batches vs. when the screen initially loads.
Admin Web Site – Digital Queue Status – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the status values associated with the digital pathology queues. This is part of the digital pathology functional area of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Product Training Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the addition of the product ID field from the product master table into the front of the drop-down listing. Also provided the ability to filter the product drop down list to only display products that are missing training for sites that are trying to create records for all of them.
Admin Web Site – Product Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to provide search criteria to include the product ID and to add a toggle button to show the product ID and include it in the sort order.
Inventory Module – Receiving Tab – Reworked this tab graphically to make it more visually appealing. Added icon buttons instead of word buttons. Changed the font size to allow for more data on the screen. Added a unit cost to the data to allow for the capture of costs by lot number. Added a purchase order field to allow for the capture of purchase order data at receiving.
Inventory Module – Transaction Inquiry – Added the P/O number to the selection criteria and the detail grid. Also resolved issue with the inquiry logic that was causing the true number of rows returned to be incorrect.
Admin Web Site – Truck Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of open “trucks” from the web site in addition to the Assist truck tracking module. This is part of the freight tracking section of Assist.
Universal Slide – Embedded Slide Indicator Handling – For sites that use an embedded indicator in the cassette bar code that indicates slide protocols, there was an issue where if a specimen type was indicated that conflicted with the legacy embedded indicator, that the legacy value was overriding the specimen type indicator. Added a configuration flag to allow for the specification of which value should be in charge when there is conflict and set to be the specimen type which is the “newer” method of implementation.
Universal Cassette – Manual Mode – Modified this screen to slightly decrease the font size and increase the accession prefix drop down box width to support more complicate accession number wheel formats.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Added the phone extension field to this screen to allow for the storage of a phone extension with an employee.
Universal Module – Both Cassette and Slide variations – Employee Timeout Override – Added the ability to have the employee automatic timeout value derived from the employee timeout override table by data collection point grouping rather than the default value for the data collection point configuration.
Universal Cassette POU – Trash Tracking – Modified this routine to leave the active trash bin selection in place if the screen toggles modes between LIS formats. Previously, the value was getting lost and had to be reset when the configuration changed.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Status Maintenance – Added a flag to the status maintenance screen to allow for the indication of which status values will automatically take information over to the warehouse/banking picklist screen.
Admin Web Site – QA Error Maintenance – Added a field for Case Value Metric. This data will allow for a value to be entered that would subtract from employee efficiency tracking on cases when workflow/case load credits are being calculated.
Warehouse – Modified the warehouse to allow for alternate ending/starting characters on the protocols inside the bar code in case more than one type of delimiter exists.
QC Module – Modified the maintenance screen tab to include the case value metric that was created as indicated in the change list above.
Print Center – Processor Bin Labels – Created this screen to allow for the printing of processor bin labels for sites that are going to print processor bin labels.
Admin Web Site – Processor Bin Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of processor bins. These bins are being introduced as an alternative to grossing processor batches that are used to track the cassettes processed by a grosser prior to being sent to the tissue processor room. This allows the actual “bins” to be tracked for easier and more accurate release into the tissue processor equipment.
Scoreboard – Production Microtomy Graph – Modified this graph to allow for branching and the display of distinct blocks from microtomy rather than just having the option of summing the slide counts for sites that wish to track microtomy production visually by block instead of slide.
Universal Slide – Added scan classifications to the screen. These allow for different scan “codes” to be controlled by the employee to classify their scan transactions by a different category without switching configurations. This provides a better method of logging microtomy scans as “regular”, “recuts”, “Special Stains”, etc. In older versions of Assist, this was controlled via a configuration switch. This simplifies the method and allows the employee control over their transactions.
Universal Slide – Unique Tracking Value – Resolved issue where the unique tracking slide counter was getting default to a value of “2” on the first slide instead of “1”. While technically still unique, this was not the intended result. It has been corrected.
Admin Web Site – Employee Timeout Override – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of custom “auto logout” transactions for the various data collection groups.
Admin Web Site – Scan Classification Override – Created this screen to allow for the creation and maintenance of scan classification overrides. These are the various scan codes that can be logged by the modules of Assist for a specific data collection point and allows an employee to place their transactions under a scanning category or grouping. The values maintained here can be shown as choices on the data collection screens.
Universal Cassette – Added scan classifications to the screen. These allow for different scan “codes” to be controlled by the employee to classify their scan transactions by a different category without switching configurations. This provides a better method of logging grossing scans as “regular”, “gross only”, “more tissue”, etc. In older versions of Assist, this was controlled via a configuration switch. This simplifies the method and allows the employee control over their transactions.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Details Maintenance – Modified this screen to include the Purchase Order Number and Item Cost fields to allow for expanded tracking of the individual inventory items that are held and tracked in the inventory module of Assist.
Doctor Module – Warehouse Request Tab – Modified the warehouse request to include the “material requested” drop down to allow for the specification of what materials are needed (e.g. slides, blocks, both, etc.).
Admin Web Site – QA Severity Maintenance – Added an “Informational” flag to the severity table to allow for the capture of purely informational QC messages that do not carry any form of error severity assignment to them.
Admin Web Site – Digital Queue Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of digital queues. These are part of the digital pathology feature set inside Assist that is utilized in the doctor module.
Admin Web Site – Diagnostic Source Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of diagnostic sources. These are part of the digital pathology section of Assist and relate to the various artificial intelligence algorithms that could be used to “auto diagnose” cases prior to their presentation to a doctor for verification.
Admin Web Site – Diagnosis Cross Reference Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen as part of the digital pathology artificial intelligence section of Assist. This table allows for the listing of cross reference values for AI engines to be mapped to diagnosis values inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Visit Reason Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of reasons for a visit. This is part of the Assist Welcome module that can be used for unattended lobby features.
QC Module Extra – Acknowledgements Generate QA Information – Modified the manufacturing QC module to allow for an acknowledgement with comments/notes to automatically be mapped to a QC message inside the quality control tab.

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March 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Rework Status Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen as part of the rework tracking of Assist to allow for the specification of the status values that can be associated with a rework request.
Admin Web Site – Material Status Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen as part of the sample testing module of Assist that keeps track of inbound materials that are submitted to a facility. This maintenance screen is for the values of individual material items.
Admin Web Site – Rework Reason Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of rework reasons. These reasons are used to keep track of the reasons that rework has been performed.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of material submission types. This is part of the Assist sample testing module and represents the types of material submission types that could occur (reference testing, drug studies, etc.).
Inventory Module – On the various tabs, the product master label was labelled as product in some places and item in the other. Modified to make them all the same.
Admin Web Site – Welcome Board Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of welcome board types. This is part of the Human Resources section of Assist where welcome boards and in/out boards can be placed in the facility. This allows the employees to specify WHICH type of welcome board is being created.
Admin Web Site – Welcome Board Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of welcome boards. These are the human resources display boards (ex. Welcome to facility, In/Out boards) that can be displayed around the facility.
LIS Interface Module – Added the Slide Duplicate, alternate description, and Extra Notation fields to the client maintenance tab. Also added a refresh button to allow for the reloading of the entire client screen from the database.
Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Added the slide Duplicate and Extra Notation fields to the client maintenance screen. Also added an Alternate Description to allow for an alias for the practice (such as a listing of doctors) to be maintained.
Universal Module – Demographics tab – Added the button to allow for the display of the client production values screen. This screen will allow for a number range of accession numbers to be applied to a client as their production totals. This can then be used to indicate the volume of cases to be processed in the lab in Scoreboard.
Inventory Module – Modified all of the tabs in the inventory module to include the product code to allow for the retrieve of the inventory items by codes if known. This allows for speedier selection from the drop-down lists.
Inventory Module – Inventory Requests – Added a created user and created date to the database write transactions. This allows for the capture of who actually created requests in case the creator and date do not match the actual requester and date requested. Also disabled the requested date to remove the ability to “back date” unless someone is allowed to do so.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Added the External Number field to the screen to allow for the specification of a “vendor” product number for an inventory item. This field is displayed when the product is received and can be captured at this point, but if it is a static number, this allows for it to automatically be loaded.
Inventory Module – Maintenance Tab – Modified this tab to include the external product number field. This allows for the specification of a “vendor” product number for an inventory item. The same change was made to the web version of the inventory maintenance screen.
Accessioning Module – Interface Pop Up – Modified this screen to enable scanning. The scanner routine on the main screen is disabled and the scanner will interact with the pop up screen to allow for the scanning of doctor bar codes.
Inventory Module – Product Number – Modified the receiving tab to retrieve the external product number field from the inventory master when the selection is made. Additionally, the routine checks the inventory sourcing table to see if there is a specific vendor external product number when the vendor is specified.
Inventory Module – Replaced all of the “word buttons” with icon buttons for module-wide consistency.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Maintenance – Included the writing of the created by user and date to better allow for analysis of when requests are made and by whom.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Report – Included the created by user and date on this report for analysis of when requests are made and by whom.
Inventory Module – Receiving Label Print – Added the print date as a variable choice to print on the inventory label. Also provided the ability to suppress the decimal points on the quantity via the configuration for sites that only stock inventory in whole numbers and not decimals to cut down on visual clutter.
Admin Web Site – Welcome Board Employee Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the welcome board/employee cross reference table. This table is part of the human resources in/out board and allows for the assignment of which employees should show up on which in/out boards.
Admin Web Site – Error Message Maintenance – Case Hold Reason – Added a drop down to this maintenance screen to allow for the assignment of a case hold reason for error messages that would indicate that a case hold should be placed when the error message is used. Also added error severity to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – LIS Patient Verification – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the LIS Patient Verification table. This table is used as part of the quality/patient check.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Lot Status Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the Inventory validation logic inside the Assist inventory module. These status values allow for the capture of a status associated with an inventory log that has been received (e.g. Quarantined, Rejected, Accepted).
Admin Web Site – Inventory Type Maintenance – Test Kit Flag – Added the test kit flag to the inventory type maintenance screen to allow for the specification of an inventory type as being test kits.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Validation Steps Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the inventory validation logic inside the Assist inventory module. These steps represent all of the validation steps that are part of the SOP for validating an inventory item at receiving. These steps can be associated with individual inventory items as needed to show the “test plan” for validation.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Validation Assignment – Create this screen as part of the inventory validation logic inside the Assist inventory module. These assignments are the assignment of validation steps to individual inventory items.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Validation Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of validation templates. For inventory control purposes, some items must be tested and validated before they can be issued to production. This screen allows for the creation of templates of validation steps that can be applied to inventory items.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Validation Template Details Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the detail steps associated with an inventory validation template.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Results Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the results of test kits. For facilities that perform resulting from test kits (ex. infectious diseases) this allows for the possible results (e.g. Positive, Negative, Inconclusive, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Welcome Board Transactions Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of welcome board transactions. These would be when guests log in and out of the Assist welcome module that is used inside the lobby area of facilities.
Admin Web Site – Welcome Board Transactions Report – Created this report to allow for the display of welcome board transactions that are logged by the Assist Welcome module.
Welcome Module – In/Out Board – Added a timed check of the in/out board database table. This allows the Assist IN/OUT board to automatically reflect transactions if they did not happen inside the board module itself.
Admin Web Site – Truck Tracking Report –Created this report to provide detailed tracking over the truck tracking data that is collected via the Assist truck tracking module for sites that make sure of this feature.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Tracking Report – Created this report to provide a detailed view of the data captured via the test kit tracking module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Tracking Summary – Created this report to provide a summarized view of the data captured via the test kit tracking module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Test Kit Flag – Added a check box to the client maintenance screen to allow for the marking of a client as a test kit client. This provides the ability to filter client lists to only include clients that are relevant to the test kit tracking module and reduce visual clutter.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Test Kit Flag – Added a check box to the specimen type maintenance screen to allow for the marking of a specimen type as a test kit specimen. This provides the ability to filter specimen type lists to only include specimens that are relevant to the test kit tracking module and reduce visual clutter.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Lot Status – Production Allowed, Returned, and Destroyed Flags. Added these three flags to the inventory lot status screen. This provides additional flags to indicate the dispensation and status of lot issues. These are used when a lot fails validation and is marked as a status other than “ready for production”.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of test kit templates. These are used to hold the definition of a test kit and are used in the Assist sample testing (test kits screen).
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a flag for Test Kits to mark a prefix as one that can be used for test kits for filtering purposes in the Assist test kit tracking modules.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Template Details – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the test kit details records. These are the detailed components that make up a testing template and are used in the Assist sample testing module.
Admin Web Site – Test Tracking Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the assignment of a status value from a long-term standpoint to a test kit tracking record. This would reflect the ultimate diagnosis from a patient standpoint with a test kit tracking transaction. Examples would be things like: Recovered, Fatal, etc.
Admin Web Site - Test Kit Tracking Report – added patient age and gender to this report.
Test Kit Tracking Module – Created this new screen/data capture routine as part of the Assist sample tracking module. It can branch to this screen instead of the standard sample testing module. This screen provides data collection for test kits (ex. Epidemiology kits), patient demographics, etc. for dealing with inbound infectious disease test kits.
Admin Web Site - LIS Patient Verification Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the LIS Patient Verification data that can be loaded via interface and is required for client/patient verification.
Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Full Quality Check flag – Added this flag to the client master to allow for the marking of a client as requiring a full quality check. When specimens are encountered that belong to a client with this flag set, additional quality logic can be imposed in some of the Assist modules.
Admin Web Site – Storage Unit Type Maintenance – Created this screen to provide for the ability to maintain storage unit types as part of the Assist recipe tracking module. These represent to types of storage units. For example a case of bottles, a keg, a barrel.
Admin Web Site – Storage Unit Maintenance – Created this screen to provide for the ability to maintained storage units. Storage units are the containers used to contain a recipe batch (ex. Cases, Bottles, Kegs).
Admin Web Site – Storage Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of storage status values. This is part of the Assist recipe tracking module and would include status values such as: In Use, Empty, etc. Any value that might be used to indicate the status of a batch inside a storage unit.
Admin Web Site – Reading Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reading types. Reading types are things such as Temperature, Specific Gravity, etc. It is part of the recipe tracking module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Ingredient Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of ingredient types. These are used in the Assist recipe tracking module and represent groupings of ingredients (ex. Hops, Grain, Reagent, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Inventory Category Maintenance – Recipe Category Flag – Added a recipe category flag to the inventory category table. It allows for inventory categories to be marked as recipe categories to filter inventory types and inventory items in the recipe tracking module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Ingredient Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of ingredients. These are the items that are used in the manufacture of recipes inside the Assist recipe tracking module. They tie directly to inventory items if purchasing and/or inventory control are being utilized.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Allow Inventory Validation Flag – Added this flag to the security maintenance screen to allow for the specification of which employees have the right to perform inventory verification/validation for sites that are using the inventory control module.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Validation Step Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory validation step status values. These values are using in the inventory control validation process and indicate the status of individual inventory steps.

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April 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Sample Testing Module – Test Kit Tracking – Added the underlying condition flag to this screen to allow for the capture of this information.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Tracking Report – Added the underlying condition flag to the report.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Validation Status Maintenance – Modified this screen to include status flags of Approved and Rejected to be used as part of the process of turning a failed validation into a lot control issue. Also added a flag for Generate Lot Issue for the automated generation of a lot issue.
Inventory Module – Validations/Issues – Added a full functionality tab to the inventory module to handle inventory validations. This process is used when an inventory item is flagged as requiring employee validation to ensure tolerances and/or quality checks before the production can be introduced into the facility. This process allows for an authorized employee to either approve or reject/quarantine an inventory item. If a rejection is performed, a lot issue can be automatically generated to allow for the tracking of the final dispensation of the rejected lot.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Test Kit Equipment – Modified the equipment type maintenance screen to allow for an equipment type to be marked as a test kit type of equipment for filtering purposes in the different Assist modules.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Result Maintenance – No Result Flag – Added a flag to this maintenance screen to allow for representation of a result that is not positive, negative, or inconclusive. This value would indicate that no result exists because testing has not been performed.
Admin Web Site – Test Run Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of test run status values. These are part of the test runs that can be created via Assist Test Kit tracking and reflect the status of a equipment processer run of test kit specimens.
Admin Web Site – Test Protocol Maintenance- Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of test protocol values. These are the protocols or tests that are defined to run test kits through (ex. Covid19, SARS, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Results Summary – Modified this report to add underlying condition to the report and make it an include/suppress choice.
Admin Web Site – Test Processing Run Report – Created this report to provide visibility to test kit processing runs. This is part of the sample testing module of Assist where test kits are tracked. This report shows a summary of the various processing equipment with a detail count of the kits processed by date.
Admin Web Site – Test Processing Run Detail Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the detailed data associated with the tracking of test kits processed via the Assist sample testing module. This report shows the details of the serial number, accession number, results, etc. of the test kits that were processed by equipment.
Admin Web Site – Test Processing Run Summary Report – Created this report to provide visibility to a summarized view by date of the test kits that were processed by the various testing equipment as part of the Assist sample testing module.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Lot Issue Report – Created this report to provide visibility to inventory lot issues. This is part of the Assist Inventory module. Inventory items can be marked to indicate that they require validation. If a product fails validation, the lot number that fails is logged as an inventory lot issue. This report displays the inventory lot issues.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Lot Issue Audit Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the historical transactions associated with an inventory lot issue. Any changes to an inventory lot issue transaction are tracked and reported here.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Validation Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the inventory validations that are performed inside the Assist inventory module. If a product is marked as requiring validation, this report shows the validation steps that were performed and by which employee during the process of declaring the product as valid for use in the facility.
Admin Web Site – Visitor Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the information captured by the Assist Welcome module which is used to record visitors to a facility.
Admin Web Site – Visitor Tracking Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to provide employees with the ability to close out visitor transactions where a visitor neglected to put in a departure date when they left the facility.
Admin Web Site – Welcome Board Greeting Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the customization of the header and greeting information that can be displayed on the greeting board that is part of the Assist Welcome module to be used in reception areas.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include flags to indicate an appointment type as business, sales, or medical.
Admin Web Site – Welcome Board Type Maintenance – Added flags to distinguish a board type of appointment and access control.
Access Identification Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the types of access identification types that could be used for granting access to a facility when the Assist Welcome module is in use. Examples would be: Assist Badge, Drivers License, Key Card, etc.
Admin Web Site – Employee Access Issue Maintenance - Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the access issues that could result in an employee being denied access to a facility location. These could be items such as: Restraining orders, immunization proof, etc.
Admin Web Site – Facility Location Maintenance – Access Control Location Flag – Added this check box to the screen to allow for a facility location to have a designation as to whether or not access control would apply.
Admin Web Site – Employee Key Card Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of employee key cards. These are the various key cards that are associated or assigned to employees for use in the Assist Welcome – Access Control module.
Admin Web Site – Employee Access Issue Report – Create this screen to allow for the reporting of employee access issue information. This is the area where employee access “blocks” are recorded providing the reasons for why an employee might be denied access to a facility location.
Admin Web Site – Employee Access Issue Audit Log – Created this report to provide historical/transactional views of the employee access issue maintenance transactions.
Admin Web Site – Employee Access Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility of the access transactions via the Assist access control screen into a facility. Successful access transactions as well as denied requests are shown.
Admin Web Site – Appointment Reason Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the reasons for scheduled an appointment at a facility location. This is part of the Assist Welcome module inside the appointment greeting screen.
Admin Web Site – Facility Location Maintenance – Added flags to mark a facility location as “No Visitors” and “Requires Escort” as enhancements to the access control module of Assist. These values allow the access control module to respond appropriately.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Added the inventory code to the display grid. Also added the code as selection criteria and provided a check box to allow for the code to be displayed or hidden.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Detail Maintenance – Modified this screen to provide a check box to display or suppress the inventory code.
Admin Web Site – Notification Schedule Maintenance – Modified this screen to correct an issue where to from and to times were mapped to each other on updates. Corrected this bug.
Admin Web Site – Unit of Measure Maintenance – Added IssueQuantity and ReceiveQuantity to this maintenance screen to indicate the quantity typically received for the unit of measure into inventory and the quantity typically issued.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Listing – Created this report to provide for the ability to list the product master within criteria to have a full system inventory of items that have been created.
Inventory Module – Added the ability to print inventory labels from the release/issue screen so that labels can be generated as items are handed out, not just when received.
Inventory Module – Unit of measure/Quantity Changes – Provided the ability to pull the quantity of “packs” from the unit of measure and multiple out a quantity of a unit of measure and turn into a quantity for issuing automatically rather than the employee having to do math.
Inventory Module – Costing – Added a total cost (P/O Receiving cost) that can be divided by the actual per unit count to turn into a unit cost so that cost accounting can be performed effectively based on the tracking of the components through the facility.
Inventory Module – Inventory Transaction Inquiry – Provided the ability to suppress multiple fields on the inquiry based on the configuration for sites that do not use some fields.
Inventory Module – Options Button – Provided an options button at the top of the screen to give employees the ability to disable multiple fields to not allow entry if the fields are not used. They can be defaulted by configuration, with this option giving the ability to open up or close down the fields as needed.
Universal Module – Modified the control tab to handle Leica slide magazines differently. The logic was off on switching magazines when direct printing to a Leica. The print transaction was always coming from Magazine 1. Corrected this.
Admin Web Site – Plate Transfer Method Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of plate transfer methods. Transfer methods represent the methodology used by “pipetting” types of equipment to transfer specimens from one specimen plate to another (ex. 96 well straight map, 96 well – 384 well map).
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of plate type as part of the Assist test kit/sample module. Plate types are the types of specimen plates with well counts that can exist in the facility (ex. Deepwell 96, Extraction 96, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Transfer Rules Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the transfer rules with plates inside the Assist test kit/sample module. These rules allow for the indication of which plates can be specified as transfer targets for another plate.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of the status of test plates as they pass through a facility in the test kit module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Plate Processing Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of the processing status of a plate through equipment (ex. Open, Processing, Completed, etc.) so that a plate can be tracked through processing.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Storage Location Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory storage locations. These are physical places (ex. Bins, closets, rooms, etc.) to which inventory items could be issued instead of tracking directly to an employee.
Admin Web Site - Test Plate Interface Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of test plate interface status values. These status values are used for sites that have an interface for test plates and equipment and can indicate whether or not an interface batch has been processed/loaded (ex. Open, Pending, Completed).
Welcome Module – Access Control Feature – Added an expansive feature to the Assist Welcome module to handle access control. The module can be used to allow for the scanning of credentials at an access door and credentials can be validated to ensure that the employee is allowed inside a facility and keep track of the employees and/or visitors (assuming they are allowed) that passed through an access door. If an interface is in place, this can be used to work with existing system badge/access door technology.

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May 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Inventory Module – Added the ability for inventory issue transactions to be sent to a facility location and inventory storage location inside of a facility location to support the concept of issue inventory items to other locations instead of employees (ex. Bins and/or Kanban support).
Inventory Module – Modified the label tab process so that any manually printed inventory label transactions get written to the tracking table for visibility of what labels have been printed, when, and by whom.
Facility Location Maintenance – Modified this screen to include filters for selecting only product locations and equipment locations to make for each of entry of information and to reduce confusion.
Inventory Module – Inventory Transaction Inquiry – Modified the inventory inquiry for transactions to include the facility location and storage location.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Tracking Number Report – Modified to include the lot number, inventory code and quantity that were printed on the label when it was printed.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Transactions Report – Created this report to provide visibility to all of the inventory transactions that have been performed in the inventory module.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Storage Location Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the inventory storage locations that exist in the organization. It can be used to see the structure that has been created and can also be used to list all inventory items and quantities across the enterprise.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Quantity On Hand Report – Created this report to provide improved visibility of the inventory quantity on hand across products and storage locations.
Admin Web Site – Plate Transfer Maintenance – When test plates are transferred from one plate to another, a plate transfer transaction is created in Assist to show the plate chain of custody of the specimens. This maintenance screen allows for changes to be made to the automated transactions that were created inside the sample testing module if necessary.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Type Maintenance – Added HumanReadableStarts field to this table so that the changing of the test plate type inside the module can adjust the starting bar code values “on the fly” to create more flexibility.
Admin Web Site – Plate Processing Protocol Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of plate processing protocols. These are the protocols that can be assigned to a plate when being submitted to a piece of equipment for processing.
Admin Web Site – Transfer Method Map Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the transfer method mapping that can be applied by equipment during the processing of test plates. These are part of the Assist sample testing module. Examples would be 96 well straight map, 96 – 384 Quant mapping, etc.
Admin Web Site – Plate Transfer Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the plate transfers that can be done via the Assist sample tracking module. These transfers are when test plate specimens get moved from one plate to another.
Admin Web Site – Plate Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the lowest level of data associated with test plate tracking. It displays the specimens that are loaded into each well, the equipment it touched, and the results.
Admin Web Site – Plate Tracking Summary – Created this report to provide the same visibility as outlined above for the plate tracking report but provides summarized views of information.
Admin Web Site – Plate Location Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the locations where a plate has been placed or where chain of custody has been transferred. This can be as part of an equipment transfer or a holding action such as placement in a freezer/refrigerator.
Admin Web Site – Plate Equipment Utilization Report – Created this report to provide visibility of the capacity of a piece of test plate processing equipment. It provides total capacity of the equipment compared to the specimen utilization of the plates that passed through the equipment to indicate whether or not equipment is being utilized efficiently.
Admin Web Site – Plate Transfer Rule Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of transfer rule types. Transfer rule types can be applied to equipment and plate transfers to establish the ability to have transfer equipment process plate specimens differently based on the rule types.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Transfer Rules Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the various types of rules that can be applied to plate transfer transactions. When used with the rules types, it allows for the logical representation of all of the various types of equipment/plate configurations.
Admin Web Site – Plate Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of test plates. This can be used to changed the status of plates or perform high level clean up of plates, but cannot really impact the contents of a plate from a specimen assignment standpoint.
Admin Web Site – Plate Chain of Custody Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the “lifespan” of a plate. It indicates an originating point for the plate and every person and piece of equipment (and temporary storage location) where the plate was touched or processed. This includes showing the plates that a plate turned into over the course of various equipment processing steps.
Assist Scanner – Disposal Bin, Allows generic numbers – The disposal bin transactions previously were required to be loaded in the disposal bin database. This change allows for on the fly numbers to be assigned as disposal bin tracking.
Admin Web Site - Test Plate Interface Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the “header” information associated with any test plate interfaces that might exist. These are utilized if a site has a interface between Assist and a plate testing instrument.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Interface Detail Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the detail information associated with test plate interfaces. This detail level information would contain the various specimens that are passed into Assist via an Test Plate Instrument interface.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Interface Results Report – Created this report to show the results information associated with test place interfaces. This is only relevant for sites that have an interface between Assist and a Test Plate Instrument.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Results Maintenance – Cross Reference – Added a cross reference so that any data being brought into Assist via a test plate results interface can be mapped to the Assist Test Kit results maintenance.
Admin Web Site – Plate Processing Status Maintenance – Completed Status – Added a “completed” value to be used to allow for a plate to be marked as completed as opposed to closed.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Tracking Report – Results Description – Added the results description to the test plate tracking report to provide visibility to this information.
Inventory Module – Inventory Release bar code change – Modified the inventory release tab so that the bar code printed on the release label can include the storage location if configured to do so to automatically determine which storage location the data represents.
Inventory Module – Added a data push into the inventory storage location transactions table to show the various transactional level data going into the inventory storage locations to have audit log capability.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Storage Location Assignment – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the indication of an assignment of a storage location to an employee and/or workstation. This is used inside multiple Assist modules to allow for a workstation to be “tethered” to an inventory storage location. This is valuable when tracking inventory usage when the inventory storage location is not inside the inventory item bar code.
Manufacturing Module – Inventory Storage Location Logic and Defaults – Modified the Assist manufacturing module to understand inventory storage location assignments and also storage locations included in the bar code so that inventory can be consumed appropriately systemically.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Storage Replenishment Levels – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of inventory storage replenishment levels. Replenishment levels are different from reorder points from an inventory storage standpoint. Reorder transactions involve order more product from the outside, whereas replenishment involves refilling a storage location (ex. Kanban).
Admin Web Site – Inventory Storage Location Transactions – Created this report to show the various inventory transactions involving storage locations. These include replenishment transactions as well as inventory usage during processing. It provides visibility and an audit trail of inventory items coming into and out of a storage location.
Admin Web Site – Plate Next Transfer Report – Created this report to provide a single plate transfer transaction. While it can show specifically what the next plate was for a plate, it is more useful for identifying what plates NEVER got transferred into another plate.
Admin Web Site – Plate Results Summary Report – Created this report to provide plate result summary information. This allows for the reporting of counts of results by equipment, plate, date, etc.

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June 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Vendor Maintenance – Added a wildcard name search to allow for simplicity in retrieving vendors by providing a name filter. Also added a vendor abbreviation field. The screen field for name was stopping at 30 characters even through the database held 60, so expanded this.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Default Manufacturer and Vendor – Added these two values to the inventory maintenance screen so that a default for each can be specified.
Inventory Module – Modified the Receiving tab to load the manufacturer and vendor from the default if they exist.
Distribution Module – The routine that looks up the doctor overrides for the distribution location was not using the correct index over the LIS Interface table and also was not factoring in the active flag when performing the retrieve.
Inventory Module – Label Print – Modified the label print routine to allow for the inclusion of a label header on the labels.
Inventory Module – Maintenance tab – Modified the maintained tab to include the default vendor and manufacturer.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Accession Tracking Report – Added Inventory Code to the selection criteria and also placed into the detailed grid of result data.
Inventory Module – Physical Inventory Tab – Added a tab to the inventory module to allow for the capture of inventory adjustments associated with cycle counting or physical inventory types of transactions. Added functionality to perform these transactions at the inventory warehouse and storage location levels.
Accessioning – Flip Code for Delimiters – Added the ability for the accessioning module to work with delimiter values for auto flipping between number wheel symbology.
Admin Web Site – Lab WorkFlow Times Report – Reorganized this report to be more visually appealing in the lineup of the criteria on the screen.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Log – Modified this report to include the collection points as a drop-down choice along with the collection point groups. Previously the collection grouping and reporting groups were the only choices.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Modified the case hold reason to provide several fields that allow for the emailing of case hold information. A notification type was added along with minutes. The minutes can be used to email any holds that have been in place for the number of minutes. Also added an auto clear check box to allow for a case hold to be automatically deleted by the interface utility if necessary.
Interface Utility – Case Hold Auto Clear- Added a routine inside the interface utility (robot) to check for the auto clear setting and delete case holds if they are assigned to a reason that has an auto clear when the robot job runs.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Transaction Report – Modified this report to include the inventory department to reflect the times that an inventory issuance is done to a department rather than an employee.
Inventory Module – Allowed for an inventory department to be selected for the issue of inventory items instead of just an employee.
Admin Web Site – Unit Of Measure Maintenance – Added Stock Quantity to the screen to allow for difference between receiving quantity, issue quantity, and stocking quantity inside the inventory module.
Inventory Module – The refresh button was not refreshing/reloading all of the drop-down lists on the screen. Corrected this so that all lists were reloaded.
Universal Module – Auto Flip – Modified the auto flipping logic to allow for the successful auto flip between bar code formats that have delimiters in them and bar codes that start with object identifiers.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Quantity On Hand Report – Modified this report to include warehouse locations with indented storage locations for quantity on hand. Added criteria for the warehouse locations. Added criteria for inventory categories, types, and items. Also added criteria for the lot numbers.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Reorder Unit Of Measure – Added the ability to maintain a separate reorder unit of measure. This field will be used by the reorder agent that is part of the Assist inventory module.
Inventory Module – Maintenance Tab – Added the reorder unit of measure. This provides the ability to specify a different unit of measure to be used by the reorder agent when making automatic reorders.
Inventory Module – Reorder Tab – Modified this tab to include the reorder unit of measure to allow for a different unit of measure of a product to be specified by the ordering agent.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Reorder Report – Unit of Measure – Added the new reorder unit of measure to this report to provide visibility.
Inventory Module – Reorder Tab – Modified the inventory master drop down boxes to filter to display only products that have automatic ordering enabled. Including all products is pointless because they are included in the reorders anyway.
Interface Utility – Inventory Reorder – Created the inventory reorder interface robot. This job can be loaded to run in an automated fashion and generate inventory orders based on reorder points.
Manufacturing Module – Training Notes – Modified the display of the products assigned to a manufacturing order. Allowed for the display of training notes in an abbreviated form. Provided a button to generate a pop-up box that shows all of the notes if necessary.
Admin Web Site – Checklist Tracking Report – Rearranged the selection criteria to make the screen more visually appealing. Also added the machine name as a selection criteria choice.
Inventory Module – Inventory Orders Tab – The order quantity was not allowing quantity values over 100. This was stopping changes from being made (like changing status) on these orders.
Inventory Module – Inventory Inquiry Tab – On the available stock view, removed entries from the grid when they are zero.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Maintenance – Added the ingredient and manufacturing flags to allow for the introduction to manufacturing orders and the tie in of “recipes” to inventory control.

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July 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

HL7 Interface – Modified the routine so that the cassette identifier could be pulled from the OBR 20.2 segment if needed rather than the SAC segment by sending application.
Inventory Module – Provided for the ability to scan inventory labels where the tracking number is in the bar code instead of the inventory number itself.
Admin Web Site – MFG Order Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing order status values which are used in the manufacturing order section of the inventory module.
Admin Web Site – MFG Order Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing order type values. These are used in the manufacturing order section of the inventory module.
Admin Web Site – Call Reason Summary Report – Modified this report to allow for the include/exclude of the client in the summary data. This is part of the Assist Customer Service/Call Tracking module.
Print Center – Disposal Bin Labels – Modified this label print screen to provide for the ability to specify duplicates in case more than one of each label is needed. Also introduced print templates so that the X/Y coordinates, font information, etc. is exposed to the Assist administrator(s).
Admin Web Site - MFG Order Transactions Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the various transactional changes that have been made to a manufacturing order.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Transactions Report – Fixed an issue with this report that was causing the selection criteria to not work correctly.
Admin Web Site – MFG Order Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the manufacturing orders that have been created as part of the manufacturing orders feature set inside the inventory module.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Report – Modified this report, which is part of the warehouse or banking module of Assist. Cleaned up the selection criteria to make more visually appealing. Added the “bin number” and “storage cabinet” to the data details and added the bin to the criteria.
Inventory Module – Maintenance Tab – Modified the maintenance to enforce that an inventory type must be specified.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Modified this screen to enforce that an inventory type must be specified.
Admin Web Site – MFG Order Employee Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing order employees. When manufacturing orders are being tracked inside Assist, there can be a scenario where only certain employees are authorized to create specific order types. This screen allows for the filter of which employees are authorized to “fill” manufacturing orders and can go all the way down to the order type level.
Admin Web Site – Object Type Maintenance – Modified the object type maintenance screen. A capacity value has been added to allow for the ability of specific types of objects (Bins, carrying cases) to be limited based on the capacity of “child” objects they can hold.
Scanner Engine – Disposal Bin Capacity – Added the ability inside the main scanner engine to keep track of the capacity of “carrying” objects or bins. An example of this functionality would be the tracking of the vials of infectious disease that are stored in trash bins where there is a finite amount of room inside the bin.

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August 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Order Type Migration – Created this screen to allow for the migration of one order type to another. Sometimes, duplicate order types might get created for doctor add on orders and specimens are getting entered against both of them. This screen allows for the migration of all orders to another order type so that one of the types can be subsequently cleaned up (e.g. deleted).
Admin Web Site – Recipe Maintenance – Finished Goods Inventory – Modified the recipe maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a finished goods inventory item to be associated with the recipe. This is the inventory item that will be stocked into inventory when the recipe is made and is only relevant if Assist is being used to track recipes (ex. Reagents).
Admin Web Site – Recipe Steps Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe steps. These are the steps that are used in the creation of manufacturing order recipes.
Print Center – Accession Bin Labels – Print Templates – Added the print template drop down to the accession bin labels screen so that template labels can be changed as needed by the lab.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Bin Report – Created this report for sites that are storing scanned bins in the Assist warehouse. This report provides visibility to what accession objects are stored in which storage bins inside the warehouse.
Print Center – Disposal Bin Printing – Modified this routine to resolve an issue where the description and the bin number were not printing correctly when auto number was being used.
Accessioning Module – Modified the chemical assignment routine to not write a chemical assignment unless a valid chemical value is selected and an assignment type is defaulted.
Accessioning Module – Accession Batch modifications – Modified the accessioning module to allow for the tracking of accession batches. This involves scanning the “bin” that accession numbers go into to create a batch. The batch can be displayed as it is built and the accessions can be tracked.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Batch Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe batches.
Interface Utility – Accession Alias Fix – Created this utility to help with the LIS interface process inside Assist. This utility looks for any entries where an accession alias prefix was provided without an accession number (which would typically be an error) and clears the erroneous data if found.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Results Interface Report – Modified this interface report to include the display of the reporting employee.
Accessioning Module – Modified the LIS Interface pop up screen. Enforced a rule that if an alias prefix is specified, then an alias accession number must be specified to cut down on unintentional data entry.
Admin Web Site – Test Kit Results Maintenance – Minimum Storage Days – Added the minimum storage days to this maintenance screen to allow for the specification of how long to keep specimens based on the results.
Object Storage – Storage Tracking – Added the cabinet to the transaction grid to provide more information visually.
Scanner Engine – Disposal Bin Duplicates – Added a feature to allow for a disposal bin scan to be ignored if is a duplicate of a bottle that is already contained in a disposal bin. This is needed with capacity tracking for disposal bins turned on. An accidental double scan of a specimen container can cause false capacity.
Admin Web Site – Scanned Batch Detail Report – Modified this report to support the reporting over the accession bin information including the deleted values.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Step Ingredients Maintenance – Create this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe step ingredients records. These are used to keep track of what sub-component inventory items are used in the creation of recipes.
Admin Web Site – Ingredient Maintenance – Show Product Code Choice – Added this checkbox to the ingredient maintenance screen to allow for the display (or not) of the inventory code in front of the inventory description to accommodate sites that use inventory codes with their inventory database entries.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Batch Component Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe batch components. These are the details of recipe batches and represent the specific instance of the ingredients assigned to a recipe batch.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Issue Severity Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment issue severity records. Equipment issues represent the severities associated with equipment issues such as printers jamming, etc. This is part of the preventative maintenance/equipment tracking section of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Issue Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment issues. Equipment issues represent instances of problems that can occur with equipment such as “Printer Jammed”.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Issue Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment issue status. These records allow for the association of “Open, Pending, Closed” values with equipment issues.
Interface Utility – Test Kit Results Interface – Created this utility to allow for the interface between Assist and testing machinery. This particular interface is used to pull back Covid results from Hamilton RNA machines to allow the infectious disease Assist specimen warehouse to have visibility to the length of time a specimen should be retained.
Admin Web Site – Ingredient Maintenance – Stretched this screen out visually to improve the appearance and added a description search to the criteria.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Step Ingredients Maintenance – Stretched this screen out visually to improve the appearance. Added a check box to allow for the “recipe code” to be displayed in the front of the recipe description for sites that use codes.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Maintenance – Added a check box to allow for the display of the inventory code in the finished goods inventory drop down listing for sites that use codes on their products.
Admin Web Site – MFG Lot Control Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of MFG lots. This is used to set the sequential order that lot numbers will be used when handling manufacturing orders.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Category Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen categories. This provides the ability to stratify specimen types for filtering on screens and for reporting purposes.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – added a drop down for the specimen category so that specimen types can be broken up into categories for reporting purposes.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Suppress Cassette Print Flag – Added this maintenance choice to allow for cassette printing to be suppressed by the universal cassette queue for specific specimen types.
Universal – Cassette POU – Molecular Extra Default Option – Provided a check box to allow for the automatic retrieval of a default “extra” notation to the screen for sites that make use of molecular processing with the extra notation.
Universal Module – Cassette POU – Specimen Type Suppress Cassette Print – Provided the ability to have cassette printing suppressed inside the module based on the specimen type. This allows for specimens to be “grossed” at a standard station that might not need cassette printed in a specific workflow for that type of specimen.
Universal Module – Slide POU – Truncate after logic – Added logic to allow for extraneous data to be ignored in a slide bar code after encountering a specific character value that is specified in the configuration.

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September 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Universal – Cassette POU – Void Button – Added a void button to the cassette POU screen to allow for a technician to indicate that a cassette that was printed did not actually have tissue inserted.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Issue Tracking Report – Created this report to allow for the reporting over equipment issues. Equipment issues allow for the capture of equipment related “annoyances” than are not technical break/fix or preventative maintenance issues, but are things that need to be addressed. An example would be the jamming of a slide/cassette printer that needs to be tracked for vendor feedback purposes.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the addition of a “notes” field to explain fully what the configuration type represents from a business perspective. Added the notes to the selection criteria along with the ability to search by configuration number. Also added the ability to sort the listing by configuration number rather than sort order to assist in finding the right data.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Category Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the specimen category metrics associated with histology. Counts of processed categories are provided.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Time Report – Modified this report to show the Accessions, Requisitions, Bottles, Cassettes, and Slides that were processed by the employees for the time buckets captured in Assist by the login/logout transactions.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Type Maintenance – Requires Validation – Added this field to the recipe type maintenance screen. This will be used to allow for a recipe type to be marked as whether or not it requires validation before it can be used in production.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Batch Validation Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of recipe batch validation status values. These are used for keeping track of whether or not recipe batches have been validated.
Admin Web Site – Quality Control Reporting – Show Time – Added a check box to the screen to allow for the display of the date AND time of the QC note.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Batch Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the entry of validation user, date, and status. This information will typically be captured in Assist client software but this modification provides the ability to override and/or view as needed.
Print Center – FDA Class 1 Label – Created a screen to allow for the creation and printing of FDA Class 1 labels.
Admin Web Site – Error Message Maintenance – Added an “Active Only” choice to the selection criteria to allow for filtering out of inactive error messages.
Universal Cassette – Void Functionality – When a cassette was voided, it was left in the list of cassettes unchecked. This meant that moving to the next case would alert the user to a missed object. Modified so that a void transaction checks off the cassette to eliminate this behavior.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Suppress Prefix – Created this maintenance screen for sites that use the office queue to allow for specific accession prefix wildcards to be suppressed from transactions.
Main Scanner Engine – Modified the main scanner application to write the configuration number that is active to the transaction log to be provide troubleshooting to how transactions were created.
Universal Module – Modified this module to write the configuration number that is active to the transaction log to be provide troubleshooting to how transactions were created.
Accessioning Module – Modified this module to write the configuration number that is active to the transaction log to be provide troubleshooting to how transactions were created.
Distribution Module – Modified this module to write the configuration number that is active to the distribution log to be provide troubleshooting to how transactions were created.
Warehouse Module – Modified this module to write the configuration number that is active to the transaction log, warehouse log, and distribution log to be provide troubleshooting to how transactions were created.
Check In Module – Modified this module to write the configuration number that is active to the equipment tracking log to be provide troubleshooting to how transactions were created.
Inventory Module – Manufacturing Work Order Printing – Added the ability to print work orders to the manufacturing work order section of the inventory module. This provides the ability to have printed tracking orders for the creation of sub assembly orders.
Accessioning Module – Shipment Tracking – Active Flag – Modified the accessioning module to de-activate any shipment tracking records that might be active on a subsequent transaction via the accessioning module. A fresh record will be created if necessary.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Tracking Detail Report – Added the active only flag to the criteria in this report for the new active flag added to the shipment tracking table.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Tracking Summary Report - Added the active only flag to the criteria in this report for the new active flag added to the shipment tracking table.
Admin Web Site – Grossing Notes Office Queue Report – Created this report to allow for analysis of grossing notes creation compared to the creation of office queue assignments. In some labs, grossing notes are created and closed out by the grosser. The screen offers the ability to send the notes to transcription via the office queue. This report shows the number of times the grossing notes are closed by the grosser vs. a different employee (e.g. Transcription).
Admin Web Site – Diagnosis Priority Maintenance – Priority Value – Modified the diagnosis priority maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of a priority value. This can be used to numerically rank and score diagnosis information associated with the doctor module.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of the SlideImaging field to categorize equipment into slide imaging (digitizing) equipment.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Cross Reference – Modified the equipment maintenance screen to include a cross reference field to allow for the marriage of the Assist equipment database and a vendor database to support interfaces.
Admin Web Site – Digital Pathology Queue Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability maintain digital pathology queue data. If a digital record gets submitted to the queue and needs to be modified, this screen allows for those transactions.

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October 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Object Tracking Report – Added the ability to show manufacturing tasks via an “opt in” check box on the report. Also added the ability to display the prior facility location that was scanned for the object. Also applied the filter to only show “Product” facility locations to cut down on visual clutter in the drop-down box.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Allow MFG Orders – Added this setting to the main employee maintenance screen to allow for the indication of which employees are involved in manufacturing orders.
Admin Web Site – Digital Pathology Employees – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the indication of which employees are eligible to be involved in the assignment of cases via Digital Pathology. This supports the ability to subdivide the doctors in a facility to note SOME of them can receive digital cases while others do not.
Specimen Complexity Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen complexity. This allows for a metric value to be associated with a complexity that can be assigned to a case (ex. High, Medium, Low).
Specimen Type Maintenance – Specimen Complexity – Added the complexity value to the specimen type maintenance screen to allow for a “default” of complexity at the specimen level.
Admin Web Site – Digital Pathology Queue Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the digital pathology queue transactions. This shows the accession numbers that have been imaged.
Admin Web Site - Employee Scan Log Report – Group Criteria – This was originally engineered to be the reporting groups instead of collection point groups, but this was confusing, so it was changed back to be collection groups.
Admin Web Site – Digital Pathology Queue Audit Log - Created this report to provide visibility to the digital pathology queue transactions that are reflected in the audit log for the digital pathology queue. This shows all of the maintenance transactions that have been performed over this screen.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Media Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen media types. As a split between digital and glass media types are introduced with digital pathology, this table allows for a break down of the different types of media.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Log – Added check boxes to opt in/out of showing the pieces, notes, grossing, embedding, microtomy information columns. This allows for the end user to trade information for processing speed.
Main Scanner Engine – Added the functionality to allow for the capture of equipment issue tracking from inside this module of Assist. This expands the ability to capture equipment failures that would be of an “inconvenience” nature rather than a true maintenance scenario.
Universal Module – Cassette Point of Use – Added the safety acknowledgement functionality to the cassette point of use tab. This had already been done on the slide point of use tab.
Admin Web Site – Accession Notes Maintenance – This screen did not include all of the fields in the database that have been added over time to support changes to the various modules. Updated the screen to include all fields and reorganized the screen to be more appealing visually.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Module – There was an issue with accession notes and the way they were being displayed. Corrected this issue and also added the filter to allow for Doctor Module Alerts to be used as an “only” filter.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Facility Location – Added a facility location to the client configuration maintenance screen. This allows for a station to be matched to a facility location to enable the capture of “zone” scans to indicate in what facility a specimen was in while being scanned. This is helpful in tracking physical location of a specimen and is typically used in true manufacturing facilities with multiple locations and/or “hold areas” where WIP might get stored.
Manufacturing Module – Client Configuration Facility Location Interaction – Added the ability for the facility location and “zone tracking” to be written to the database automatically based on the matching of the module, configuration, and computer name.
Universal Module – Slide POU – Checklists – Added the functionality for checklists to the slide point of use. This is used to capture things such as water bath temperature at user login.
Universal Module – Cassette POU – Checklists - Added the functionality for checklists to the cassette point of use. This is used to capture things such as where or not a grossing station was cleaned at login.
Universal Module – Grossing Information – Fast Key Tweaks – Made multiple small changes in the manner that the fast keys work and slightly adjusted the visual display of the grossing information screen to make it more logical.
Universal Module – Fast Key Definitions – Added a button to the grossing information screen to allow for a display of the fast keys (alt key combinations) that Assist listens to and display the details associated with the functions performed by the key combination.
Universal Module – Grossing Information – Added a fast key of ALT-F to position the cursor to the end of the grossing notes and press the space to allow for immediate entry.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Template Maintenance – Modified to add an “Only All” check box to allow for the display of tasks in the template that are not assigned to a department. Previously, with the department not specified, ALL tasks were displayed, not just the tasks that were not assigned to “All”.
Quality Module Extra – Found an issue where an inactive user badge could still log into the application without triggering an error. Corrected this.
Quality Module Extra – Added the capability for performing the writing of object tracking records to display facility location scans when objects are scanned normally.

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November 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Doctor Module – Fast Keys Definition – Added a button to the doctor module screen to allow for a display of the fast keys (ALT/CTRL key combinations) that Assist listens to and display the details associated with the functions performed by the key combination.
Doctor Module – Up/Down Arrows for moving medical codes up and down in a listing on the diagnosis tab.
Sample Testing – Test Plate Disposal Tab – Added a tab to the test plate screen inside the sample testing module. From this tab, a test plate can be scanned. It reflects all of the accession numbers that have been assigned to the test plate. It then supports the scanning of a disposal bin. Upon clicking the button, the accession numbers in the plate are transferred “into” the disposal bin and are “filed” in the wet tissue warehouse to reflect the vials that went through the auto pipette process as being held for destruction in the specimen storage area.
Doctor Module – Accession Notes Tab – Modified so that the newest accession note is selected in the grid after loading it so that the information is displayed in the detail area without having to click a row to see it to speed up access/visibility to the information.
Admin Web Site – Facility Location Maintenance – Show Record Number Checkbox – Added this to the screen to allow for the display of the facility location number for ease in creating scan sheets to be used in the various modules.
Admin Web Site – Report Tab – Feature Finder – Added the feature finder button to the report tab.
Admin Web Site – Material Status Maintenance – Added the ReturnStatus checkbox to the screen to allow for a status to be marked as a return status.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Status maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of material submission status values which are used to track the status of detailed level submission data.
Test Kit Tracking Module (Covid) – Modified the chain of custody tab so that equipment can be associated with a chain of custody transaction. This accounts for situations where equipment is being used at a location and a “plate” is passing through the equipment and needs to be tracked.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Transfer Report – Modified this report to handle transfer activities where it is vial/plate and there is no beginning plate. Just changed the original plate to display as N/A in that scenario.
Sample Testing Module – Tracking Tab – Added selection criteria to the tracking tab to allow for submission details to be displayed in a drop-down box for the active package submission and then allow for filtering via the refresh/retrieve button.
Sample Testing Module – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Created this tab to allow for the display of the submission master grid to show the status and over due information on the screen.
Admin Web Site – Client Type Maintenance – Modified this screen to include a check box to allow for the designation of a client type as sample testing or not.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – Added the client type to the selection criteria to allow for the filtering of clients.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Type Maintenance – OverDue Days – Modified this screen to include the overdue days field to allow for defaults to be established at the submission type level for how long a material submission package should be on site before it is returned.
Accessioning Module – Modified to allow for enforcement of the shipment tracking information.
Admin Web Site – Shipment Tracking User Volume Report – Created this report to provide summarized counts of the number of times that shipment tracking data is captured by employee and date.
Universal Module – Grossing Information – Added a hot key to position to the end of the clinical information text area on the press of the Alt-H keyboard combination.
Admin Web Site – Plate Transfer Method Maintenance – Quan Quant Map Flag – Added this flag to provide the ability for a different mapping methodology for sample testing plate mapping. This one supports the mapping of 4 96 well plates to a single 384 well plate.
Universal Module – Cassette POU – The tool tip on the print button was incorrect. This was changed to “Print Cassettes”.
Admin Web Site – Transfer Method Map Maintenance – Added the Source Quadrant field to the maintenance screen to allow for the mapping of the method map information.
Admin Web Site – Employee Screen Report Listing – Created this report to provide the ability to audit employees and what reports/screens they have assigned rights to access.
Admin Web Site – QA Severity Maintenance – Font Color – Added font color to the maintenance screen to allow for the color coding of severities for enhanced visual display on screens.

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December 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Shipment Tracking Exceptions – Created this report to provide visibility to the number of accession numbers that are missing shipment tracking records.
Universal Cassette – Office Queue Review Process – Some labs use an automated job to create office queue transactions based on Accessioning. As cases are grossed, the office queue transaction can be automatically closed. Added logic so that if the automated robot to create office queue transactions has not run before the case is grossed, to create a placeholder transaction to put an “already closed” office queue transaction into the office queue so that the robot will not create on Open status item retroactively.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Report – Added the CreatedMachine to this report to provide visibility to what computer generated an office queue transaction.
Interface Utility – Accession Office Queue – Added the CreatedMachine to the utility. Also added logic to add office queue transactions with a status of “closed” if grossing notes already exist when the job runs.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue History Report – Added the CreatedMachine to this report to provide visibility to what computer generated an office queue transaction.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Listing – Created this report to provide visibility of the Assist modules and the machines that are activated.
Universal Point of Use – Cassette – Specimen Complexity – Added the ability to show the specimen complexity for the specimen types.
Scoreboard – Doctor Order – Order Category Filter – Added a configuration option to allow for the filtering of the order categories that will be shown by the doctor order scoreboard.
Inventory Module – Speed Inventory Request Entry – Created this screen to provide a speed entry option of capturing inventory requests. This complements the full inventory request process for sites that want to expedite this process for employees that have less training and/or technical proficiency.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – TIQ Reason – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for case hold reasons to be marked as TIQ reasons for filtering. Also added Case Hold reason codes to the maintenance.
Universal Slide POU – Modified to include a check box for the auto printing of doctor orders.
Universal Cassette POU – Patient verification – Made the screen narrower to better fit monitors. Added logic to allow for the specification of a case hold from this screen with the hold reasons filtered by the TIQ Reason flag. Keydown commands were added to allow for the Function keys 1-10 to look at the reason codes. Alt-V presses the verify button and ALT-H presses the case hold button.
Doctor Order Closeout – Add On Only – Added a checkbox to the selection criteria to allow for filtering based on the add on only flag that has been added to the order master table.
Case Finder – Location Identifier – Added location identifier to the selection criteria in this module to support the Pathway LIS.
Universal Slide POU – Doctor Order Default View – Provided the ability for the default view when the screen launches to be the view of doctor orders.
Universal Slide POU – Slide Count Total – Modified the slide count total value to reflect any doctor orders that got printed in addition to standard records.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Detail Maintenance – Added a “starts with” check box to pull values that start with a value as opposed to being a complete wildcard search.
Admin Web Site – Order Master Audit Listing – Modified this report to include the add on order flag.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Listing – Modified this report to include the add on order flag.
Admin Web Site – Medical Code Dictionary – Created this report to provide a full listing of the medical codes. This is useful in providing a review of the codes that have been created in Assist.
Warehouse Module – Drawer Capacity Tracking – There was an obscure issue that could happen where if the last slot filled in a drawer held an “outbound” transaction, the “next slot” would reflect that outbound slot, but if you tried to scan into it, it would rightfully indicate there was already something there. Fixed this to count the slot even if the slide/block was out of the building.
Stain Queue – Modified the screen to clean the buttons up and have them represent as “Assist standard” image buttons instead of large “text based” buttons to be more visually appealing and standard.
Issue Tracking – Modified the screen to include an expected LOE and an actual LOE.
Admin Web Site – Print Template Type Maintenance – Label Type – Added the label type check box to the screen to allow for the designation of a print template type as a paper label type.
Accessioning – Automatic Bottle Printing – Added label templates to the accessioning bottle print screen and set so that a scan of the requisition bar code will automatically fire the screen to allow for expedited on demand bottle labels.
Universal POU – Patient Name Clear – Found an issue where if a case is scanned that retrieves a patient name, then a second case is scanned that does NOT have a patient name record….the original patient name stays on the screen and can inadvertently print on the slide. Set this to clear if a patient record was not found.
Universal POU – Cassette Bulk Print Screen – Cache Version – Modified this screen to handle the ability to drop files off in addition to being a direct print.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Laboratory Case Value – Added this field to the screen so that a case value from a laboratory standpoint can be added to a specimen type for the calculation of metrics.
Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Complexity – Added the ability to handle the capture of specimen complexity when a specimen is processed.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Information – Extended this report to include the laboratory case value, the complexity description, and the complexity value for sites using this report to help in specimen metric value calculations.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Test Kit Destruction Report – Created this screen to provide visibility to the test kits that are stored in the “warehouse” that are beyond their minimum storage days based on test kit results. This ties into the visual purge “button” that will be added to the filing screen to show when purges have not been performed, but should.
Admin Web Site – Object Type Maintenance – Minimum Storage Days – Added minimum storage days to the object type table so that blocks, slides, etc. can have a minimum storage day kept so that purge/destruction notifications can be tracked.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Destruction Picklist – Created this report to provide visibility to objects that are beyond their storage threshold for destruction. Test kit storage (e.g., infectious disease information) is shown separately since the storage requirements are often tied to the test kit results.
Object Filing – Storage Tracking Screen – Purge Button – Added a visual button on the screen along with a count to provide the employees working in the warehouse area with a visual queue to let them know that purging needs to be done.
Admin Web Site – Order Status Maintenance – Transmission Status Flag/Active Flag – Added an active flag to the order status table to allow for the marking of status values as inactive. Also added a “Transmission Status” check box to allow for the marking of a status as a transmission status for sites that have doctor order interfaces.
Admin Web Site – Order Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of order interface types. These are part of the new doctor order interface options and provides a way to classify the interface types.
Admin Web Site – Order Interface Location Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance over the order interface location database table. This data allows for the assignment of the location associated with an order interface.

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January 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Universal Slide – Added a flag to allow for the “Override Patient” check box to be hidden. Also added a flag to allow for slides to not be printed if the patient name is not found for sites that require the interface between Assist and the LIS be active.
Case Finder – Modified this utility to include visibility on the snapshot tab to disposal and accessioning bins that might be associated with an accession number. Also added the ability to suppress any user login information if the module is being used without requiring employee log in.
Case Finder – Modified this utility to include visibility to warehouse transactions and bin detail storage via separate tabs.
Case Finder – Modified this utility to include the ability to capture look up transactions in a audit trail database table to have visibility to what cases are being research by what employees.
Admin Web Site – Case Finder Audit Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the employees and what cases are being researched.
Admin Web Site – Object Disposal Report – Cleaned up the criteria to make more visually appealing.
Accessioning – Added the ability to capture specimen complexity inside the accessioning module.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Maintenance – Specimen Complexity – Modified this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the specimen complexity information.
Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Maintenance – Modified this screen to allow for the capture of a “magazine notation” that would be a value that can be printed on a slide to indicate the magazine that the slide was printed from.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Storage Transactions Report - Created this report to provide visibility to the warehouse storage transaction data.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Case Hold Reason Category – Added the case hold reason category to allow for the grouping of case hold reasons.
Admin Web Site – Object Tracking Report – Manufacturing Task View – Modified this view to include the manufacturing task description in addition to the task number and also added the task scanning employee to augment the user ID.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Category – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reason categories. These allow for case hold records to be grouped for reporting and selection purposes.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Complexity Summary – Created this report to provide summarized views of specimen complexity information.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Maintenance – Comments – Modified this maintenance screen to include the comments fields.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Report – Comments – Added the comments field to this report and cleaned up the selection criteria to be more visually appealing.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold History Report - Added the comments field to this report and cleaned up the selection criteria to be more visually appealing.
Admin Web Site – Acknowledgement Type Details Maintenance – Font Color – Added the font color to this screen to allow for acknowledgement messages to be displayed in color. Also a silent flag to determine whether or not the acknowledgement makes noise when shown.
Admin Web Site – MFG Employee Defaults Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the MFG Employee defaults data. This allows for customization of routings.
Inventory Module – Label Validation – Created a label validation process. This was needed due to sporadic print quality issue with zebra label printers. This modification allows for the immediate scanning of an inventory label after printing it to verify that it works before putting into the facility.

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February 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site - Material Submission Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of material submission templates. These templates are used inside the receiving module of Assist for keeping track of materials sent by clients to a reference lab and to codify the idea of “standard” inbound combinations of items.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template Details – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the detailed items associated with a material submission template.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Print Template – Added the print template designator to the order type maintenance screen to allow for the association of a different “look” to a slide based on the order type.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Print Template, Type Abbr, Default Printer – Added the above fields to the material type maintenance screen to better support the printing of labels for each type of material that can be received and tracked inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Employee Daily Work Statistics – Cleaned up the criteria on this report to make them more visually appealing. The From/To time were not getting factored into the report correctly and this was fixed.
Admin Web Site – LIS Patient Verification Maintenance – Modified This screen to include the new fields for address1, address2, body site code, body site description, city, state.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Items Not Returned – Cleaned up the criteria area of this screen to make it more attractive and added a formatted accession number field to the report.
Universal Module – The routine that calculates the elapsed time on an auto logout was not terminating correctly if the scan type was changed manually to record scan transactions against a scan type other than the type that was originally there when the screen was launched.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Audit Report – Created this report to allow for an auditing of accession numbers that pass through the various modules of Assist that do not have a matching record in the LIS Interface table. This is useful for sites with an LIS interface to provide visibility to the number of interface failures.
Accessioning Module – Modified this screen to allow for the capture of courier information in the shipment tracking screen for sites that want to track inbound specimens by courier or to mark them as courier vs. Carrier (Fed Ex/UPS, etc.). Also added automatic version updates at compile time.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report – Modified the employee button to increase the speed of retrieval for the employees that performed scan transactions within the criteria.
Admin Web Site – QC Error Employee Assignment – Added an Export button to this screen.
Admin Web Site – Label Validation Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the label validation transactions that are performed inside the Assist Inventory module.
Issue Tracking Module – Modified the issue tracking screen to allow for the specification of whether or not an issue is billable for reporting purposes.

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March 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site - Issue Log Report – Created this report to provide a listing of the issues that have been recorded in the issue tracking module.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Interface Lag Report – Created this report for sites that use the Assist HL7 interface. It shows the date/time that the interface routine dropped the data into the database and calculates the minutes between the drop of raw data and the parser loading it into Assist for use and averages out the minutes by the number of transactions to give some “heartbeat” data.
Admin Web Site – Courier Maintenance – Added a “show record number” choice to the top of the screen to allow for the display of the record number.
Admin Web Site – Report Maintenance – Description Search – Added this criteria to the screen to allow for filtering.
Admin Web Site – Screen Maintenance – Description Search – Added this criteria to the screen to allow for filtering.
Accessioning Module – Activation Error Tracking – Added a new routine to capture any activation errors to the Assist database to make it easier for the Assist team to run down activation issues.
Accessioning Module – Personal Configuration Overrides – Extended this feature to also fire on manual login. It was previously only working for scanner login. Put in full “fall through” logic where it checks for Employee/Machine, then if not found, Employee, then if not found, machine.
Universal Module – Cassette POU – Modified the patient verification routine to make sure that if full verification is done on a multi-part case with the “close on verified” check box selected, that the screen actuall closes. This was not working in all cases.
Universal Module – Cassette POU – Manual Bottle Entry – There was a way that the accession number was getting thrown off in manual entry mode and the last digit of the accession number was falling into the specimen part. Fixed this issue.
Admin Web Site – Assist Activation Error Report – Created this report to provide visibiity to the assist activation errors that are now being recorded when an Assist error is generated.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Request Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the stain requests that are coming across from the PathQuest LIS. This is a raw audit log of the data.
Admin Web Site – Product Training Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibiilty to the tracking of product training information. Training links can be clicked from the manufacturing module of Assist and this new reports shows how often the product training information is accessed.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Protocol Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the accession numbers that are distributed and the protocols that are included.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Default Request Quantity – Added this field to the maintenance screen. This allows for a defaulted quantity on the inventory request screens.
Inventory Module – Added the ability to default the quantity to the inventory request screens based on the new value added to the inventory master file. Also provided the ability to disable the status drop down boxes on the requests screens to reduce the chances of errors by eliminating the abiilty to change the data. Also put logic in place to stop anyone from “back dating” the NEEDED date on an inventory request.
Print Center – Scanner/Form Connect/Release – The print center module allows for multiple child screens to be launched inside the module. If more than one screen makes use of a com scanner, the screen would lock the scanner until closed preventing it’s use in another screen. Modified to allow the clicking to set focus on the screen to release the scanner from the “old” screen and connect the scanner to the “new” screen.
Inventory Module – Inventory Inquiry – Fixed issue where the inventory code was not getting added to the detail grid when the configuration indicated that it should.
Doctor Closeout – Addressed an issue for labs with the Pathway LIS. There were issues with manually adding doctor orders manually for a prior year when in a new year (for recuts and such). Fixed this issue.
Object Filing Module (Warehouse) - Scanner/Form Connect/Release – The warehouse module allows for multiple child screens to be launched inside the module. If more than one screen makes use of a com scanner, the screen would lock the scanner until closed preventing it’s use in another screen. Modified to allow the clicking to set focus on the screen to release the scanner from the “old” screen and connect the scanner to the “new” screen.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Type Maintenance – Plate Designation – Added this drop down to the screen to allow for a default plate designation (i.e. Covid, Flu, etc.) to be specified when a plate type is used. This will allow for defaults on the screens.
Test Kit Tracking – added logic to handle the printing of plate designations on the plate labels and wrote them to the database so that different types of plates could be shown visually through a PCR type lab with plates.
Admin Web Site – HL7 Specimen Matching Inquiry – Added the wildcard field to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Test Plate Designation – Created this screen to handle the maintenance of test plate designations.
Print Center – UDI Labels – Print Template – Extended the UDI label screen to add the print template logic to allow for simple end user label customization.
Print Center – Class 1 Labels – Print Template – Extended the Class 1 label screen to add the print template logic to allow for simple end user label customization.
Admin Web Site – Client Type Maintenance – Clinical Research/Histology Check boxes – Added these two check boxes to the client type screen to allow for further classification of client types.
Admin Web Site – Order WorkFlow Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of order workflows. These are used inside the sample testing module to allow for different laboratory workflows and the tracking of the steps.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Routing Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the workflow routing that specific order types take as they move through the laboratory.
Print Center – Badge Printing – Modified this routine so that if the Assist logo image is missing from the computer, the badge will print anyway but there will be no logo. Historically, if the logo file was left off the computer, they could not print badges.
Print Center – Transport Bin Labels – Created this screen to allow for the printing of transport bin labels.
Universal Module – Doctor Orders – Rush Criteria – On the retrieval of doctor orders on the criteria screen, the “Rush” orders check box had a typo and was not pulling back data. Corrected this issue.
Main Scanner Engine – Transport Bin – Added the ability to scan into a transport bin from the main scanner engine. This gives the ability to associate the scanned object with a transport “vehicle” that will be used to move that object to another location in the facility.
Scoreboard – Material Routing Board – Created this scoreboard view to serve as a notification to different room inside the facility when an object has been created that is awaiting their retrieval for processing. The best example is the sample testing module where material arrives for testing and this board can be used to alert the different departments that material needs to be retrieved.
Admin Web Site – Material Routing Report – Created this report to display the material routing around the lab for sites that receive inbound test material and then route it differently based on the reference testing that needs to be performed.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Order by Description – Modified this maintenance screen to allow for the sort order to be changed for the client configuration records from sort order to type description.
Admin Web Site – Scanned Batch Type Maintenance – Object Type – Added the ability to tie the object type to the scanned batch types.
Admin Web Site – Batch Facility tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the movement of scanned batches across the various locations in a facillity. An example of a scanned batch would be something like an Accessioning bin or the container that requisitions are placed in. This can be identified and scanned as they move around.
Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Type Override Issue – Identified and fixed a bug where changing a specimen type for the “non A” specimen could delete the “A” specimen type. Corrected this issue.

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April 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Accessioning – Specimen Type Drop Down – Font Color – Changed the drop down on the accessioning specimen type screen so that it can display the drop down font in the color that matches the specimen types.
Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Accession Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the detailed stain queue accession number data via the web site. This allows sites to handle this maintenance without having to provide access to the stain queue module.
Accessioning Module – Modified to include batch type when pulling back batch data for the sites that are making use of scanned batches.
Scanned Batch Report – Batch Type – There is a criteria drop down for batch type on this screen. It was discovered that the batch type being shown was not the SCANNED batch type but rather was another type of batch that was not relevant for this data. Corrected this issue.
Main Scanner Engine – Enforce Scan Order – Modified the screen to allow for the Enforce scan order to be disabled so that it can be seen, but employees cannot override it.
Sample Testing – The protocol display screen for placing orders against inbound specimens was not ordered by sort order OR by order type description. Put the sort order in place.
Inventory Module – Inventory Request Speed Entry – Added an employee drop down to the screen in case an employee does not have a badge. The drop down positions based on badge scan or user entry. This value gets saved to the employee requested field.
Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Cross Reference Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the interface of Assist with different LIS platforms. This screen allows for tying of different cross reference values to the various magazine values.
Admin Web Site – Assist Rotator Maintenance – Description Criteria – Added this filter to the top of the screen to make it easier to get to the information needed.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Details Maintenance – Cleaned up the critiera at the top of the screen and added the ability to suppress the product number and vendor description from the view. Also added the inventory code as a display option.
Inventory Module – Inventory Requests – When a link is performed from the requests tab to the release tab.....when the inventory item is positioned, if there is only one active detail lot, go ahead and position the drop down to this item to save that click event since it is only choice instead of positioning to Not Specified.
Inventory Module – Inventory Release Tab – There was a bug with the auto print of labels due to a change in the underlying database table. No error was produced but labels were not printing. This has been resolved.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Reference Code – Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for an additional form of specimen type interface where the code to be associated with the specimen type is hard coded into cassettes and needs a way to tie the disparate systems together.
Universal Module – Reference Codes/Specimen Types – Added logic to allow for the mapping of reference codes from the bar codes for sites that support this feature, to the specimen type.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Report – Issued Quantity – Added the issued quantity to this report to provide visibility to the requested quantity vs. The issued quantity.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Request Maintenance – Issued Quantity – Added the issued quantity to this maintenance screen to allow for it to be modified when performing maintenance over
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Modified this screen to only show configuration types that are active. Previously all configuration types were shown. This change was actually made to the global routine that loads the configuration type drop down, so this impacts any/all screens that show configuration types.
Admin Web Site – Plate Next Transfer Report – Modified this report to include the plate type that is shown on transfer transactions to provide more meaningful data.
Admin Web Site – Object Request Priority Maintenance – Added font color to this maintenance screen to allow for customization of object requests to show different colors based on different priority values.
Warehouse Module – Object Request Alert Button – Added a seperate screen to allow for warehouse requests to show a count as a little “button” inside the overall warehouse screen to alert employees to the fact that warehouse records exist.

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May 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Inventory Module – Inventory Release/Request Interaction – Added functionality to the inventory release screen to tie inventory requests to the release process to make more a more streamlined process of closing inventory requests.
Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Data Staging Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen as part of the Assist electronic sales tags. This allows for the sending to tag data to the display panels. This will normally be done via a module, but this would be used for emergencies.
Admin Web Site – ESL Link Staging Maintenance –Created this maintenance screen to allow for the tying of electronic sales tags to accession numbers. This will normally be done via a module, but this would be used for emergencies.
Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of teh various types of ESLs that are in use.
Admin Web Site – Order Closeout – Updated to include a “select all/unselect all” option when in the status change only mode. Also fixed a flaw with the screen refreshing when in status change mode.
Universal Grossing – Modified the routine to bring forward the cassette magazine/hopper based on the specimen type mapping to the block instructions table.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – IHC Print Flag – Modified the slide recipe section of this screen to include an IHC Print Flag to allow a specific protocol record to be marked as needing to be routed specifically to an IHC printer.
Universal Slide – Override Magazine – Added a check box to the screen to allow for a “hard override” to only print to the magazine specified. If the magazine is not visible (because it was not a magazine printer), it will be ignored.
Universal Slide – Override Specimen Magazine – Added a check box to the screen to allow for an override of the magazine when protocols are used. By default, the magazine pulls from the protocol details. With this check box selected, the magazine will be pulled by default from the specimen type instead. This handles the issue where magazines are really driven by the client or color of the specimen instead of always pulling from consistent magazines.
Universal Slide – IHC Print Flag – Added this check box to the slide recipe details section of the screen. This is used to indicate an override of the protocol detail to print to the “IHC Printer” for sites that are using the universal slide print screen.
Distribution Module – List Prefixes change – Modified the method used for loading and tracking prefixes. Previously, they were loaded at the “header” level and then a call was made to the database to get details when they were needed resulting in multiple rounds trips to the database. This change loads the data at screen load and references it when needed from the initial load to reduce round trips to the DB and increase speed.
Inventory Module – Maintenance Tab – Inventory Code – The first time the inventory code field was used, it positioned the drop down in the selection criteria area correctly. After this first time, after saving data, the inventory code was not right. Cleared the search criteira after save to resolve the issue.
Admin Web Site – Case Rush Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of case rush types. These types were created to categorize the case rush values that could be specified to allow for better reporting and management of rush lists.
Admin Web Site – Case Rush Maintenance – Case Rush Type – Added the case rush type to the case rush master file to allow for the categorization of case rush values.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Picklist Status Maintenance – Warehouse requests have been fleshed out further inside the warehouse module. This included more detailed information involving picklists. This screen was created to allow for picklist status values (ex. Open, Pending, Closed) to be associated with warehouse picklist items.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Organization Maintenance – Warehouse organizations were added to the warehouse picklist information. This was done so that a picklist item can be associated with an different organization (ex. Internal, Iron Mountain)
Warehouse module – Warehouse Requests – A new warehouse requests screen has been added inside the warehouse module to allow for the capture and display of warehouse requests. This requests can also be automatically sent to picklists.
Admin Web Site – Material Request Maintenance – Object Flags – Added object flags to the material request screen. This allows a material request value to specificially refer to a tangible object inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Allow Inventory Request Flag – Added this flag to the security maintenance screen to allow employees to be enabled for the inventory request drop down. This allows for filtering of drop down values to reduce accidental selection of the wrong employees.
Inventory Module – Speed Inventory Request – Allow Inventory Request Filter – On the “Speed Request” version of the inventory material request screen, added the ability filter employee drop downs to only include employees that have been marked as inventory request employees.

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June 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Universal Slide Queue – Added an override magazine to the screen – Put this value on the screen to allow the slide queue routine to override the logic associated with protocols and specimens. For example, if a magazine is broken in a printer, it may be necessary to “re-route” traffic to a different magazine.
Scanner Engine – Case Component – Group by and added color to the specimen type node. Visually adjusted the way that case component data is displayed to allow for color coding in the tree view.
Universal Slide – Added case components logic – The same case component (chain of custody) information that is visible in the main scanner application was added to the universal slide POU screen and is accessible via a checkbox.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Picklist Maintenance – Adjusted the warehouse picklist process to allow for picklists to be saved. Previously, they were just printed “on the fly” from selected data. The adjustment to actually save them as database objects made it necessary to provide a screen to override or adjust them.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Type Maintenance – Return Required. Added a checkbox to the material submisson type to allow for the default of the return required value. This is part of the sample testing module of Assist,
Admin Web Site – Order Workflow Maintenance – Default Facility Location. When an order workflow record is created (ex. Histology, Flow, PCR, etc.), this modification allows for the physical location in the facility associated with the workflow to default.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template Details – Default Print On. Modified the material submission template details screen to include a check box to “default print” different objects. For sites that perform sample testing and receive objects from clients that have to be labelled, this routine allows for the creation of placeholders for this objects without printing labels if needed and to reduce having to actually click the buttons to select them.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Bottle Flag – The material type maintenance screen was changed to include the ability to mark material types (ex. Slide, block) as bottles as well.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – OverDueDays Field. Added the overduedays field to the client master maintenance screen. This allows the client to have a defaulted overdue days assignment that would override the default for the material type.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template – Workflow Number. Modified this screen to include a default workflow for a material submission template. This is part of the sample testing module where templates can be created to represent standard combinations of objects (ex. Blocks, slides, etc.) that are received on inbound testing. This change allows the workflow to default at that level as well.
Admin Web Site- Order Type Maintenance – Unstained Flag. Added an unstained flag to the order type screen, which is used for the processing of doctor orders and sample testing. This allows for unstained slides to be tracked seperately from other objects since they represent an object that can be converted into a different objects (i.e. a stained slide).
Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – PCR Flag. Modified the order category screen to include the PCR Flag. This allows for order types to be categorized to apply for that lab where needed.
Admin Web Site – Error Maintenance – Track Resolution – Added this flag to the maintenance screen to allow for indication of whether or not the error message needs resolution and should go into the resolution tracking table.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Pull Analysis Report – Created this report to show outbound warehouse/banking transactions along with when the object that was “checked out” was originally stored in the warehouse. This allows for better analysis of the data coming and going into the warehouse.
Admin Web Site – QA/LIS Interface Stored Procedures – Create two stored procedures to allow for better interface/communications between Assist and LIS platforms.
Admin Web Site – QA Resolutions Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of QA resolutions. These are the steps that have been taken to resolve a quality issue for which tracking of the resolution has been indicated (at the error level).
Admin Web Site – QA Issue Resolution Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of QA Issue Resolution records. These are generated when an error is captured in the QA system that indicates tracking is involved to determine error resolution. This screen allows for overrides and changes to the data.
Admin Web Site – Accession Printer Filter – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of accession printer filter records. This data is used to filter the printer choices shown in the universal modules. It allows for multi-site facilities to not list printers that do not exist in the facility to stop any accidental printing from the wrong data.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration – Default MFG Task/Default MFG Task Blank – Added the MFG Task and Task Blank flag to this maintenance screen to allow for machines to default to a manufacturing task appropriately when manufacturing tasks are getting tracked.
Manufacturing Module – Load Default Task Logic – Modified the manufacturing module in Assist to pull in default tasks based on what was put into the client configuration screen.
Accession Printers – Cache Directory – Added the ability to specify a cache directory at the printer level in Assist. This allows for each printer to be specified with a different network address to use for directing “drop files” that indicate what should print. Previously, this data could only be addressed via configuration.
Universal Cassette POU/Queue – Added Cache directory logic – Modified the universal cassette module to pull the cassette cache from the accession printers database if it exists. If all of the cassette printers in an environment are exposed, this value can be used to point the data as appropriate.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment setting templates. These are part of the Assist functionality to capture machine settings and represent the template or collection of variables that are going to be captured.
Manufacturing Module – User/LIS Interface Check – Added the ability in the manufacturing module to pass the LIS Interface value inside Assist to the LIS to make sure that there is a valid user in the LIS/ERP for that employee. For sites that perform task tracking, this can be critical to make sure that completed task information is getting sent back into the LIS/ERP as necessary.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Variables Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment setting variables. These are the machine variables that can be captured in conjunction with machine settings and represent all of the data elements that need to be captured. They can be combined with templates to give a list of all the data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment settings. This data represents the marriage of the equipment setting templates to the variables that can be captured.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Tracking Report – Created this report to show the equipment setting data that can now be captured using the manufacturing module.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Default Bottle Quantity – Added the default bottle quantity field to the maintenance screen. This allows for the quantity to show on the label print routine and accessioning integration to handle variable bottle quantities by specimen type.
Universal Cassette – Case Component Display – Added a screen to the side of the universal module to show all of the components for the case. This allows a grosser to have visibility to all of the specimen bottles that should exist for the case.
Accessioning Module – Automatic Label Printing – Added the ability to automatically print labels via Accessioning. As soon as a requisition is scanned, the bottle print screen is presented using the default label quantity for each of printing.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Track Resolution/Error Master interface – Added choices to indicate if a case hold reason requires specification of the resolution and allows for the mapping of case hold reasons to quality errors so that a hold can also generate a QC transaction.

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July 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Material Testing Source Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of material testing sources. This is part of the sample testing module in Assist and represents the source of testing (ex. Paraffin Block, Tissue vial, etc.).
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Extraction type – Extended the order type maintenance screen to allow for the specification of the extraction type that should be associated with an order type. This is typically used in a PCR lab and represents how the specimen should be extracted for testing.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Storage Location Maintenance – Employee Association
Inventory Module – Inventory Storage Location – Position by the requesting employee
Inventory Module – Receiving Label Print Quantity – The quantity was wrong and was pulling from the release tab quantity instead.
Material Type Maintenance – Internal Material/Increment Part Count – Added two fields to the material type maintenance screen. This allows for the determination of whether material type is internal (ex. Histology generated slides) as opposed to client submitted. The “increment” check box allows for the materials to carry the same part number (ex. 6 unstained slides all with A1 on them) if relevant.
Warehouse – Picklist Tracking – Added this feature to the warehouse module. Picklists have always been capable of being created, with the goal being to print a list of objects to be pulled from the warehouse. This feature addition gives the ability to scan against items on the picklist and track them.
Warehouse – Warehouse Request – Special Projects – Introduced the concept of “special” projects to the warehouse module. These are basically “offline” specifications of a batch of Accessions that need to be pulled that would be special project types of things.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of extractions types. These are used inside the sample testing module of Assist (specifically PCR types of specimens) where the type of extraction that needs to be performed is important to know/track.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Setting Tracking Eligible – Added the field to the equipment type table. This allows for equipment types to be specified as eligible for setting tracking which is a feature inside Assist where the tracking of what settings are placed on a piece of equipment at the time of scanning is performed.
Admin Web Site – Material Template Details Maintenance – Specimen Type/Order Type – Added the ability inside the material template details setup to specify the specimen type and/or order type to allow for expedited entry of data into the “receiving area” of the sample testing module of Assist.
Sample Testing – Material Template Details processing as outlined above. – Added the logic to the receiving process of the sample testing module to take defaulted specimen types and order types into consideration. This modification allows for expedited entry when defaults are known.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Picklist Report – Created this screen to report on the objects that were included in picklists. Previously, picklists were just a grouping of accessions that were printed but not saved, so there was no need to include the ability to report against them. Picklists can now be saved, so this reports allows for this data to be seen historically. The report can branch to show both summary and detail views of picklists.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Replication Maintenance – Number Series Order was added to the maintenance screen. This allows for the replication of specific number series inside a number wheel for sites that have an active order interface. Previously, the entire number wheel had to be included in any interface and this was limiting.
LIS Interface – LIS/PQ Interface orders load to Order Closeout. Added interface order loading into the LIS interface robot for the PathQuest LIS.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Setting Values Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment setting values. These are the values that are captured using the equipment settings features in some of the modules. This screen allows for captured settings to be adjusted as needed outside of the main scanning modules where the data was originally captured.
Interface Utility – Accession Notes Acknowledgement Robot – Created this robot to automatically close accession notes if they are open and older than the days past specified.
Universal Slide Queue – Modified to handle Alias that is missing to avoid the dash by itself. This was happening when the alias print was turned on, but there was no alias on a record when printing via the slide queue.
Universal Slide Queue – Auto Purge – Added logic to allow for the purging of slide requests by using days back settings for both active and printed status slides.
Universal Module – Demographics Tab – Client Code – The client code was missing from the patient demographics tab. Added it.

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August 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – DefaultTubeCount – Added the default tube count so that label quantities can be defaulted based on the extraction type.
Admin Web Site – Batch Type Maintenance – ExtractionBatch and PCRBatch – Added these two values to the batch type maintenance screen to allow for the designation of a batch as a PCR batch or an extraction batch.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – The Lease P/O number fields was showing null values if nothing was specified. Cleaned this to only show blanks as it should.
Admin Web Site – Micro Dissection Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of micro dissetion types. Micro dissection types are used in the sample testing module of Assist in the PCR lab area.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Master Maintenance – Recipe Code – Added this field to the selection criteria to make it easier to retrieve recipes out of the list if there are alot of them.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – Manufacturing only and Ingredient only filter – Added to the selection criteria to make it possible to filter the entries on the inventory master file by these values.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Human Text Override Field – Increased the allowed size of this field to 30 characters instead of 10. This does not impact the bar code on the slide.
Inventory Module – Label Validation Tab - Auto Load On Scan – Added a check box to allow the employee to control whether or not all label validation transactions matching the selection criteria are performed when a label is scanned.
Inventory Module – Recipe Details Lookup – Added a checkbox to allow for the choice of whether or not the recipe codes are included in the drop down box. Also added a recipe code lookup box to allow for retrieval by code.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Batch Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of extraction batch status values. Extraction batches are used inside the PCR functionality inside the sample testing module of Assist. This status values drive the statue of a batch of extractions.
Admin Web Site – Digital File Locations Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of digital file locations. These represent the UNCs where digital files can be stored and are part of the digital dashboard feature set for digital pathology inside the warehouse module.
Doctor Order Closeout – Print Log Pop up screen – The print log screen inside the doctor order closeout loaded with defaults that were different from the defaults on the selection criteria for the closeout screen itself. Made sure that the settings that were on the underlying screen came forward to the print log pop up screen.
Inventory Module – Receiving Tab – Label Quantity matches Inventory Quantity – The label quantity and inventory quantity were set so that they will be teh same thing. The inventory quantity adjusts automatically to reflect the exact number of objects that are being placed inside inventory. The label print quantity for automatic label print was staying 1. Made a change to tie the two together.
Inventory Module – Inventory Order Tab – P/O Number – Added the purchase order number field to the inventory order tab so that it can be stored with the inventory order if needed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Critical Equipment Flag – Added the critical equipment flag to the equipment type table so that critical equipment can be specified at the type level. This value will also reside at the equipment level with the type default the value.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Type Abbreviation – Extended this field to allow 10 characters instead of 5.
Admin Web Site – Digital Distribution Status – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of digital distribution status values. These status values are used to specify if a digital object (i.e., slides) are distributed or not after being placed into the digital queue by the slide imaging solution.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Critical Equipment – Added this field to the equipment master to allow equipment records to be flagged as critical for different reportiing in the Preventative maintenance module. This defaults from the value on the equipment type table, but can be overridden at the specific equipment record level.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Case Breakdown Report – The from/to accession number criteria was coded expecting a from and to number. Some of the data in the database contains bad scans which are not numeric. This was causing an overflow error. Changed the criteria to consider them alpha values.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Report – From/To Accession range and Prefix Criteria – Added prefix and from/to accession number ranges as selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Void Transaction Report – Moved the selection criteria around to make the screen more visually appealing.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Detail Report – Auto Override On Flag – Added this field to the report to provide visibility for when distribution transactions are generated with the auto override flag on to manually perform distribution.
Inventory Module – Release Label Print – The quantity that was printing on the release auto labels reflected the QUANTITY of labels and not the quantity of products contained in the release (ex. 100 screws in a bag, the quantity needs to print as 100). This was corrected.
Inventory Module – Inventory Orders Picklist – The picklist had some field overlaps if the item description was of a certain length. Redesigned the report to line up better.
Inventory Module – Transfer Tab – Storage Location – Storage Location – Added this third form of transfer transaction.
Facility Location Transactions – Moved this report from the inventory section to under lab scanning.
Inventory Accession Assignment Report – Changed the selection criteria to make the report a little more visually appealing. There were also some issues with table names that was causing the report to not work perfectly. These were resolved. Also collapsed the accession number fields of Prefix, Accession, MultiBottle, and MultiCassette into the FullAccession field.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Accession Summary Report - Changed the selection criteria to make the report a little more visually appealing. There were also some issues with table names that was causing the report to not work perfectly. These were resolved.
Sample Testing Module – Added the template definition button to allow for an inquiry to show the full definition of material submission templates that have the various components (i.e., Slides, blocks, etc). That compose a template to help the data entry employee with making the right choice.
Sample Testing Module – PCR Tab – Extraction Batch Status – Added this option to the selection criteria to help in filtering PCR testing requests.
Sample Testing Module – PCR Tab – Worklist Printing – Added the ability to print worklists and to tie the printing of a worklist to the automatic changing of the extraction batch status to reflect “on order”.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – UseConversionTracking – Added this flag to the material type maintenance screen to indicate whether or not a material type should generate conversion tracking records when processed.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – UseConversionTracking - – Added this flag to the material type maintenance screen to indicate whether or not a material type should generate conversion tracking records when processed.
Admin Web Site – Object Conversion Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of object conversion status values. These status values are used inside the sample testing module of Assist where submitted materials are “consumed” by different departments and are turned into other objects (i.e. slides submitted for PCR). These status values would be things such as “Available” and “Used”.
Assist Auto Notification Application – Created this simple application to allow for the automatic capture of various notifications with interfaces between equipment and Assist. Where an equipment vendor has the ability to launch an application at an error condition, this application can log the equipment and issue number associated with the transaction to provide detailed information about the event log types of interactions with equipment.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Listing – Critical Equipment – Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Issue Tracking Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Equipment Maintenance Module – Maintenance Tab – Critical Equipment Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the equipment maintenance tab to allow for the maintenance of that value.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Activity Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Due Report – Critical Equipment – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance History Report – Critical Equipment – Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Reports – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Missing Maintenance Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Tracking Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Retirement Report – Critical Equipment - Added the critical equipment check box to the selection criteria on the report and also included it in the body of the report detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Notification Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment notification types. These are part of the assist auto notification application and allow for the specification of the type of notification that is being generated.

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September 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Interface Module – LIS Replication Engine – Modified this engine to allow for the disabling of LIS Interface records before the routine loads new ones.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Automatic Notification Report – Created this report to all for reporting over the equipment automatic notifications. These notifications are generated by equipment agents for equipment that are being monitored.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Audit Log – Created this report to allow for reporting over the LIS interface audit data. This table holds transactional counts of the LIS interface when it is run and allows for “heartbeat” data visibility.
Admin Web Site – Rework Reason Maintenance – Cross Reference - Added this cross reference field to the rework reason table so that the data can be cross referenced to another application.
Admin Web Site – Quality Inspection Point Maintenance – Created this report to allow for the maintenance of quality inspection points. These represent physical locations in a facility where a quality check can be performed and allows for the stratification of quality tracking by location.
Admin Web Site – Digital File Suffixes Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the file suffixes that can be captured and worked with inside the digital pathology section of Assist.
Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – The digital dashboard module was created to allow for the handling of digital files on the actual digital imaging machine.
Admin Web Site – ESL Base Station Inquiry – Created this report to provide visibility to the electronic sales label base stations that are present in a facility.
Admin Web Site – ESL Change Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the ESL change log. This log reflects all of the changes to electronic sales labels.
Admin Web Site – Database Table Listing – Created this report to allow for reporting over the entireity of the Assist database.
Admin Web Site – Notification Address Maintenance – Added the notification type to the selection criteria to make it easier to view only the data that is needed. Added a description to the address so that some context or identifying information can be provided on the email address that is added.
Universal Module – Slide POU – Modified the way the “Position Protocol by Specimen” check box is handled. Changed it to set initially based on configuration and then not set it again as configurations are toggled through. This allows the user to control the settings appropriately even when toggling back and forth between the screen views.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Generate Office Queue – Added this check box to allow for a case hold reason to automatically generate a office queue transaction from inside the patient validation process.
Admin Web Site – QA Issue Resolution Maintenance – Case Hold Record – Added the case hold drop down to this screen to allow for the specification of a case hold record that is associated with a QA Issue resolution transaction.
Admin Web Site – QA Issue Resolution Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the QA Issue Resolution information.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Equipment Filtering Flag – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to allow for order types to indicate whether or not they should be tethered to equipment types. This is useful for labs that indicate what equipment was used in the processing of the order type if relevant.
Admin Web Site – Reserved Resource Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of reserved resources. These resources represent objects, rooms, etc. that can be reserved for employee use.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Date In Service – Added this field to allow for the specification of a date in service value as opposed to the date purchased, etc. This allows management to keep track of when a piece of equipment started actually being used.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Reporting – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Repair Tracking Report – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance History Report – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Due Report – Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance Activity Report - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Downtime Report - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Listing - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Missing Maintenance Report - Date In Service – Added this field to the report.
Admin Web Site – Case Void Transactions Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the case void transactions.
Admin Web Site – Order Type/Equipment Type Filter – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the assignment of order types to equipment types. This is used to filter choices of equipment that can process or run the various order types where this is tracked inside Assist.
Accessioning Module – Label Print – Corrected an issue where if a site was toggling between a “normal” LIS format label and Pathway formatted labels, that the location identifier could get “stuck” going back to normal format from Pathway causing the prefix not to load correctly.
Universal Cassette Queue – Resolved an issue where the universal cassette queue was not loading if the sort order was set to load in accession number order instead of arrival sequence.
QC Module – Login/Logout Button – Changed the icon on the login and have them both visible (but disabled) at all times.
Print Center – Flow Label – Created this label screen to allow for the printing of labels for a flow lab.
Admin Web Site - Material Type Maintenance – Order Type Added the default order type to the material type maintenance screen. This will be used inside the Assist sample testing module to automatically create default orders when material types are received.
Sample Testing Module – Delete Order Type – Fixed an issue where the “X” button to delete the assignment of an order type to a slide was not working. There was a simple typo in an SQL statement.
Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Inquiry – Created the ESL tag inquiry to provide visibility to show the tags that exist in the system. This is basically a list of the mapping between the types of tags and their MAC addresses.
Admin Web Site – Special Handling Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of special handling types. These values represent the groupings of special handling data when used with shipments from clients or holding sites.
Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Default Holding Site – Added a default holding site to the client master. This allows a client to be associated with a holding site (ex. Iron Mountain) for when the direct request of blocks/slides are being performed for testing in a reference lab.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Closure Utility – Created this utility to allow for the bulk removal of case hold transactions. A record of the removal is written into the audit log as the case holds are removed.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Reference Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen reference types. These types represent the types of reference materials that might be associated with an accession. Examples might include specimen pictures, pathology reports, requisitions, etc.
Admin Web Site – Client Maintenance – Added the capture of the last maintained date and user fields and show on the screen.
Admin Web Site – Client Interface Exceptions – Created this report to provide visibility to the client “code” values that exist in the LIS interface table in Assist that do no have a matching value in the client master file. There are three “code” fields that can be used by an Assist installation and this report allows for inquiries to be run against all of them.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen order status values. These values are used to mark open, closed, pending status on specimen orders.
Admin Web Site – ESL Event Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the data captured by the electronic sales labels event log.
Admin Web Site – ESL Log Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the data captured by the electronic sales labels log process. This data is typically messages sent to the base stations at the electronic tag level.

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October 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – ESL Label Status Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the ESL Label status information. This shows all of the technical details associated with electronic sales labels.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the specimen order type data. This data is used in the “inbound” sample testing area to deliniate the types of orders that are being received and can be tied to doctor order types if needed.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – SuppressVialLabel – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for the specification of the option to suppress vial label printing when PCR vial labels are printed for doctor orders.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Maintenance – Cleaned up the criteria to make more visually appealing. Added the current date to the from/to date criteria to reduce the likelihood of accidentally pulling more data than intended. Added a few fields to the database write for values that need to default.
Scanner Engine – Case Void Check – Added the ability for the cassette scan to check the void transactions table and refuse a scan transaction if the case has an active void transaction indicated. Also modified to write any void transactions into the void transaction table instead of simply clearing the transaction table.
Scanner Engine – Measurements – Modified the embedding scan to pull specimen measurements out of the grossing notes portion of the Assist database.
Check In Module – Case Void Check - Added the ability for the cassette scan to check the void transactions table and refuse a scan transaction if the case has an active void transaction indicated. Also modified to write any void transactions into the void transaction table instead of simply clearing the transaction table.
Inventory Module – Inventory Request Picklist – The picklist that can be printed from inside the inventory module had some column overlap if the inventory item was long. Modified the routine to pull the column positions from the configuration to allow for site by site customization and implemented this change.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Maintenance – Suppress Scoreboard – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for a task to be designated as needing to be suppressed from showing up on the various scoreboard views.
Preventative Maintenance Module – Equipment Maintenance Tab – Added the date in service field.
Admin Web Site – Rework Request Report – Created this report to provide visibility to rework requests if rework is being tracked as part of a facilities quality assurance program.
Universal Slide – Material Type – Modifed the slide print routine to allow for the printing of material type descriptions if the sample testing module of Assist is used and information on material type is being passed to the doctor order screen.
Sample Testing – Exceptions Screen – Added a summary view in addition to the normal detailed view. This provides the ability to see what exceptions give the most “bang for the buck” on clean up activity.
Sample Testing – Batch Drop Downs – Provided configuration flags to allow for the batch drop downs to be loaded as LIFO or FIFO.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Fresh/Fixed Checkboxes – Added these two check boxes to the screen to allow for the specification of whether a material type represents fresh specimen (ex. Bottles) or fixed specimen (ex. Paraffin blocks).
Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Fresh/Fixed Checkboxes - Added these two check boxes to the screen to allow for the specification of whether an extraction type represents fresh specimen (ex. Bottles) or fixed specimen (ex. Paraffin blocks).
Admin Web Site – LIS Extraction Type Maintenance – added multiple “type” checkboxes to allow for the specification of exactly what kind of exception type has occurred (ex. Client, Specimen, ordering physician, etc.)
Universal Module – Added the ability to capture the computer name when printing from the cassette or slide queue to allow for keeping track of what machine printed a cassette or slide.
Universal Module – Slide POU – Modified the way the “Auto Print Orders” check box is handled. Changed it to set initially based on configuration and then not set it again as configurations are toggled through. This allows the user to control the settings appropriately even when toggling back and forth between the screen views.
Sample Testing – Modified the notifications screen to handle facility location for filtering the available notifications based on the client configuration facility location.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Procedures Report – Created this report to allow for visibility to the LIS Procedures data that is coming over via the LIS interfaces where procedures and processing instructions are tracked.
Admin Web Site – PCR Batch Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of PCR batches.
Manufacturing QC Module – Modified this screen to provide the ability for the end usesr to opt in/out of whether or not the scanning of a manufacturing task should reposition the end user to the task scan screen.
Admin Web Site – Epredia Imager Analysis – Created this report to provide visibility to the offloaded database raw data from the Epredia digital imaging platforms for sites that make use of this equipment for digital slides and have the interface active.
Universal Slide Module – Alias Patient Lookup – Modified the patient name lookup function. If a client accession is driving the process (i.e. a client block instead of internal LIS) of printing slides, modified to also attempt to lookup the patient name based on the alias accession information.
Universal Slide Queue – Patient Color Fix – There is a feature where the accession number column in the grid can be a different color if no patient name is found. The query had a flaw that was not retrieving the data correctly.
Interface Utility – LIS Orders – Modified this routine to write to the order master audit table when it writes to the order master table.
Interface Robot – Client Load – Modified the routine that loads client data. Put a “Y/N” loaded flag on the DB so that we can keep track of which records have been loaded and a date/time of when. Also added more checks to try and stop duplicates and added a skip flag just in case.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Added a pop up confirmation button if an accession is scanned back to back without the header save button being pressed in between.
Accessioning Module – LIS Interface Heartbeat – Added the ability inside the accessioning module to have visibility to the status of the LIS interface. A button shows the last time the interface ran. Clicking the changes the screen to see the number of times the interface job has run and the counts of transactions loaded.
Universal Cassette – Bottle Scan – Modified the bottle scan transaction to allow, by configuration variable, to either reflect the cassette value that was on the screen at the point of scan OR to reflect it in the database as “N/A”.
Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Database Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the database files that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology
Manufacturing Quality Module – Rework Error Log Capture – Added logic to the manufacturing quality module to allow for the capture of errors into the database when rework entry is performed. This helps in triage of problems associated with rework entry.
Admin Web Site – Rework Request Error Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the rework request error log transactions that are being captured inside the manufacturing quality module.
Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Database Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the database files that are read into the Assist database for sites that have integraed Assist/Epredia digital pathology interface. The settings can allow for the reload of data.
Admin Web Site – Client Accession Prefix Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the client accession prefix screen. This is used as part of the process of enabling the scanning of client submitted cassettes/slides into Assist.
Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Settings Control Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance over the Epredia settings control area that handles digital scanning of slides. This maintenance screen controls the settings and profiles that are loaded from XML files into the database.

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November 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Manufacturing Module – Personal Configuration Override Logic – Added the ability to have alternative configuration settings load based on computer or employee log in value.
Universal Module – Specimen Type – The specimen type drop down was set to load based on the description field which means only alpha order. Added the sort order field in front of the alpha to allow for alternative sorting.
Manufacturing Quality Module – MFG Task/Product positioning on rework – Modified the quality module for manufacturing. Changed to have the MSP position to the correct task that was scanned against from the LIS Scheduling rather than forcing the employee to know which main sales product had the task against it.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Control Required – Added this flag to the screen to allow for the indication that a control slide is required with this protocol/stain.
Admin Web Site – Control Tissue Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of control tissue. Control tissue is part of the control tracking portion of Assist and represents the types of tissue that can be placed on controls (ex. Tonsil, Liver, etc.). These are kept seperate from specimen types to provide more functionality.
Admin Web Site – Control Pretreatment Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the creation of control pretreatment information. This data is part of the Assist control tracking feature set and represent any pretreatments that must be performed with control slides as part of antibody testing.
Admin Web Site – Antibody Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of antibody master records. This data is part of the Assist control tracking feature set and represents the list of antibody “dictionaries” that can be in place in a laboratory.
Admin Web Site – Antibody Detection Kit Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of antibody detection kits. This data is part of the Assist control tracking feature set and represents the detection kits that are part of the antibody/control methodologies used in laboratories.
Admin Web Site – Tissue Micro Array Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of tissue micro arrays. This data is part of the Assist control tracking/antibody tracking feature set. It represents the header level of tissue micro arrays where multiple tissue types are pulled from multiple tissue blocks to form an array.
Admin Web Site – Tissue Micro Array Details Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the details associated with a tissue micro array. For each TMA, there are the details of the various tissues that will make up the array. This detailed maintenance allows for the listing of the various “sub” tissues that make up the tissue micro array.
Admin Web Site – Control Prefix Maintenance – Modified this screen to better handle the control prefix maintenance. Several new fields were added. The ability to control both next slide AND next block has been included. Also the prefix data has been cleaned up to include just the character values and a number of digits and notes.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Protocol Routing – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment interface/protocol mappings. This is part of the stain tracking feature set inside Assist and represents the ability to map protocols to different staining platforms. This allows for the policing of not accidentally submitting stains to the wrong staining platform if a site has multiple equipment profiles in place (ex. Omnis, Bond, Ventana).
Admin Web Site – Control Object Status Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of control object status data. This data is part of the control tracking feature set in Assist. This allows for controls to be marked as avaialble, consumed, destroyed, etc. For sites that need to explicitly track controls and how they have been used.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Suppress Doctor Orders Checkbox – Added this check box to the material type maintenance screen. This allows for the suppression of doctor orders to be done to ensure that doctor orders are not accidentally submitted into Assist when a sample testing order is entered with a doctor order, if that material will not actually go to histology for processing (ex. Receipt of a unstained slide already with tissue).
Admin Web Site - Equipment Interface Maintenance – Default Printer and Print Log Interface – Added the ability to indicate that an equipment interface will be a “log printing” interface rather than the automatic submission of data to a staining platform. For sites that do not have an interface, but still want to use the Stain Queue functionality, this allows for the printing of this “worklist” to relieve the stain queue.
Sample Testing – Suppress Doctor Orders Feature – Added the ability to not send doctor orders into the Assist ordering portion of the application if the material type being received has been flagged as “doctor order suppressed” as outlined above under the Material Type Maintenance change.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Maintenance – Auto Close Days – Added a field for “Auto Close Days” to this maintenance screen. This will be used in the Stain Queue to indicate BY INTERFACE how far back to go for the purge of stain queue transactions that still have an open status. This is an attempt to cut down on “noise” if stains are not being released in a timely manner or have been abandoned.
Admin Web Site – Control Prefix Maintenance – Block Next Control Number – Added this field to allow for the tracking of “next block number” in order to support control block tracking in addition to stains.
Stain Queue – Modified the stain queue to support auto purging based on days back logic on the equipment interface. Also added a print log button to allow for the printing of stain queue logs. Modified the “flush” process to flush by interface type (i.e. staining platform). Added the equipment interface (i.e. staining platform) to the selection criteria to filter only one platform at a time for sites that use more than one staining system.
Universal Slide – Stain Tracking Changes – Write stain at cassette print in addition to or instead of slide scan. The unique indentifier that gets placed into the slide bar code has always worked based on the subsequent submission of a second stain against an accession/part. If multiple of the same types of protocol are issued all at once, the numeric tracking (i.e. 1,2,3 etc.) were not getting written because this generation was performed when the slide was scanned, not printed. The feature was moved to the print routine to handle this with an extra check made at slide scan to also capture if it is not there from the print.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Conflicts Report – Created this report to serve as a predictive report of when there could be conflicts with private labelling (i.e. alias values) of blocks/slides. The report will identify cases where multiple alias values have been entered into Assist so that employees can carefully review the conflicting data on the specimens to make sure that the data is accurate.
Admin Web Site – Object Type Maintenance – Uses Controls – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to allow an object type to be identified as the type of object that has controls.
Admin Web Site – Object Control Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance and creation of control objects (i.e. cassettes and slides).
Interface Utility – LIS Conflicts – Created a “robot” job to allow for the capture of LIS conflicts (as identified above under the “conflicts report”). This robot writes these same conflicts into an office queue for resolution and tracking.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Maintenance – This screen had a couple of issues with the selection criteria. The “Active Only” check box was not working appropriately. It was ALWAYS pulling active only. The prefix criteria was also being ignored.
Universal Module – Time Tracking – Abandoned Time Buckets – There can be situation where a login/logout combination of data gets abandoned which can cause spurious data with large time buckets. The logic had been put in place to to set the “to” date/time to the current date/time to reflect the active time buckets. This is causing issues with a TRUE abandoned bucket reflecting the current time as closure. Modified to ignore the time bucket based on a sanity check of 8 hours.
Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Settings Details Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the setting details that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology
Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Settings Control Report - Created this report to provide visibility to the settings control data that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology
Print Center – Requisition Label Screen – Added a check box to allow the requisition to be set as free form entry.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Request Exceptions Report – Created this report to show the exceptions that have been logged into the Assist LIS interface database table for sites that have an order request (i.e. doctor orders) interface live.
Admin Web Site – Epredia P1000 Profile Details Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the profile details that have been read into the Assist database for sites that have integrated Assist/Epredia digital pathology.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Digital Capable Checkbox – Added this option to the maintenance screen to allow for filtering of prefixes based on whether or not they can participate in digital processing.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Digital Capable Checkbox – Added this option to the maintenance screen to allow for the marking of specimen types to allow for specification of whether or not they can participate in digital processing.
Admin Web Site – Slide Protocol Maintenance – Added fields for billing code and digital capable to support automated billing and digital processing.
Admin Web Site – Login Screen – Admin Flag – The “administrator” check box under security was no longer stopping non-administrators from logging into the web site. Corrected this flaw to take performance back to the intended.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Diagnosis Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen type diagnosis information. This is part of the digital pathology portion of Assist and determines when a specimen type/protocol is expected to have an AI diagnosis before allowing for automated distribution to take place.
Admin Web Site – Diagnostic Source Version Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of diagnostic source versions. These versions would represent the different versions of the artificial intelligence engines that are used for diagnoses cases and can be used with an effective date to determine which version was “active” at the point that a case/slide was diagnosed.
Universal Cassette – Grossing Capture – Body Site Wildcard Logic over the LIS Patient Verification table – Added logic to allow for the marriage of the LIS Patient verification process to grossing notes. If the body site is provided via the LIS interface in the patient verification but the code for the site is included, this logic allows for the data to be mapped AFTER a wildcard found in the data.
Admin Web Site – Slide Protocol Maintenance – Print On Slide Field – Added this field to allow for a difference between the human readable slide protocol value and the value that is printed on the slide. Previously, there was not the option to have seperate values.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Print on Slide Protocol Logic and Sequence Number – Modified the accession slide count maintenance screen to factor in the new “print on slide” field that was added to the slide protocol maintenance table.
Admin Web Site – Conference Room Schedule Listing – Created this report to allow for the display of all meetings that are scheduled against conference rooms as part of the ESL feature set that is being introduced into Assist.

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December 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Admin Web Site – Inventory Lot Issue Report – Inventory Code Criteria – Added the inventory code to the selection criteria for this report.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – ESL Tag Number – Modified this maintenance screen to include the ability to indicate an electronic sales label to allow for PM information to automatically be sent to a tag attached to a piece of equipment.
Equipment Maintenance Module – ESL Tag Number - Modified this maintenance tab to include the ability to indicate an electronic sales label to allow for PM information to automatically be sent to a tag attached to a piece of equipment.
Admin Web Site – ESL Link Audit Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the ESL links that have been performed over time. It shows what cases have been assigned to a tag over time and how a tag has been used.
Scoreboard – Embedding Production Totals – Start/End Time – Changed the scoreboard view to allow for embedding data to show start/end times rather than just “today” or “hours back”.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Transfer to Shipping – Modified the view to send data from the inbound/outbound tab to the shipping tab.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Tied the bulk comments into the communication log. This allows for more integration of the comments from the inbound/outbound tab.
Admin Web Site – Special Character Replacement Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of special characters and how the characters can be replaced inside the various modules such as the digital dashboard.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Update Maintenance – Updated this screen to clean it up visually and to add an “Active Only” flag to the selection criteria.
QC Module Extra Module – Added logic to capture the launch of the software inside the application utilization tracking table to keep track of what computers are using the module.
Admin Web Site – Application Utilization Report – Added the machine name, com port, and version number to the report to reflect the new fields that have been added to the tracking.
Admin Web Site – Installation History Report – Cleaned up the criteria on this report to make it cleaner.
Admin Web Site – Application Utilization Report – Added an export button and added a “detail/summary” toggle to provide two different views of the data.
Admin Web Site – Auto Update Bulk Update Screen – Created this screen to allow for the bulk update of all of the data set for the auto update feature of Assist to more efficiently mark all of the records that need to be updated.
Warehouse Module – Application Utilization Tracking – Added the ability to track the launch of the module by writing records into the application utilization tracking table.
Sample Testing Module – Application Utilization Tracking – Added the ability to track the launch of the module by writing records into the application utilization tracking table.
Admin Web Site – Accessioning/Distribution TAT Report – There was an issue with the calculation on the running total. It was appending data instead of adding which was throwing off all the data on the report. Fixed this calculation issue.
Universal Module - Added logic to capture the launch of the software inside the application utilization tracking table to keep track of what computers are using the module.
Universal Slide – Doctor Order – Added a sort order choice so that an employee can have doctor orders print in order date or by accession number order.
Universal Cassette – Cassette Queue – Modified this routine to allow for the printing of specimen class information on a cassette. This ability existed in the legacy cassette queue but had not been brought forward into the universal.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Transaction Costs – Created this new report to provide a view of inventory and the transactional costs associated with the items.

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First Quarter 2022 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

Janaury 2022

Simple Print – Created the slide printing version of the simple print module to allow for direct printing as well as printing via a drop file.
Universal Slide Queue – The routine did not factor in the quantity to circle through bulk print requests with a quantity. Modified this to work correctly.
Admin Web Site – Protocol Antibody Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the connection of slide protocol records (accession slide count) to antibody records to allow for multiple antibodies to be used in establishing control protocols for a protocol.
Admin Web Site – Control Tissue Maintenance – Full Description – Added a full description field to allow for a different human readable description as opposed to the printed value for control tissue when printing controls.
Admin Web Site – Control Prefix Maintenance – Full Description and Suppress Description – Added the full descrption field to allow for a different human readable description as opposed to the printed value for control prefixes when printing controls. The suppress description choice allows for no description at all to print.
Sample Testing Module – Inbound//Outbound Tab – Added a check box for “All Material” in the detail view to allow for the suppression of material types that do not need to be returned vs. All material that was received on a package.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Holding Site Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen holding sites. These are the locations where a specimen could be held when a specimen needs to be requested for a client. This is part of the sample testing and customer service modules of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Request Rework Report – Task Scan Totals – Added external task scan totals to this report so that there is visibility to the total number of task scans that were performed by an employee on the same day as a rework was logged against the employee.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Ingredient Step Maintenance – Ingredient Code Lookup – Added the ingredient code to the screen to simplify the selection from the drop down list to keep from having to scroll through all of the ingredients if codes are used. This is part of the recipe maintenance area inside the inventory module.
Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Data Staging Maintenance – Added the MAC address, Trash tag check box, the User ID field, and the Warn flag check box to this maintenance screen to support extended functionality with the ESL tag functionality.
Universal Slide Module – Slide Queue/Number wheel protocol defaults – There was an issue with the logic where a number wheel (i.e. accession prefix) can be set to always call a specific protocol when batch printing is performed. The protocol was not pulling in all cases. Corrected the logic flaw.
Admin Web Site – Drawer Maintenance – Controls Allowed Flag – Added this flag to the maintenance screen for the warehouse drawer maintenance. This flag allows a drawer to be marked as whether or not it allows control objects to be stored (i.e. control slide and blocks).
Admin Web Site – Client Specimen Holding Site Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of client specimen holding site relationships. This is part of the sample testing module of Assist and allows for specimen holding sites to be filtered by the clients/Facilities that are relevant to cut down on the opportunity for mistaken entry.
Admin Web Site – Tissue Micro Array Maintenance – Full Description – Added this field to allow for an expanded human readable descripton for a TMA that is different from the value that will print on a control object.
Admin Web Site – ESL Tag Batch Report – Created the ESL tag batch report to provide visibility to the batch transactions that can be performed to set ESL tags. For example, if an ERP is blasting out multiple transactions to multiple electronic tags, this report shows the batches of tags that were impacted together.
LIS Interface – Truncate Right If – Added logic to the LIS Interface module when the USB scanner field is being used to input accession numbers. This modification allows for the removal of characters from the right of the input field before attempting to parse the information.
Admin Web Site – Antibody Control Mapping Report – Created this report to provide a full mapping of the antibody controls that have been set up inside Assist. This serves as the dictionary of control tissue, antbodies, pretreatments and detection kits that have been mapped into Assist.
Universal Grossing – Trash Bin Data View – Added a button to the cassette point of use screen to provide visibility to the trash bins and the data that they contain. This screen also holds the transmission button for sites that have implemented electronic tags in conjunction with trash tracking.
Universal Slide – Serial Number Matching – Created a new “flavor” of matching inside the universal slide module to support client submitted bar codes that cannot be controlled by the lab. Some clients submit cassettes and slides in a “serial number” marking paradigm and this alternate configuration allows for matching of these serial numbers to support in positive patient ID initiatives for bar codes that are outside of the ability of the lab to control or modify.
Admin Web Site – Case Rush Type Maintenance – Short Code – Added this field to allow for the entry of a “printable” code to be associated with case rush specifications to take into the cassette/slide print routines as necessary.
Admin Web Site – Case Rush Maintenance – Short Code – Modified this screen to allow for the inclusion of a short description or code to print on objects when a rush is placed on a case. This value will default from the rush type.
Universal Module – Added the bulk control entry section under the warehouse to provide the ability to create “placeholders” for bulk control entry and automatic filing into the warehouse.
Universal Module – Warehouse Tab – Added a view for controls to allow for display of any control objects that have been placed in the warehouse. Provided double click ability to see all of the details associated with the control record.
Universal Module – Warehouse Tab – Added the ability to double click the warehouse record to see all of the details associated with the warehouse record.

February 2022

Inventory Module – Label Print – Added expiration date as a choice to print on the label.
Universal Module – Doctor Order Print – Print Only Option – This was not working correctly and was making users scan the slides after printing even in print only mode.
Quality Module Plus – Rework Product Filter – Added a checkbox to the screen to allow for the filtering of the product drop down box to only reflect products that have a task scheduled against the accession number.
Admin Web Site – Rework Request Report – Cleaned up this report to reduce double records against MFG cases that have been scanned more than once for rework and then the subsequent scan to indicate successful completion of the rework transaction.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Replication Maintenance – Client Code – Modified this screen to include a client code to provide a more discreet method of replication LIS interface data between sites.
Admin Web Site – Test Plan Type Maintenance – Created this screen to provide for the maintenance of test plan types. These are part of the change control/validation process inside Assist and allows for the grouping of test plans.
Admin Web Site – Test Plan Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of test plans. These are the actual test plans that are part of the change control/validation process inside Assist and allows for the creation of mulitple test plans that can then be applied to the change control components that are tested/validated.
Admin Web Site – Batch Order Type Grouping Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of this cross reference grouping of batch types and order types. This allows for aggregation of the types of tests that would be included in a batch and is typically relevant to the PCR section of the sample testing module.
Universal Cassette Queue – Client Template Support – Made changes to the universal cassette queue to allow for client print templates. Previously, alternative templates were pulling at the prefix level OR if there was an alias record entered into the LIS Interface table. This did not work if mulitple clients have interfaces, but different cassette templates need to be available based on client. Also added an “override template” checkbox to the screen to allow the employee to de-activate the automation and always stay with a single template.
LIS Replication Robot – Client Code Filter – Added the client code to the LIS Interface Replication process to allow for the filtering of what accession numbers are replicated at the client level from inside the number wheel process. This is entered via the change made to the LIS Interface Replication maintained outlined earlier in this document.
LIS Replication Robot – Days Back Unusued Purge – Put logic into the replication robot to allow for the concept of a “days back” purge. The robot calculates the number of days back from this value, then looks for any LIS Interface records that have been replicated into the database that has not been scanned against in the days back threshhold. If it finds any, it purges them from the replication database to keep database size from growing from records that are not active.
Accessioning Module – Patient ID LIS Interface – Exposed the patient ID number on the LIS pop up screen. This allows for the entry of a patient identifier when needed.
Universal Cassette Queue – Modified to allow for the extraction of the patient ID number from the LIS interface table. This value can be appended to the patient initials if needed and this has been exposed as a choice.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Batch Status – Completed Status Flag – Added a checkbox to the screen to allow for an extraction batch status to be indicated as completed as opposed to closed to provide more detailed information about what happened to a specimen.
Admin Web Site – Batch Type Equipment Filter – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance and assignment of equipment to batch run types for filtering and to prevent accidents when assigned specific equipment to a specimen batch run for various lab processes.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Added status description to the grid and include serial number in the search criteria. Also added check boxes to allow for the suppression of the manufacturer and equipment type from the grid view to increase readabiity.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Project Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of change control projects. These are part of the change control/test plan monitoring section of Assist and tracks roll out projects.
Admin Web Site – Test Plan Step Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of test plan steps. This is part of the change control/test plan logic for tracking changes. These steps are the granular, detailed steps that are to be performed as part of a test plan.
Inventory Module – Issue Tab – Inventory Location – Modified the inventory issue process. If inventory items are recieving without specifying warehouse information, the issue process did not like it. Modified the process to show the inventory on hand quantities correctly even if the information was received against a placeholder inventory location.
Accessioning Module – LIS Interface Pop Up – The pop up screen for LIS Interface manual entry and/or overrides was not loading the patient ID number to the screen at launch. Changed this to pull correctly.
Universal Slide – Free Form Protocol Entry – When in manual mode and free form entry of stains is being performed, the stain was actually not printing on the slide. Corrected this so that free form entry passes through to the print routine as it should.
Admin Web Site – UDI Label Maintenance – Suppress Label Header – Modified this screen to include the ability to suppress the top portion of a UDI label to make the label more of a generic “manufactured by” label when UDI is not a requirement but the various disclaimers and manufactured by information needs to be printed.
Print Center – Manufacturing Labels – Created a new screen that allows for the printing of a simple manufactured by label that is based on the UDI template process.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Transactions Report – Storage Location Criteria – Modified this report to provide the storage location as a selection criteria option.
Universal Cassette – Manual Entry with object identifiers on the end of the bar code. Modified the universal cassette module to handle manual entry when the object identifiers for the objects (ex. Requisitions, bottles, etc.) are on the end of the bar code when scanned. Manual entry emulated bar code scans for parsing and the logic did not hold up correctly when using object identifiers on the end of the bar code.
Universal Slide – Free Form protocol in the bar code. When free form protocol entry was done instead of making selections from the protocol bar code AND stain tracking was turned on, the free form protocol value was not getting placed in the bar code. Fixed this logic flaw.
Accessioning – LIS Interface – Client Alias Prefix drop down logic – Added a new database table named Client Alias prefix and added a drop down list to the LIS Interface pop up screen inside the accessioning screen. This box loads based on the data associated with the client when the client is changed.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – Requires Alias checkbox. – Added this checkbox to the client master maintenance screen to allow for indication of whether or not the specified client should ALWAYS have an alias specified.
Accessioning – LIS Interface – Requires Alias Logic. Modified the LIS Interface entry pop up window to consider the requires alias checkbox that was added to the client master maintenance (discussed above) and makes sure that an alias accession number is entered for any client with that flag set.
Admin Web Site – Client Alias Prefix Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the list of alias accession prefixes for clients that require them.
Universal Slide – Serial Number Scanning – LIS Interface – Modified the cassette scan to write an identifier to the LIS interface table if there is a pattern match of the serial sequence for the bar code scanned from the Client Alias Prefix table.
Universal Slide – Cassette/Slide Font Size customization – Added values for the cassette and slide so that the font size of those two fields on the screen can shrink or grow to hold more characters if needed based on configuration. This became an issue with serial number scanning where the contents of the bar code might be quite large instead of holding a traditional accession number format.
Universal Cassette POU – When in manual mode and printing multiple quantities of cassettes, the routine in some situations could print the correct human readable, but would duplicate the bar code over and over (growing) but only in “drop file” modes.
Admin Web Site – Batch Type Maintenance – ThermoCycler and Analyzer Checkboxes. Added these two checkboxes to allow for the specification as to whether or not the batch type is a batch that will be processed by a thermocycler or analyzer. This is typically encountered inside the PCR area of the laboratory.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type maintenance – ThermoCycler and Analyzer Checkboxes. Added these two checkboxes to the equipment type maintenance screen to allow for the designation of equipment type as a ThermoCycler or Analyzer.
Universal Cassette – Enforce Pieces Logic – Added logic to the universal cassette module to enforce the capture of pieces. Some labs want to default the pieces count to zero and then force entry by the grosser. This modification allows for the enforcement and also clears after the scan of the cassette.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Description Search – Modified the order type maintenance screen to provide the order type description as selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance – Unit Code – Added a field for a unit code to allow for abbreviations of business unit values. This is going to become part of the expansion of business unit logic inside Assist across multiple modules.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Default Business Unit – Modified the security maintenance screen to allow for the capture of a default business unit for an employee. These will also be the ability to authorize an employee for data access to other business units, but this value will serve as their default unit.
Universal Slide – Suppress Print/Position By Protocol/Specimen Type Issue – Discovered a bizarre scenario where if a cassette was scanned with the suppress print feature, the protocol/stain drop down would position for the block. Since no print was performed, the “clear after print” is never triggered to clear the protocol. If the “suppress print” was then removed, and a block was scanned that had no specimen type, the original protocol would pull. Fixed this behavior.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Holding Site Maintenance – Default Business Unit – Added the default business unit to this maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a default business unit to be assigned to a specimen holding site.
Admin Web Site – Special Handling Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of special handling values. These are used to hold any rules associated with the handling of specimens.
Admin Web Site – Batch Type Equipment Filter Maintenance – Equipment Type Criteria and Grid. Modified this screen to add the equipment type as a choice to the selection criteria of the maintenance screen and to also show the equipment type in the data grid.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – PCR Extraction Only – Modified this screen to allow for the specification of a flag on an order type to mark the order as PCR extraction only.
Admin Web Site – QA Error Master Maintenance – Error Code – Added an error code to the maintenance screen to allow for quick capture of a code that can be referenced to retrieve quality error messages.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Holding Site Maintenance – Default Cost and Special Handling

March 2022

Doctor Module – Speed Code Entry – Added a speed code entry field to the top of the screen. This field can be used for the capture of diction codes that can be used to load data on the various tabs.
Doctor Module – Speed Code – Error Code Capture – Added the ability to scan error codes into the speed code entry screen.
Doctor Module – Lab Operations Tab – Refresh button and source drop down. Moved the refresh button and the source drop down to the lab operations tab. This data is used to filter the lab operations information and it was wasted space to have it displayed at the top of the main screen instead of inside the tab where it was relevant.
Doctor Module – QA Information Tab – Error Scan – Added logic to support the scanning of error code bar codes into the QA information tab rather than requiring the selection from a drop down box.
Admin Web Site – Rework Request Report – Date Created – Added the date created to the rework request report to see the date/time of when a rework request was actually created. This is especially relevant when using the rework robot.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Type Maintenance – Default Cost – Added a default cost field to the specimen order type screen so that a default cost can be associated with the order of specific types of specimens.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance – Default Specimen Cost – Added a default specimen cost to the client master table. This is used as part of the specimen receiving process to allow for labs to track the cost of a specimen order at the client level if relevant.
Admin Web Site – Client Facility Maintenance – Default Specimen Cost – Added a default specimen cost to the client faciity table. This is used as part of the specimen receiving process to allow for labs to track the cost of a specimen order at the facility level if relevant.
Simple Print – Activation Key Logic – Added a key to the underlying configuration file. This is an encrypted value of the machine name. If a valid key does not exist that is the encrypted machine name, the software will not launch.
Key Generator Module – Created this module to generate computer name encryption keys to be used in controlling access to the simple print module as discussed above.
Admin Web Site - Specimen Holding Site Maintenance – Address Information – Added address lines, city, state, phone number, etc. To the specimen holding site maintanence screen. Previously, this data lived in the address master.
Admin Web Site – Order Notation Reasons Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the reasons for a repeat order. This is part of the sample testing module where a client specimen order might be repeated and this provides the ability to track the reason for the reorder.
Admin Web Site – Order Notation Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the report orders that might be placed against a specimen order. Multiple values can be input each with a different human readable value to support any necessary tracking needs.
Admin Web Site – Block Slide Instructions – The printer magazines for both block and slide was not working correctly on updates when more than one printing platform was available in a site. The display was not positioning the equipment type before then displaying the magazine. Fixed this.
Admin Web Site – Material Status Maintenance – Return Available – Added a new checkbox to the screen to allow for the marking of a status as return available to indicate that some material can be returned, it is back in the holding area awaiting shipping. This is at the detail material submitted level.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Status Maintenance - Return Available – Added a new checkbox to the screen to allow for the marking of a status as return available to indicate that some material can be returned, it is back in the holding area awaiting shipping. This is at the header level.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template Details – Sort Order – Added this field to the template details to allow for a sort order to be established inside the template details.
Sample Testing Module – Material Submission Template Addition – Changed the routine to add submission details by template to use the sort order for template details that was added.
Admin Web Site – Digital Quality Score Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the tracking of digital quality scores. These are the values that will be associated with the quality of digital images. By default, an image starts at a 100 and defects will reduce from this number.
Admin Web Site – Digital Quality Reasons Maintenance – Created this screen to allow fhte maintenance of digital quality reasons. These reasons have quality score reductions associated with them and are part of the digital image quality QC process.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Stock Status Report – Created this report as part of the inventory module to give a quick snapshot of the quantity on hand, on order, and awaiting inspection (i.e. in quarantine) to give a quick snapshot view of all of the inventory available for a product.
Inventory Module – Validation Tab – Show Inventory Code Choice – Modified the module to include a check box to load the drop down of the product master with the inventory code at the start and without the inventory code.
Inventory Module – Validation Tab – Inventory Details – Zero Suppression – Modified the inventory module to suppress any inventory detail records in the drop down if there is a zero quantity. These would not be eligible for inspection/validation.
Inventory Module – Validation Tab – Product Drop Down Key Ahead – Modified this drop down box to allow for the key ahead positioning of the drop down box.
Admin Web Site – Site Name Maintenance – Print Code Slide – Modified the site name maintenance screen to allow for the capture of a print code for the slide as opposed to the original print code that is used for cassettes.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Holding Site Maintenance – RequiresPrepayment – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for the designation of a specimen holding site as requiring prepayment.
Admin Web Site – Employee Daily Work Statistics – From/To Date Criteria Issue – If the from and to date were the same in the criteria of this report, no data would be returned. Fixed this issue.
Universal Cassette – Verification Enforcement – Added the ability to enforce the need for verification transactions before allowing an employee to scan. At employee log in, if verification has not been performed, the screen can now warn to force validation tasks to be done before beginning work.
Admin Web Site – Accession Usage Count Report – Created this report to provide visibility to accession, specimen, and cassette counts by number wheel for the criteria specified. This report was created to try and help with bill back charges to client and “sister” labs for whom work is being performed. It is a simple count and detail view of the work performed. A toggle button provides for the display of all of the detailed data.
Admin Web Site – Employee Interface Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of employee interface types. These types represent an attempt to create “single signon” logic inside Assist to tie all of the user identification values together. There is an LIS Cross reference value on the security maintenance screen, but it limited the mapping to a single value. For sites that have more than one LIS or other systems, this was not good enough.
Admin Web Site – Employee Interface Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of multiple cross reference values for employees. Discussed above under the “types”, these are the values that represent the different user ID “alias” values for an employee.
Admin Web Site – System Task Log Details – Created this report to provide visibility to the system task log details that can be captured by the system. System task log transactions represent things such as backups and this report shows all of the detailed child steps inside the task and can be valuable when troubleshooting failures or validating success.
Warehouse Module – Screen Maximized Flag – Added a configuration option to the warehouse module to allow for the screen to be maximized at launch.
Warehouse Module – Filing Utility Screen – Room Flag Throttle – On the main warehouse filing screen, modified the utility button to only show the most recent 1,000 cases filed when the “drawer” is really a room scan. If a site was doing room scans, clicking the utility button would attempt to show all objects in the room and it could be millions of rows of data.
Admin Web Site – Drawer Maintenance – Room Flag – Modified the maintenance screen to allow for the designation of a warehouse drawer as a “room” instead of an actual drawer.
Admin Web Site – Digital File Location Maintenance – Equipment Original Location flag. Modified the digital file location maintenance screen to indicate if a site is an equipment original location when parsing objects as opposed to a location where objects that were digitized could be moved.
Admin Web Site – Rework Request Listing – Task List Grouping – Modified this report to provide the ability to specify a group of manufacturing tasks to be used as selection criteria rather than single tasks to provide more reporting flexibility.

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Second Quarter 2022 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

April 2022

Doctor Module – Fast Code Order Category Enforcement – Added a check box to the doctor module/diagnosis tab to allow for the employee to specify whether or not fast codes should be verified to make sure that the fast code if valid inside the order category. This is especially relevant for use with dictation systems to ensure that a code is not spoken incorrectly and gets added to an order accidentally.
Doctor Module – Code Reorder Arrow Buttons Rebuild Choice – Added a check box to the doctor module/diagnosis tab to allow for the medical report to be automatically rebuilt if the Up/Down arrows are used to modify the order of the diagnosis medical codes. This reduces the likelihood of the medical report being incorrectly.
Simple Print – Modified this routine to provide the ability to produced an Accession number with the number wheel on the end instead of in the front.
Universal Slide Queue – Doctor Initials – The doctor initials were not printing correctly on the slides via the universal slide queue. This was fixed.
Admin Web Site – Referring Physician Maintenance – SpecimenOrdering Checkbox – Added a checkbox to the referring physician maintenance screen to denote a referring physician as a participant in the specimen ordering functional areas of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Specimen Order Type Checkbox – Added a checkbox to the order type maintenance screen to denote an order type as a participant in the specimen ordering functional areas of Assist.
Universal Slide – Queue Starting Cassette – Issue with the “non 1” cassette not pulling correctly. The starting cassette numbering logic was not operating correctly for implied 1 logic. Corrected this issue.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Cassette Start Wildcard, Slide Start Wildcard – Added these two fields to better handle the idea of cassettes and slides that had no starting object identifier. These changes allowed for a wildcard to denote the difference between a cassette and a slide.
Universal Slide – Cassette/Slide Start Wildcards – Modified the universal modules of Assist to handle the cassette and slide wildcards as explained above.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Concentration Required Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the extraction type maintenance screen. This value allows for the policing of the concentration and whether or not it should be enforced against an extraction type. This is part of the PCR functional area of the sample testing module.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Order Type Mapping – Created this screen to allow for the combined mapping of the Extraction Type, Order Type, and Material Type. This is useful inside the PCR functional area of the sample testing module and can be used to default the extraction type on PCR order types.
Universal Grossing – “Truncate after logic” – There was no ability to truncate the bottle bar code after a specific value. This caused issues with sites that had additional data in the bottle bar code (such as patient name) after a delimiter. This change allows for that to be truncated for “normal” processing of the bottle bar code.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology - \ check on path – The path + file name did not have a slash in it which was causing an incorrectly formed “full path” to the file for loading.
Universal Grossing – Grossing Information – When body source, site, or technique as specified, clear the text field on the screen before loading from the drop down closed event. This provides the ability clear the fields on the selection of “Not Specified”. Previously, the values would “stick”.
Sample Testing - Returns – Added “Remaining” column to the summary view grid to indicate the number of detail material types that have not been returned but that are return required.
Sample Testing - Fixed the summary grid to not show header level records if there were not material detail records with a material return required on them.
Sample Testing - Fixed the overdue count total to not include the records if there were not material detail records with a material return required on them.
Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Added header comments separate from detail line item comments.
Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Added a check box to allow for the closure of the manifest header.
Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Set the save button click to reload all of the manifest drop down boxes to reflect changes.
Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Added a check box to opt in/out of changing the detail comments.
Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Modified the manifest print routine to include comments in the header.
Sample Testing - Returns – Manifest Utility – Modified the manifest print routine to include the detailed comments underneath the detail line item if relevant.
Sample Testing - Returns – Shipping Tab – Modified the manifest print to include the comments in the header and detail lines as noted above for the utility.
Sample Testing - Returns – Shipping Tab – moved the header comments area down into the same area as the rest of the manifest information to make it clear that the comments text box is relevant for the manifest.
Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Added the “testing” column to show what tests have been ordered against a detailed material type when in detail view.
Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Detail Grid – Added a “selection” checkbox to allow for the selection of individual detail records to be sent to the shipping grid. Removed the grouping logic so that each individual row of data is displayed. Made sure that the +/- button works for either the summary or detail grid depending on the view.
Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Grid Counts – The counts at the top of the grids (summary/detail) were not working correctly as the radio buttons were used to toggle between views. Corrected this.
Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Selection Button for Details – Previously, the ability to send shipping records from the inbound/outbound grid to the shipping grid only worked at the summary level for the entire submission package. Modified so that the detail level records could be sent using the selection checkbox column with the button for submitting.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Detailed Grid – Modified this grid to show the testing in the detail grid. Previously, this was not shown and only the material type was visible.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Detailed Grid – Selection Column Move – Moved the checkbox column to the beginning of the grid to be consistent will all of the other grids in the module.
Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Detail Grid – The status of the detail data was not being shown, it was the status of the material submission. Corrected this.
Sample Testing – Admin Web Site – Extraction Type maintenance – Added the “Concentration Required” checkbox to allow for the marking of which extraction types need a concentration value to better lock in data integrity.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound tab – Set logic so that the click of a summary grid row header loads the data for that master submission records into the detail grid and auto flips to display that grid.
Universal Grossing – Grossing Information Capture – Modified the grossing notes capture screen to allow for configurations flags to require the body source, body site, surgical technique, and measurements (if visible) fields. This enhances the rules already in place to enforce grossing notes and clinical information.
Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – Robot Screen – Modified the launch button to include a wait cursor to make it clear when the software is still running.
Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – Digital Utility – Created this screen to allow for the processing of records that might have been inserted into the dashboard queue without having an accession number matched to them. The utility pulls all records from the queue with no accession and attempts to use the digitized bar code to find matching data in Assist.
Warehouse Module – Digital Dashboard – Rearranged the update area to include an option for “bulk changes” that will apply the modifications values to ALL of the selected items. If the check box is NOT set, an individual save of the selected record (row header) will be done. Also added a check box for “assignment” to assign the digital queue records to an employee to read them.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance – Allow Digital Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the distribution location maintenance screen to allow a distribution location (i.e. doctor) to be marked as eligible to receive digital objects (ex. Slides).
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Digital Queue Selection Criteria – Added the digital queue drop down to allow for filtering from within the tab by queue if relevant.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Component Maintenance – Full Description, End of Life and End of Life Date – Added these fields to the change control component maintenance screen to better capture the status of software products and their change control status.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab - Set logic so that the click of a summary grid row header loads the data for that master submission records into the detail grid and auto flips to display that grid.
Sample Testing – Screen Header – Turned on the concept of business unit defaults for employees. The ability to specify a business unit for an employee has always existed, just showing the business unit to which, the employee belongs at the top of the screen with a button to allow for the switching of the active business unit.
Sample Testing – Client drop downs – Added the logic to filter the display of clients to include the business unit that is active for the employee. This is shown in the communications log and is used to filter the various esoteric labs and how they will impact the sample testing module going forward.
Sample Testing – PCR Grid – Modified the method used for determining the default extraction type. Previously, it was defaulting based on the set value for the extraction coming from the order type file. This has not been changed to allow for an override from the ExtractionOrderTypeMapping table which represents the alternatives to the extraction mapping based on the material type (ex. Block vs. Slide) along with the order type. This now loads into the grid unless there are no mappings, in which case the default order type will hold.
Sample Testing – PCR Cap Label Printing – Changed the logic on the cap label for both extractions and PCR vial labels to print the order in which the specimens are “built” in the grids rather than representing the sequence of the specimen which is what was being done previously. This is now a choice driven by the configuration.
Universal Cassette – Cassette Color Count – Some locations have a color indicator (cassette/slide magazine indicator) in their bar code. The Assist universal module for cassette printing did not have logic to handle/process this extra character on the tail of the bar code. Fixed this by adding functionality to handle the processing.
Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance/Hamburger Button – From inside the specimen ordering tab of the sample testing module, there is a button to allow for the maintenance of specimen holding sites. The pop up screen for this maintenance was completed.
Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance – Clipboard Address Button – Added a small button with the letter “C” on it to the holding site maintenance pop up window. When clicked, this pops up a screen with a large text box. The box builds the full address using all of the address lines, the city, state, and zip code. This can be automatically copied to the Windows clipboard to provide simplicity for copying/pasting the address into other documents (i.e. shipping documents).
Print Center – Multiple Bottle Label Print – Direct Print Changes to not use label templates – The form for “Multiple Bottle Label” had not been modified to cease using NiceLabel for the printing of the labels. Made this change for it to native print and also added logic for the printing of single extra bottle labels instead of needing to use the full batch print logic flow of printing the combination of requisition and bottle labels.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Authorization Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the business unit authorization data. This is part of the sample testing module and allows for specification of which business units an employee is authorized to access data. This impacts the sample orders that can be seen (i.e. order, clients, etc.) but allows for toggling to other business units if necessary and authorized.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Business Location Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen business locations. These locations are part of the sample testing module of Assist and are found specifically on the specimen ordering tab. They represent the business locations where specimens are intended to be routed.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Maintenance – Component Area – Added this field to the screen to allow for more accurate capture of what area of a module was changed.
QC Module Extra – Image List – ImageScanSource Inclusion - Modified the image list capture routine to include a field in the database to indicate the module of Assist that captured an image that makes analysis easier.
Manufacturing Module – Image List – ImageScanSource Inclusion - Modified the image list capture routine to include a field in the database to indicate the module of Assist that captured an image that makes analysis easier.
Manufacturing Module – Milling Machine Interface – Blanks to underscore – To better handle a limitation with the equipment manufacturer, modified the routine that prints the product bar codes to remove any blanks and replace them with underscores since this is what the application does in the cloud that creates the milling machine instruction file.

May 2022

Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Client Maintenance – Added a hamburger button to the specimen ordering tab to allow for the maintenance (add, update, delete) of clients without having to go the Assist administrative web site.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Specimen Holding Site Maintenance - Added a hamburger button to the specimen ordering tab to allow for the maintenance (add, update, delete) of specimen holding sites without having to go the Assist administrative web site.
Simple Print – Scan Field – Clear the text field on tab – When this field was used to scan into the field, it was not clearing the field when a tab was performed which resulted in the old scan value remaining. Set the routine to clear the field after processing.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – Auto load cases at user login. Modified the digital pathology routine to go ahead and load any cases/slides assigned to an employee as soon as they log in. This removes the clicking of the retrieve button to load.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – Diagnosis column move to after the accession number and protocol. The diagnosis column was moved to the right to improve screen readabiity especially since AI diagnosis is less common and the case number/accession is always present.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – Double click on the digital pathology grid loads the case/slides to the right hand side of the screen and launches the viewer for all slides represented by the row in the grid.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Added a configuration flag to allow for hiding the order cost derived from the holding site from which a specimen was ordered.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Added a configuration flag to allow for hiding the accession prefix drop down, showing a free form accession prefix text box, or having the value not show up at all.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – The concentration column was not always working correctly when clicked. Fixed this to pop up the concentration screen.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – The file name that was loaded via the equipment concentration interface was not showing correctly on the screen. The sample ID was showing instead of file name. Corrected this to show the data appropriately.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration Column on Order grid – Turned this background color to red if a concentration value is required based on the extraction type and there is no value.
Simple Print – Suppress Part – Cassette and Slide – Added a check box to the cassette and slide versions of the simple print screen to allow for the part identifier to be supressed. This can be especially valuable for clinical reasearch scenarios.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Changed the grid to include the display of rush cases to include a priority rush value and sort the data by priority value and then distribution date and then full accession number. Made this change for both the case level view and the slide level view.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology – The open cases button at the top of the screen was modified. The informational screen now shows a format of “Case Count / Slide Count” that are assigned to the employee to make the information more meaningful.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Modified the selection of the detailed grid row to show the rush type description to the right of the grid with the other case/slide detailed information.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Double Click To Diagnostics – Logic was added previously to allow for the double click of a digital queue record to automatically open up the case/slide that was double clicked. Further expanded this logic to allow for this double click transaction to also send the employee automatically to the diagnostics tab to process the case.
Admin Web Site – Case Rush Type Maintenance – Priority Value and Font Color – Added a priority value to the maintenance screen and also the abiity to set the font color.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology/Diagnosis – Set logic so that when a report is signed by the doctor from the diagnosis tab that the digital record can be moved to a “Signed Out” status and the digital queue is automatically refreshed to reflect the change.
Sample Testing – Client Facility Maintenance – Added the “C” copy clipboard buttons for both the seperated address lines and the full address line.
Sample Testing – Client and Client Facility Maintenance – Added the ability to double click on any of the instructions or notes fields and have a pop up screen appear to display all of the information in an easier to read format to reduce screen scrolling in case of copious notes.
Sample Testing – Client/Facility and Holding Site Pop Up Maintenance Screens – Auto Load – Added the ability for any client and/or holding site information active in the specimen order screen to go forward to the maintenance screens to pre-load with the active client or holding site.
Sample Testing – Client/Facility and Holding Site Pop Up Maintenance Screens – Provided a configuration flag to allow for whether or not address and phone master buttons are enabled.
Sample Testing – Client/Facility Pop Up Maintenance Screens – Added the ability to delete either entity (with lots of edit checks) that is driven by configuration so that this ability can be disabled or enabled.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Component Maintenance – Control Code Prefix and ProductName. Added the control code prefix and product name to the change control component maintenance screen. This will make it possible for the change control update utility to update a remote database with change control transactions.
Admin Web Site – Rework Request Report – Criteria visual change and addition of Task scanned by to criteria. Modified the rework request report to clean up the selection criteria visually and also add the task scanned by criteria.
Admin web Site – Change Control Maintenance – Control code and product name. Added the control code and product name to the change control maintenance screen. This will make it possible for the change control update utility to update a remote database with change control transactions.
Admin web Site – Scan History Report – The “source” filter criteria did not work correctly. This report is an original Assist report and the source values were hard coded and did not account for the various alias values for data collection points that woudl evolve. Fixed this so that the filter works correctly.
Admin Web Site – Change Control Type Maintenance – TypeCode – Added the type code to the change control type maintenance screen to allow the change control utility to add control types when relevant.
Configuration Utility – Change Control Copy – Modified the configuration utility to include the ability to send change control transactions to a remote database. Previously, the utility only support the copy of screens, reports, and configuration changes.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Collection Site Text – Added a configuration setting to allow for the human readable tag on the “Collection Site” to be customized to support “Body Site” if that is the value being captured.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Order Date in order grid – Added the order date to the specimen order grid.
Universal POU – Grossing Notes Entry/Timeout – Discovered an issue with the way the enforce timeout configuration option is enacted. If the option is turned off, and a grosser is using the grossing notes pop up capture, on closure of the screen, the timeout option was turned back on regardless of the configuration option. Changed the routine to look at the configuration flag on screen close rather than blindly turning the timeout timer back active.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Specimen Order Testing Capture/Display – Modified the specimen ordering section of the sample testing module to include the abilty to specify the order types (testing) that should be performed on the specimen for which the order is being placed. Also show the existing orders via a list box on the screen.

June 2022

Admin Web Site - ESL Tag Product Notation – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of ESL tag product notations. These are used to pass specific extra notation values to an electronic tag based on a product master record.
Admin Web Site - Specimen Type Size Override Maintenance – Created this table to provide for protocol automation/overrides associated with tissue mold sizes. If a specific specimen type is encountered, the size of the mold (specimen) can then bump the specimen type to a different value which would launch a different slide protocol.
Accessioning Module – Maximum Requisition Length on scan – Added logic to prevent a double scan of a requisition and also better tailor that a value requisition was scanned by policing the raw length of the data field.
Universal Cassette POU – Printer Magazine Alias Logic – Added logic to the cassette point of use to tie magazines against different hardware profiles to one another. This allows magazines to be equal across hardware. For example, the Magazine 1 of a Leica can be mapped to the “Hopper 1” of an Epredia Printmate.
Admin Web Site – Printer Magazine Alias Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the mapping of magazines to one another across hardware profiles.
Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Size Scanning and Font Color – Added the ability to the main scanner engine (i.e. Embedding, microtomy, etc.) to scan the specimen size (i.e. tissue mold) and also display it on the screen with different colors.
Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Type Size Override Functionality – Added the abiity to the main scanner engine to have the specimen size + specimen type move to a new specimen type to more accurately plan for protocol mapping where an embedder discovers a larger mold size is needed which will impact the number of slides to be used.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Size Maintenance – Font Color – Modified the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of font color for each specimen size.
Admin Web Site – Gender Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of genders. This can be used to specifiy a gender outside of the tradtional radio button choices of “M/F” when the gender might not be known.
Accession Prefix Maintenane – LIS Master Criteria – Added the LIS as a criteria choice at the top of the maintenance screen so that prefixes can be filtered by prefix for better ease of maintenance/management.
Universal Slide POU – Manual Specimen/Part – Removal of dash after print – There has always been a dash placed between the specimen and part identifiers after printing a slide in manual mode. Removed this since there was no value add and it looks odd.
Universal Cassette POU – Drop File Alias Accession Overrides Specimen – Added logic to allow for an alias accession to go into the drop file in the same position as the specimen type. This allows for the client labelling of the cassette (at the cost of the tissue type) without needing multiple print template layouts.
Doctor Closeout – Selection Criteria – Main Closeout and Status Closeout – LIS Master – Added the LIS platform as a selection criteria choice for facilities that use more than one LIS and need to pull doctor orders by platform.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen order steps. This data represents the various steps in the specimen ordering process.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Maintenance – Final Inspection Task – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to allow a manufacturing task to be marked as the final inspection task. This is part of the Assist manufacturing module.
Admin Web Site – Medical Billing Code Maintenance – CPT Code addition with selection criteria additions for billing code, description, ICD code, and CPT code. Added the CPT code field to the medical billing code maintenace screen and also added multiple fields to the selection criteria as noted.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Slide Recipe – Medical Billing Code. Added the medical billing code drop down to the slide recipe area of this screen so that the CPT codes and such can be mapped to the slides that are being printed.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Business Unit Order Filter – Added logic to only display specimen orders for the business unti to which an employee is attached.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Gender drop down – Added the gender drop down to the specimen order area to allow for a gender value to be specified outside of the hard coded “M/F” logic.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Step changes status. – Added the logic to allow for the selection of specimen order steps to automatically change the overall order status since this status is part of the order step. Also added the step to the order selection criteria.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression visually of the last maintained and order created values.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression visually of the “copy of results” checkbox.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression visually of the handling drop down.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Summary Grid – Added a configuration flag to allow for the suppression of the cross reference column in the grid.
Object Filing – Digital Dashboard – Digital Pathology Queue – Case Rush Type and Priority Value – Added these fields to the digital queue for the tracking of rush cases through the digital process. Also added a priority value so that the rush values can be prioritized.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Meta Data Visibility – Modified the digital pathology queue grid to include a “M” button column on the far right. Clicking this button causes a pop up screen to appear to show all of the meta data associated with the digital pathology record.
Doctor Module – Login Button – Added the ability to log in manually to the doctor module in the same manner as the other modules. Previously, either auto login or scanner were the only ways to log in.
Doctor Module – Digital Pathology Tab – Case Level status change was not working to change the status to all of the slides in the case. It was only updating the FIRST digital pathology queue record (i.e. the first slide) on save. Corrected this.
Doctor Module – Auto Launch Next Case Choice – Added a checkbox to the screen (depending on configuration) to determine whether or not the “launch next case on report submission” is active to allow a doctor to opt in/out of the feature.
Doctor Module – Auto Launch Next Case Feature – Added logic to the module to allow for the auto launch of the next case from the digital queue as soon as the case is submitted.
Doctor Module – Auto Close write to the digital queue audit log – Added the logic to write a value to the digital queue audit log when the auto close transaction is performed.
Interface Module – LIS Order Request Robot – If the “ordered by” doctor is missing, added logic to write it to the exception table. Previously, no exception was generated, the data just got loaded as the automated robot account.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Use Extraction Defaults Checkbox – Added a configuration flag to allow this value to be toggled on/off as needed by the installation.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Concentration Quantity – Added the concentration quantity field to the extraction type maintenance screen. This is used to indicate how many concentration values (PCR) are allowed for the concentration type and determines the screen handling of the PCR tab of the sample testing module.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – PCR Extraction Code – Added this field to the order type maintenance screen. This is used to allow for entry of an extraction code that can be used for a PCR equipment interface back into Assist and represents the code to tie to the order type coming from the equipment.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance – Slide Recipe Maintenance – Sequence Quantity – Added this value to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of the sequence quantity associated with a slide recipe record. For example, an L1-3 slide would potentially represent a sequence quantity of 3 to reflect the number of tissue ribbons that are tied to the slide.
Admin Web Site – Client Facility Maintenance – Address fields delimited – With the duplication of the address fields at the facility header level, a change needed to be made to allow the client facility web screen to continue to function correctly.
Doctor Module – Slide Scan – Modified the routine to allow for an alternate protocol wildcard inside the bar code. This allows for changes to how the bar code holds protocols or to address multiple wildcard delimiters if relevant.
Doctor Module – Slide Scan – Tracking Number Delimiter – Added a slide tracking start/end delimiter to provide the ability for the doctor module to scan slides that have slide tracking values in the bar code. Also added this value to the scan history window on the scanning tab.
Distribution Module – Slide Scan – Modified the routine to allow for an alternate protocol wildcard inside the bar code. This allows for changes to how the bar code holds protocols or to address multiple wildcard delimiters if relevant.
Distribution Module – Slide Scan – Tracking Number Delimiter – Added a slide tracking start/end delimiter to provide the ability for the Distribution module to scan slides that have slide tracking values in the bar code. Also added this value to the scan history window on the scanning tab.
Interface Utility – Patient Demographic File Drop – Added a patient demographic file drop option to load patients into the Assist database from a simple CSV file.
Interface Utility – Magic Touch Manufacturing Task Load – Added an interface option to load manufacturing tasks from the Magic Touch LIS into Assist. Previously, there had only been an interface that was not bidirectional and did not pull data back into Assist.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Clear Button – Added this button, which can be hidden by configuration to allow for the clearing of both the header and detail information on the screen. Previously, this would happen when a new package was chosen or a save transaction was completed.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Manifest Print – Modified the print routine to include the order types for the material types. This was also added to the manifest reprint inside the utiity pop up screen.
Universal Cassette/Slide – On Screen Keyboard – Added a button to both the cassette and the slide tabs to allow for the launch of the Windows on screen keyboard to better support touch screens. This button is visible or not based on configuration.
Warehouse Module – Main Filing Screen - Slide Scan – Tracking Number Delimiter – Added a slide tracking start/end delimiter to provide the ability for the Distribution module to scan slides that have slide tracking values in the bar code. Also added this value to the scan history window on the scanning tab.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Double Concentration Values – Made changes to support double concentration values and an average.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration Interface History Inquiry – Built this pop up screen to provide visibility to concentration files that have been loaded into Assist from the PCR instruments.
Sample Testing – Communication Tab – Communication Log Audit Log – Modified the communication log to also generate an audit log every time a communication log record is modified or added to provide more detailed traceability.

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Third Quarter 2022 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

July 2022

Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance – Warning Font Color – Added a warning font color to the maintenance screen to determine what color the order step should appear in if the date has been excedded to make it easier to show the outliers.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order – Specimen Processing Order Active Step Date – Added a field to the specimen order capture data routine to capture the date/time stamp each time an order step is entered or changed.
Admin Web Site – Attachment Type Maintenance – Client Image Type Checkbox, Patient Report Type Checkbox, Release Form Type checkbox, Test Request Form Type checkbox – Added the above check boxes to the maintenance screen to allow for the categorization of attachment types.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – “By Shipment vs. By Manifest” choice on Manifest print. Added two radio buttons to allow for the choice between shipment or manifest filters on the printing of manifests.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Group box header bolding – Modified the shipping tab to make the group box titles bold on all groups on the screen. If the visual changes are liked, this same change will be applied to the other tabs.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Client and Address missing on manifest print. On a first print, the logic did not match the changes that were made to the reprint and there was a way for the client/facility names and the street address to not print.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Context Help – Tool Tips – Comments text boxes. Added tool tips to the comment text boxes on this tab to help in learning screen operations. If this works effectively, the same data will be added to the other fields on the screens.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – All Materials Visibility – There was confusion about the option for suppressing packages that had no materials needing return at the header level where data would show under the detail area. Let the choice be visible regardless of the view.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab – Changed the description for the holding site to read as “Holding Site” instead of “Description”.
Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance Screen – The underlying holding site master and search drop downs were not reloading after maintenance was performed.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order – Ordered Tests – The order category filtering check box was not operating correctly on this pop up screen.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order – Changed the screen to auto load the specimen orders at employee login.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Grid – Added a column to the grid for days left based on the warning days and the current date. This is based on the date/time being captured when the order step is changed.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Grid – Days Left font color – Changed the days left font color to be set to the warning days font color if the days left are overdue.
Main Scanner Engine – Write Active Last Case – Set up the ability for configuration flags to write to the Active Last Case table for a requisition, bottle, cassette, or slide scan to feed the active last case scoreboard view.
Universal Cassette/Slide - Write Active Last Case – Set up the ability for configuration flags to write to the Active Last Case table for a requisition, bottle, cassette, or slide scan to feed the active last case scoreboard view.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Maintenance – Baud Rate Override Value – Added this value to the maintenance screen to allow for an individual machine to have a scanner baud rate entered that differs from the main scanner speed used with all other machines in an environment. This better supports mismatched equipment in a facility without having to reprogram scanners (if possible to reprogram). The baud rate is filled from a drop down of choices that is configured by the Assist administrator to cut down on random and incorrect data.
Main Scanner Engine – Baud Rate Override Logic – Added logic to the main scanner engine to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature.
Check In Module – Baud Rate Override Logic - Added logic to the check in module to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature.
Universal Cassette/Slide – Baud Rate Override Logic - Added logic to both the universal cassette and slide module to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature.
Accessioning Module – Baud Rate Override Logic - Added logic to the accessioning module to support the new baud rate override by configuration feature
Admin Web Site – Assist Equipment Interface Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance and creation of the various scanner speed settings used in the new equipment baud rate override feature. This screen controls the drop down list used on the client configuration maintenance screen.
Universal Slide POU – Pieces in History – Modified the slide POU screen to allow for writing the pieces data into the scan history instead of just showing it in a small font at the bottom of the screen.
Universal Slide POU – Position Protocol by specimen check box not sticking when configuration changes – Modified this setting so that it will stay as the configuration is changed to better support sites with multiple LIS installations and configurations.
Universal Cassette/Slide – Scan Classification Scan Ability to change. The scan classification drop down (i.e. Recuts vs. IHC vs. Special Stains, etc.) was only available for change via a mouse click. Gave the ability to put out scan sheets to change this value via scanner to reduce the need to touch the mouse.
Universal Module – Tab Handling – Fixed issue where some of the information tabs could get wiped out. – The logic for suppressing tabs had an issue where the tabs could possibly continue to disappear as the employee bounced from one configuration to another. Cleaned up the way tabs are hidden to eliminate this possibility.
Admin Web Site – LIS Master Maintenance – Accession Number Length – Added this field to the LIS master maintenance screen so that an override of the accession number length can be done at the LIS level instead of by accession prefix. This is part of the sample testing area where multiple inbound accession number formats are being tracked.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance – LIS Master drop down – Added the default LIS value via drop down so that the default LIS for a business unit can be specified.
Sample Testing Module – Help Button – Added a help button to the top of this module to allow for the display of the various help text that is available explaining what the fields and columns are on the reports.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Extraction Selection criteria – Unassigned to an extraction checkbox setting to allow it to default on or off.
Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – Clinical Research Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow order categories to be specified as belonging to clinical research projects.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Business Unit and All Business Units check box. Added a checkbox to the maintenance screen to all an order type to be associated to all business units and a drop down for the owning business unit for sites that have more than one business unit.
Scoreboard – Multiple Shipment Grid – Upper left cell is the color blue – When the multiple shipment grid graph went above 144 cells, the screen was shown with the mouse cursor in the upper lefthand cell and it had the default color of blue. Research the clear selection to stop this from happening.
Admin Web Site – Assist Help Details Maintenance – Added a help section number to more specifically outline the area that is referenced by the help text. Previously, the most specific the data could be was at the software module level.
Admin Web Site – Assist Help Section Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of the newly created help sections. Previously, help text was maintained at the module level but this lack of further categorization made a bit of a disorganized mess in some modules. By added a section, the help data can be organized by tab (for example) to make it easier to find meaningful information.

August 2022

Admin Web Site – Assist Formula Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the entry of the various mathmatical formulas that might be in use in the various screens of Assist. Some regulartory organizations require that the math being performed be explained to employees and this maintenance gives the ability to capture all of these formulas with a detailed description area along with an area for custom (i.e. not Assist explaining) so that an individual facility can explain in terms that might make more sense for their employes.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Formula Display – Added a button to the PCR batch grid to allow for the display of the formula screen based on the entry of a formula (discussed above) for the concentration calculations being performed.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration value cleanup – The three concentration values on the PCR grid had differing appearences with rounding, number of decimals, etc. Added the ability to indicate the number of decimals in the configuration and then formatted all three columns to look the same to make more visually pleasing.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Entry screen – Created this screen to serve as a full specimen order processing screen. Previously, this feature was available via the “standard” method of selecting the grid value on the left and having the maintenance performed on the right hand side of the screen. There was so much data associated with a specimen order that this caused a “cramped” screen, so made the screen full sized.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Entry – Pathologist capture – Added a + button to the specimen order entry screen to allow for the quick addition of a pathologist to the pathologist master file (referring pathologist). Full maintenance (changes, etc.) still need to be done via the main referring physician maintenance screen.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Entry – Clinician capture - Added a + button to the specimen order entry screen to allow for the quick addition of a clinician to the clinician master file (referring pathologist). Full maintenance (changes, etc.) still need to be done via the main referring physician maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Department Maintenance – Font Color and Employee Department Checkbox. Added the font color so that departments can be color coded on different screens and also added a checkbox to allow for a department to be categorized as an employee department. There were already category checkboxes for inventory, manufacturing, and chemicals.
Admin Web Site – Employee Group Maintenance – Font Color. Added the font color so that employee groups can be color coded on different screens.
Admin Web Site – Stored Comment Type Maintenance – Available in Communication Log Checkbox. Added this check box to the maintenance screen so that stored comments can be filtered on screens that allow for the use of stored comment types.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance – Department Drop Down – Employee Department Filter. Modified the security maintenance screen to only show departments in the drop down list that are classified as employee departments.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Status Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of status values used inside the clinical research project areas of Assist.
Simple Print – Pad Zeros Bar Code Option – Added an option to allow the paddiing of the accession number to be controlled by an option in the config file.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the research project type.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance –Modified this screen to include a field for Extraction Code. This will be used to enforce interface files against extraction types.
Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Unassignment – Completely changed the method of unassigning a file from a concentration assignment to make the screen perform better.
Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Modified this screen to show the extraction type at the top of the screen along with the number of concentrations required (1 or 2).
Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Auto Close – Changed the settings to allow for an auto close when it is a single concentration extraction and the data is provided. Do NOT auto close on a double unless two concentrations are provided. On a single, go ahead and close.
Sample Testing - To Do Status Button – Rearranged the top of the main screen. Changed the overdue button to be longer but narrow. Added a “to do” button underneath that will be green/red based on the ticker and checking for communication log messages that are targeted to a department to which the employee logged into Assist belongs.
Sample Testing - PCR – Object Assignment Pop up window (the x / x/ x button). If there were multiple order types for the accession, they could stretch across the header of the window and jumble things. Moved the display into a list box and now display them vertically instead of horizontally.
Sample Testing - PCR Concentration Interface – Added logic to consider the extraction code for the type and make sure that the file indicator is the same reflecting a match between the equipment interface file and the extraction type.
Sample Testing - PCR – Extraction Grid – “T” Button – This button reflects the count of order types against the aggregated accession number even though the grid shows the data at the order type level. Clicking on the button will show all of the orders on an order along with who entered those orders.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of research projects. These are part of the research tracking part of Assist and represent different projects such as clinical research projects, drug studies, etc.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Number Wheel Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of research project number wheels. These are part of the clinical research functional area of Assist and represent seperate number wheels that are used as “spin offs” of “regular” number wheels to be used for research projects.
Interface Utility – CADFlow Interface Robot – Added a CADFlow AI robot to the interface utility to support the inbound receipt of STL and PTS (tooling files) for milling machine robots.
Print Center – Full Accession Label – Print values into configuration – Modified this label routine so that the values for where to print objects can be placed in the configuration and are not hard coded into the screen.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Manifest Utility – The bold fonts were not present on the various group headings on the utility screen. Corrected this.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Manifest Utility – The shipment type and tracking fields were not named the same on utility screen vs. the underlying shipping tab. Made the two the same for the sake of consistency.
Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Added a setting to the configuration to allow for defaulting of the manifest to be either portrait or landscape. Placed the setting to portrait.
Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Moved the header down slightly to address reports that the page was not within margins.
Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Widened out the order type column to allow for longer type values to fit.
Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Added the ability to display the client part on the manifest based on the choice in the manifest. Set this choice to be on.
Sample Testing - Manifest Printing – Added the outbound tracking number to the header of the manifest.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance - Added a communication log note field to the specimen order step maintenance screen to provide a default note that will be inserted into the communication log when a specimen order is moved to a different order step.
Admin Web Site – Extraction Type Maintenance – Allowed Concentration Variance – Added this field to the screen to support a numerical variance that is allowed for extractions that have more than one concentration value. This will be used for editing/error checking of concentration data capture inside the PCR tab of the sample testing module.
Admin Web Site – Body Source Maintenance – Specimen Order Flag – Added a check box to this screen to allow for body source values to be coded as visible in the specimen ordering area of Assist as opposed to standard histology.
Admin Web Site – Communication Log Type Maintenance – Added drop down boxes for default employee group assignment, stored comment types, and default stored comments. This will all allows for better defaulting as communication log functionality migrates toward “to do” assignment of communication records to employees and groups.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentration Entry – Modified the entry of concentrations to pull the allowed concentration variance from the extraction type table rather than applying a single variance value across all extraction types to allow for better functionality.
Admin Web Site – Business Area Maintenance – Added multiple checkbox to represent different areas of the business so that different data elements can be customized to only apply to the appropriate business area. The communication log messages will be the first area to have business area filters applied to them.
Admin Web Site – Communication Log Source Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of communication log sources. This data element will become a manner of segmenting communication log entries by the business area to which the log items apply. A log source is assigned to a business area.
Sample Testing – PCR Extraction Grid – Communication Log Indicator – Added an “*” column to the grid to capture whether or not there are communication log records for an extraction (PCR) record. An asterisk will be displayed if there are communication log entries in general. The back color will be green if the log entries are for the PCR business area. The back color will be red it the log entries are for the PCR business area AND they require acknowledgement but it has not been acknowledged.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Tracking Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of tracking status values to be applied to individual resesearch project objects.
Universal Cassette – Clinicial Research Window – Added a reprint button to allow for printing without needing to save an object. Also introduced a tracking status to allow for the delete button to move the status of an object to deleted rather than actually deleting it to allow for improved tracking.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Tracking Report – Created this report to allow for full reporting over the clinical research project data.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Research Order Type Checkbox – Added a checkbox to the order type maintenance screen to allow for an order type to be categorized as available to the clinical research screens.
Admin Web Site – Research Order Type Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of research order type data. This data represents the order types cross referenced to the research projects for which they are relevant.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Summary Report - Create this report to provide visibility to summary counts of the number of objects that were processed as part of research project tracking.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Protocol Listing. Created this report to show a listing of the mapping of equipment to the protocols that are processed by that equipment. An example would a listing of stain protocols by staining equipment (i.e. Omnis, Bond, Ventana, etc.).
Manufacturing Module – Start/End Task Logic – Modified the manufacturing module to allow for the capture of a start and end time stamp associated with the manufacturing tasks. Tasks are scanned after the case/accession and represent a work task. This provides the ability to get TAT by task.
Manufacturing Module – Specimen Complexity Addition – Added the choice of specimen complexity to the main manufacturing screen. This allows for piece rate additions to assign appropriate work values to the types of specimens processed.
Manufacturing Module – Task Scan cancellation – Added a button the screen to allow for the cancellation of a task once it has begun. This accounts for situations where a technician begins work on a specimen before realizing the task cannot be completed for a variety of reasons.
Check In Module – Robot/Bulk Scanner Interface Capability – Modified the check in module to allow for two “scanners” to interact with the screen at the same time. The first scanner would be a traditional hand held scanner with the second being a “bulk” scanner or scanning robot. The screen will handle the inbound feed however data is fed into the screen.
Universal Grossing – Clinical Research – Default label quantity in configuration – For the clinical research pop up screen, modified to allow for the default label quantity to be set in the configuration for additional flexibility instead of defaulting to 1.
Universal Grossing – Clinical Research – Suppress Linear/2D Bar code choices. Added two checkboxes to the clinical research pop up screen to allow for the suppression of either the 1D or 2D bar codes on the label print routine if needed with the ability to default from the configuration.
Universal Slide – QC Notes Too Small – There have been a few comments about the size of the font on the QC notes being too small. Reorganized a couple of the buttons in the button ribbon to provide more space for the notes label and increase the font size from 8.25 to 12. Specifically moved the employee time button so that the elapsed time tag could be placed underneath the ribbon bar to allow the notes label to stretch farther without running into other data.
Check In module – Robot scanner auto flipping – Added the ability for the robot scanner to mix/match bar codes from multiple LIS platforms in a single bulk scanner feed.
Check In Module – Robot Scanner Connection message – Added a message to the bottom of the screen to indicate the connection status (baud rate/port).
Check In Module – Robot Feed Tab – Added a seperate listing of the robot feed on a seperate tab in the history area of the screen to show the bar codes received in order (and numbered) along with Red/Green color coding to indicate if bar code parsing was processed successfully or not.
Admin Web Site – Research Clinical Participation Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of research clinical participation data. This is where a research project is enabled for specific clients to elminate the potential risk of specimens for the wrong client being included in a research project.
Admin Web Site – Research Project Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the raw research project tracking information. This is the most granular level where accession numbers are assigned to a project.
Universal Grossing – Clinical Research – Client Participation Enforcement – Modified the clinical research area of the grossing module to consider client participation when assigning specimens to a clinical research project.
Admin Web Site – LIS Master Maintenance – Database Connectivity Information – Added connection data to support the ability to make alternative connections for interface connectivity at the LIS platform level.
Admin Web Site – Collection Point Maintenance – Child Object. Added a drop-down list of the object types to indicate which object (i.e. Cassette, bottle, slide, etc.) is the “child” or lowest level matching object for each data collection point.
Admin Web Site – Object Type Maintenance – Scan Type. Added this field to the object type maintenance screen to allow for a value that matches the object type or source of the items scanned into the transaction log. This allows for reporting of specific object types.
Admin Web Site – Scan Transactions Hourly Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the number of objects scanned by hour for the various data collection points.
Admin Web Site – Expiration Type Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the categorization of the types of expiration/licenses that can be tracked in Assist. For example, a Doctor Medical License would be an expiration type.
Admin Web Site – Expiration Item Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of expiration items. An expiration item is a child of an expirate type. For example, and expiration item might be a doctor license for the state of Louisiana.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – Added the expiration item drop down to the screen. Changed the screen around visually to improve the appearance. Added drop-down criteria for the expiration type and items. Added checkboxes to suppress inactive doctors and to hide expired license data. Also added a from/to date range to the expiration date to look for items that might be expiring in the near future.
Doctor Module – Tab Suppression Cleanup – Modified the way that tabs are suppressed via code. An older method of disposing of unneeded tabs was being used. Cleaned this up for better future usage. Also changed the method for determining the tab to receive focus.
Doctor Module – License Notification – Added a license button to the top of the screen. As the doctor logs into the module, it checks all licensure in Assist and displays a count of the licenses found. If any of them have an expiration date in the next X days (default of 30 but configurable), the button is displayed in red. If the button is clicked, also added routing to a newly added license tab where the licensure information is displayed. Additionally, the ability to display the cost of renewal and the web link to perform the renewal is provided (assuming someone has entered the data).

September 2022

Stain Queue – Stain Drop Down Positioning – Changed the logic for the on demand scanning of slides. The protocol in the bar code was not positioning the stain drop down due to case sensitivity. Changed the screen to work regardless when pull up a stain value.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Show Record Number – Added this check box to the screen to allow for the equipment type record number to be provided as needed. Also added a check box for “Active Only” and a wild card description to the selection criteria.
Universal Slide – Stain Queue Write – Modified the routine that writes to the stain queue to include fields to allow for the tracking whether or not a stain queue record came from microtomy or directly from the stain queue by adding an on demand field to the table and the history audit trail.
Stain Queue – Robot Logic – Added logic to the stain queue to allow for the creation of stain files that are dumped on a “pending” file location to be picked up and sent to the staining platform by a robot program. Added fields to the stain request tracking table to track the file name, path, date/time stamp, etc. When this process is done to provide tracking of when the file is created and is ready to go to the equipment network. These time stamps can then be updated when the robot actually picks the files up and processes them.
Stain Queue – On demand scanning – Modified this routine to include a Y/N flag to indicate if this screen/methodology was used to pass an IHC into the staining platform rather than the pass-through directly from Microtomy/Stain Queue to indicate when manual processing is being done instead of automated workflow processes.
Stain Queue – On Demand Scanning – The scanned transactions that were being sent to the stain queue were not writing an audit trail entry. Changed this to provide full history audit trail tracking.
Interface Utility – Stain Queue Interface – Created a new robot routine to read through the stain request tracking records and send files that have been created via the stain queue to a staining platform interface. This handles scenarios where the stain queue is used on computers that have no routing or connectivity to the various staining platform servers.
Admin Web Site – Stain Queue Accession Maintenance – Modified this maintenance screen to set the “OnDemandEntry” field to “Y” if maintenance is performed on a stain queue entry to make sure to have the notification indicate that a web based override was performed on the stain queue record.
Admin Web Site – Stain Request Tracking Report – Modified this report to include the new fields associated with transmission of the files via robot instead of on demand directly from the stain queue.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Processing Run Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of equipment processing runs. This data reflects the time and capacity of equipment type runs of specimens and/or products. It is similar to the tissue size maintenance process but is being seperated to account for differences for ALL types of equipment and not just tissue processors. It is being seperated to allow for future equipment specific development without putting tissue processors at risk.
Quality Module – Modified the logic to suppress tabs and added the ability for each of the tabs contained inside the quality module. Also added the ability to default to any of the tabs at screen launch.
Manufacturing Module – Screen Handling Change – On logout scan, the user name was not getting cleared. Corrected this. On a new case scan, the start/end task scan were not getting set back to N/A. Corrected this.
Check In Module – Added the employee totals button to the screen to provide the employee with visibility to their scan totals.
Admin Web Site – Active Last Case Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to provide maintenance over this table which controls the scoreboard module view of active last cases.
Accessioning Module – Interface Notification Button – This button to update the last LIS interface update did not work for PathQuest interface items. Extended the logic to allow for branching to different interface paths based on LIS/Interface.
Universal Cassette Queue – Drop File Accession Length Check – When using the universal cassette queue in a drop file scenario, with multiple LIS platforms with different accession lengths.......the length was not toggling on each print. This caused leading zeros to be padded onto the base accession number with the length of the initial LIS rather than toggling to the correct size when the LIS changed.
Main Scanner Engine – On a print queue automation scan, there were a few fields that were not getting propagated. Added them to the write routine even with simple placeholder values.
Main Scanner Engine – Specimen Type History – Modified the routine where the specimen types are retrieved to load them into the scan history in addition to showing on the screen. This allows the employee to historically see what specimen types got captured for each block to better ensure accurate data.
Main Scanner Engine – Alternate cassette identifier – Added logic to allow for different cassette identifiers for use with the same matching requisition and bottle. This is very useful for grossing deployments where the cassette identifier is changed at a later date and both “types” of cassettes need to scan during transition.
Admin Web Site – Client Configuration Detail Maintenance – Print Template Value Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the screen so that individual detail values could be marked as a portion of the print template logic.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Transaction Report – End Task Date Inclusion. Added the end task date to the manufacturing task transaction report.
Print Center – Class 1 Label – Seperate external data pull to filter product listing. Provided the ability for the class 1 label routine to pull from a seperate external data source. Previously, this screen shared the same logic as the UDI label.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Listing Report – Cross Reference Bar Code. Added the cross reference bar code to the equipment listing report and also added the Asset number to the selection criteria.
Manufacturing Module – Inventory Requests Issues – When an inventory request was entered with the “close on save” enabled, the request would get entered and the screen would close correctly. If the button was clicked a second time, the screen would load with a filtered inventory product screen that did not work correctly. This was fixed.
Sample Testing - Manifest Utility – Modified the reprint routine to show tracking numbers at the detail level if they were specified at the detail level. FedEx number can be either at the header or the detail level. If at the header, they appear in the header of the manifest. If at the detail, they appear in the detail. Previously the detailed level Fedex numbers were getting ignored on the manifest.
Sample Testing - Manifest Utility – From/To History date range – Previously, there was a hardcoded “30 days back” logic that was applied when the drop-down boxes were pulled for history. By providing an actual from/to selection criteria, this data can be modified as needed.
Sample Testing – Manifest Utility – Manifest Number Reprint – Added a value to the screen for the manifest number. This will load if a value is clicked in the manifest drop down list, but can be keyed directly if the employee knows which manifest they want to reprint.
Sample Testing – Manifest Utility – Consolidated Tracking Numbers – Added logic to concatenate the tracking numbers at the header and detail submission levels (based on configuration flag) to allow for all carrier shipment tracking numbers to be displayed on the header of the manifest (if there are multiple). The individual tracking numbers can be show on the detail lines for clarification if there are multiple.
Sample Testing – Receving Tab – Accession Number must be numeric – Put a check on the save transaction to enforce that the accession number value entered is numeric.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Manifest Print Changes - Consolidated Tracking Numbers – Added logic to concatenate the tracking numbers at the header and detail submission levels (based on configuration flag) to allow for all carrier shipment tracking numbers to be displayed on the header of the manifest (if there are multiple). The individual tracking numbers can be show on the detail lines for clarification if there are multiple.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Client/Manifest Enforcement – Added a check to the manifest detail save routine to check if there are more than one client on a manifest and generate an error message if needed.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Manifest Header Save – Corrected issue where the material submitted details could get saved without the manifest number getting applied to all of the detail records.
Sample Testing – Communication Log Entry – Employee Group Assignment – Added the employee group assignment logic to the communication log entry screen to allow for the assignment of “to do” items to a specific employee group.
Sample Testing – Communication Log Entry – Comments Change – Mandatory Addition – Modified the logic so that the change of the comments forces a new record to be written to the database instead of a change to keep a true log of the comments.
Sample Testing – Object Conversion Tracking – The write routine was putting leading zeros on the accession numbers when they were added to the conversion table. Removed these from the logic.
Quality Module – Free Form Checkbox Header – Added a “free form” check box to the header section of the quality module to allow for manual entry of the accession prefix, specimen (i.e. bottle) and part (i.e. cassette) identifiers.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – Active Flag – Added an active flag and active license only criteria to this maintenance screen. This allows for the inactivation of doctor license records in scenarios where the records need to be maintenance of licene but where the license does not need to appear in the various places in Assist. For example, a doctor no longer works for the firm, but licensure tracking needs to be kept for historical purposes.
Stain Queue - On Demand Scanning – Protocol/Stain Lookup – If spaces were in the protocol/stain name that was placed into the bar code, the parsing engine that reads the bar codes was not “looking up” the bar code correctly. The scan parsing engine eats the blanks and creates a string that did not match the human readable in the drop down list. Changed the routine to consider the protocol WITH and WITHOUT embedded blanks when performing the lookup.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Task Employee Summary – Created this report to provide visibility to a summary of task scan activity by employee. This includes task start/end calculations.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Order Type Maintenance – SubAssembly and Finished Goods Checkboxes – Added these two fields to the screen to allow a manufacturing ordered to be classified as finished goods or sub assemblies.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Category Maintenance – Finished Goods Checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow for an inventory category to be set up to be finished goods only. This will allow for segmentation of inventory master records in the Assist inventory module.
Admin Web Site – UDI Label Type Maintenance – Finished Goods and Product Check Boxes. Added this checkboxes to the UDI label type maintenance screen to allow UDI labels to b designation as belonging to finished good products vs. Manufactured products. This allows for the triggering of the different UDI label templates to meet FDA requirements.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Category Maintenance – Sub Assembly and Finished Goods check boxes. Added these checkboxes to the maintenance screen to allow a recipe category to be designated as belonging to sub assembly vs. Finished goods for use in the Assist inventory module.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance – Use Default Protocol check box and Default Protocol Value. Added a text field to the maintenance screen to allow for the designation of a value that should be used for a protocol for all slides for the prefix assuming the use default protocol check box is checked.
Interface Utility Module – Missing Client Robot – Added an automated job that can be scheduled to compare material submission master records with no client number and attempt to update them from the LIS master table in case the client interface is lagging for some reason.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance – License Cost and License Notes. Added these two fields to the maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Report - License Cost and License Notes. Added these two fields to the report.
Admin Web Site – Expiration Tracking Report – Created this report to provide visibility to the expiration tracking information for memberships and subscriptions that are tracking through Assist.
Admin Web Site – Expiration Tracking Audit Log - Created this report to provide visibility to the expiration tracking audit log information for memberships and subscriptions that are tracking through Assist. The audit log represents all changes that are made to expiration records and provides detailed information on changes.
Admin Web Site – Expiration Tracking Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability to maintain expiration tracking information. This is the area of Assist where subscriptions and memberships are tracked.
Quality Module – Error Severity Maintenance – Modified this tab and maintenance screen to include the informational flag and font color. These two pieces of informational were previously not included in the maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Maintenance – UDIFlag, UDITemplate, UDILabelDesc, and UDI UOM. Added these fields to the inventory maintenance screen to support interaction between the inventory control portions of Assist and the printing of UDI labels specifically geared toward finished goods inventory items.
Admin Web Site – Protocol Structure Report – Human Text Override – Added this column to the report so that the human text alternative to the bar code value could be seen.
Quality Module – Expirations Tab/Tickler – Added a new red/green button to the top of the screen to display any “expiration/license” data that might exist inside Assist tracking. These expirations can be medical licenses, memberships in organizations, really anything with a membership number and an expiration date. A tickler button is at the top of the screen to show the count of them along with green if they are all good or red if some number of them are expiring within the warning threshhold.
Admin Web Site – UDI UOM Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of UDI unit of measure mappings. In the world of UDI labels, the governmental list of units of measure do not match the actual numeric value. In other words, there are numeric codes that represent the true UOM data. This maintenance screen allows for the maintenance of this cross reference data.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance – UDI Filter – Added a check box to the selection criteria on this screen to allow for filtering based on the inventory master items that have been marked as UDI items.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Master Maintenance – Redistribute and Manufacture checkboxes. Modified this screen to allow for the specification of whether a recipe is for manufacture of a new product using sub-assembly components or represents the simple redistribution of an existing item with no sub assembly other than something simple such as repackaging.

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Fourth Quarter 2022 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

October 2022

Sample Testing – Default Tab – Added the ability to specify a default tab so that the screen can load in a custom manner.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Pop Up Screen - Close On Save Option – Added an option to the screen to show a check box for “close on save” and set a configuration variable to allow this to be on or off and to have the screen respond appropriately to the option.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Pop Up Screen – Communication Log Tree Severity Color – Modified the communication log tree to show the log message header in the severity color to have high severity items visually stand out more.
Sample Testing – Holding Site Maintenance – When a new holding site is entered, or an existing one is modified, the underlying specimen order screen did not default to the newly added/maintained holding site immediately upon return from the pop up maintenance screen. Defaulted this to cut down on having to select the site under the premise that the newly added one would want to immediately be used.
Sample Testing- Specimen Order Pop Up Screen – Date of Birth Checkbox – added a checkbox to the date of birth to indicate that the date HAS been specified and should be considered valid. The default on date controls is “today” and wanted a better way of indicating that the data had really been entered.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Pop Up Screen – Specimen Tests – Changed the error message to indicate on a NEW order that a save must be performed to create the order before you can being entering tests against the order. The message was a little misleading as to the issue previously.
Admin Web Site - UDI Label Type Maintenance – Use Inventory Desc – Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen. It supports the printing of UDI labels for finished goods items where the description to print on the label should be the product description from the inventory master file and not a brand name associated with the UDI label header.
Inventory Module – Finished Goods Functionality – Added a tab to the inventory module to support the tracking of finished goods. This tab largely mimics the manufacturing order tab with the exception that sub assemblies are not being created, finished goods (i.e. sales supplies, etc.) are being created. Supports the concept of manufacturing (i.e. kitted) finished goods as well as repackaged or redistributed finished goods.
Inventory Module – UDI Label Printing – Added the ability on the new finished goods tab to allow for the printing of lot number finished goods UDI labels for items that fall under FDA control. The indicator for UDI is allowed at the inventory master maintenance level (discussed earlier in the change log).
Admin Web Site - Equipment Master Maintenance – Equipment Bar Code Criteria. Added this criterion to the screen.
Admin Web Site – UDI Label Revisions Report – Suppress Label Header, Finished Goods Flag, Product Flag, Use Inventory Description. Added all of these new reports to the revision report to make sure full visibility to the revision changes exists from a control standpoint.
Admin Web Site – Department Maintenance – Timeclock Department Code – Added this field to the maintenance screen so that a timeclock department code could be tied to the department code for employees in Assist to better define the interface.
Admin Web Site – Recipe Batch Maintenance – Modified the selection criteria to include From/To date, Status, Lot number, and batch name to make it easier to identify the records to change.
Document Capture – Modified to allow for changes to the automatic file naming. Allows for optional insertion of a dash between the prefix and accession number. Only adds an 01, 02, etc. To the file name if it already exists. Allow for the creation of a file folder if needed but otherwise save into a single folder typically ordered by Year, Month.
Document Capture – Forward after save – Added logic to allow for a file to be copied to an alternative path after saving the image. Added logic to show the copy path and throw a message to the screen to indicate that the copy was successful. Added fields to the database to keep all of this new data.
Admin Web Site – Timeclock Platform Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the creation and maintenance of timeclock platforms. These represent the various types of timeclocks that might exist inside the organization and will part of the timeclock interface logic being introduced.
Timeclock Robot – Paylocity Timeclock – Created this robot routine to upload the paylocity brand time clock into Assist. The data is loaded into the raw Timeclock punch data table in the database.
Admin Web Site – Email Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the email type. This is the beggining of the introduction of stored email records as part of the notifications process.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Team Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing team types. This is part of the manufacturing module and allows for the logical grouping of teams (i.e. cells or assembly lines).
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Team Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing teams. This is part of the manufacturing module and represents the grouping of employees together to work as a unit (ex. Cells or assembly lines).
Admin Web Site – Email Library Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of email library items. This is part of the email storage to allow for forms to be created in email.
Admin Web Site – Attachment Library Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of items in the attachment library. This is part of the attachment storage areas of Assist and represent forms and things of that nature that can be stored and attached to different activities/transactions.
Admin Web Site - MFG Task Employee Summary – Time Clock Data – Modified this report to include timeclock data and also include multiple statistics.
PM Module – Equipment Bar Code Scanning – Added multiple items associated with the cross reference bar code. Added it to the selection criteria on the equipment lookup. Added the ability to scan the bar code and pull up the item on the maintenance screen and on the main PM tab.
Admin Web Site – Timeclock Punch Data Report – Created this report to provide visibility to raw timeclock punch data for sites that have a live interface into their timeclock platform(s).
Admin Web Site – Active Last Case Layout Details – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the active last case layout details. This is a section of the Assist scoreboard module and allows for the mapping of machines/scan points to a big screen view of the last case that was processed. This screen is the mapping of those collection points to a scoreboard.
Admin Web Site – MFG Team Type Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing team type templates. This is the section of Assist manufacturing where a combination of scanning roles is defined. This is useful in determining what manufacturing tasks are being performed in a cell or assembly line.
Admin Web Site – Batch Type Maintenance – FISH Batch Checkbox and control object count. Added a check box to this screen to allow for the marking of a batch type as a FISH batch. Also added a text box to capture the number of control objects that should be involved with the batch type.
Admin Web Site – Batch Status FISH Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of FISH batch status values. This allows for the capture of Open, Pending, Closed status values for FISH batches.
Admin Web Site – MFG Team Membership Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of manufacturing team membership. This is where the members of a team can be assigned via the web site instead of from the modules themselves.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Order Step Maintenance – Email Drop Down – Added this drop down list to the maintenance screen to allow for the assignment of automated email messages that can be generated in response to the specimen order step being saved against a case.
MFG Module – LIS MFG Task Retrieval – Modified the logic to change where the retrieval for the outstanding tasks was performed. It needed to be moved to more accurately capture the tasks that should be retrieved.
Manufacturing QC Module – Task Transaction Rework – The SQL statement to perform the cancellation of a manufacturing task transaction had a syntax error that was causing it to not launch correctly. Fixed this syntax error.
Manufacturing QC Module – Rework MSP drop down – Modified the logic when this screen loads. If there is only one MSP for a product, pre-selected this product.
Manufacturing QC Module – Rework Print On Save Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the rework entry screen. Having this checked allows for the printing of the rework paperwork automatically on save of the rework to save time.
Manufacturing QC Module – Rework Request – Management Cancel Value – Modified the rework request save routine to add a “N” to the management cancel value that has been added to the database. This value can be set to “Y” via the web screen for management flagging of a rework as not warranted.
Inventory Master Listing – UDI Data Fields – Added the various UDI data fields to the inventory master listing along with a UDI Only check box in the selection criteria to pull only a listing of inventory items that are marked as FDA UDI items.
MFG Tasks Maintenance – Available QC Module Check Box – Added a checkbox to the manufacturing task maintenance screen to allow for the specification of whether or not a manufacturing task should be visible in the scanning tab of the module. This cuts down on visual clutter and reduces scanning/entry mistakes.
Manufacturing QC Module – Available QC Module Drop Down Filter – Modified the loading of the drop down list on the scanning tab to take into account the available check box for the QC module.
Manufacturing QC Module – Default scanning task – Modified the module to look at the default MFG task value from the client configuration and default the MFG task drop down on the scanning tab to match this task.
Manufacturing QC Module – Button Change – On the MFG task scanning tab, changed the “Add” and “Delete” buttons to be smaller and carry the standard Assist buttons for add (Green +) and delete (red X). This makes the module more consistent with overall application design and saves screen space.
Rework Request Report – Management Cancel Field – Added this field to the report to provide visibility to rework requests that are overridden by management and are cancelled.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Business Area – Added this drop down to the order type maintenance screen so that a relationship can be specified between an order type and the business area to which the order type applies. This will be used in a variety of filtering situations.
Admin Web Site – Order Category Notification Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the specification of employee groups that can/should receive a notification when an order is placed against a specific order category. This is part of the inbound specimen sample testing module.
Admin Web Site – Communication Log Source Maintenance – Modified this screen to make sure that the same business area is not used more than once to control the communication log assignments.
Manufacturing QC Module – Login/Logout Buttons – After successful login, the logout button was not visible. Corrected this.
Manufacturing QC Module – Task Start/Task End – Added the task start and end logic to the Manufacturing QC module to be able to track TAT on QC scans.
Manufacturing QC Module – Specimen Complexity – Added the specimen complexity logic to the QC module to allow for the display and override of the specimen complexity information.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Banking Only Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to provide for the ability to mark an order as “banking only”. This is useful for facilities that prepare specimens that will not be used up during testing, but rather are placed on slides (etc.) and stored/banked for future use.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Micron Depth Allowed and Enrichment Allowed – Added this checkboxes to the screen to allow for the capture of these data elements.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Template Detail Maintenance – Enrichment Ordered Checkbox – Added this to the screen to allow for enrichment orders to be included in a template when ordering by default.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Report – Enrichment Ordered – Added this column to the report to provide visibility to doctor orders placed with enrichment.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Audit Report – Administration Button – This button returned the employee to the “screen” main page instead of “reports”. Fixed this issue.
Admin Web Site – Order Category Maintenance – Enrichment Allowed Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the order category maintenance screen so that it can be used to filter the enrichment checkbox on the order entry pop up screen in the sample testing module.
Sample Testing – Enrichment Logic – added the logic throughout the entry process in the sample testing module to capture enrichment data.

November 2022

Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance – Alternate Description – Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for an additional full description to be stored to cross reference descriptions and further describe a specimen.
Check In – Equipment Assignment Changes – Duplicate Equipment Types - Added the ability for mulitple pieces of the same equipment type to be assigned to a session. Previously, there could only be one piece of a specific equipment type assigned, but for stations that have multiple devices that they work with, this was a problem.
Check In – Equipment Drop Down – Changed the logic to only show records in the drop down based on the equipment assignment for the computer. Also added an “all equipment” check box to allow for the toggling of all equipment vs. Just the equipment assigned to the session.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Maintenance – Equipment Capacity – Added this field to the screen to allow for the capacity of a piece of equipment to be tracked for use in the check in module.
Equipment Maintenenance Module – Equipment Capacity – Added this field to the equipment maintenance tab to allow for the maintenence of the equipment capacity information.
Grossing Notes Report – Grossing Notes and Clinical criteria. Added the grossing notes and clinical information wild card to the criteria.
Universal Cassette POU – Rx Image button and check on scan – Added logic to look for an Rx image when a requisition is scanned if the automatic Rx Lookup check box is checked and also added a button to manually pull the data. If an Rx is “seen” at Requisition scan, turn the background of the button green.
Universal Cassette POU – Protocol in bar code vs. Specimen type in DB logic. For sites that have a specimen type contained in the bottle bar code, there can be a conflict if the data in the bar code exists and is different from the specimen type already mapped in the database. Modified the logic to use the bar code specification UNLESS the DB holds a value from employee override or LIS interface in which case the DB wins the fight.
Universal Cassette POU – Body Source Lookup – Modified the logic used for the body source lookup for sites that use the LIS Patient verification process. Allows for logic with pulling a short code out of the body site description to then use to pull the full description from the Assist body site master table.
Check In Module – Run History Details – Modified the right hand section of the module. When a run/batch is selected from the drop down list, now the details associated with the batch are displayed (Start date, end date, unloaded date, equipment description, run description) before the details of the run (i.e. cases or accessions) to provide better information.
Check In Module – MFG Task Batch Scanning – Added an entire functional area to the check in module to support manufacturing tasks and batch scanning. This supports sites that need to task scan against multiple cases before then submitting the entire batch into a piece of equipment for processiing.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance – From Department and From Phone – Added these two fields to the busiiness unit maintenance screen. These are part of the interactive form logic and are used to hold return phone numbers and departments inside the forms. This is especially useful when working with fax cover sheets.
Admin Web Site – Attachment Library Maintenance – Interactive Form Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the attachment library maintenance screen. This will be used inside the various applications that make use of the form attachment library to use either static stored forms or to prompt for interactive information.
Sample Testing – Interactive Form Logic/Pop Up Screen – Added logic to the specimen ordering screen to handle the display of the form attachment library. This functionality supports the printing/creation of forms such as fax coversheets and other types of forms associated with client interaction.
Sample Testing – Interactive Form Checkbox – Added this checkbox to support forms that exist as both interactive forms AND as static forms so that the employee can choose on a case by case basis which version of the form to launch when it is selected from the library.
Universal Microtomy – Always Protocol Settings – Added logic to the point of use slide routine to always default a protocol value into the bar code if neccesary. A default protocol (ex. “HE”) can be defaulted so that there is always a value in the bar code. This is driven by a configuration flag to turn the feature on AND a value is stored in the accession prefix table to turn it on by prefix with the default value allowed at that level so that it can be turned on at the data level.
Universal Microtomy – Doctor order retrieval – no user id mapping – The doctor order logic needed there to be a valid cross reference ID between Assist and the ordering LIS. Modified the logic so that if no mapped is found, to just show the raw ordering identifier in the name column to have the routine work regardless of LIS mapping.
Interface Utility – Order Type Interface – No Mapped User ID – Modified the order type interface robot. Previously, when a doctor order was being processed, a connection to the Assist doctor file was done via cross reference in order to load an order OR the order got saved with the requesting doctor reflected as “robot”. Changed this to simply show the unmapped ID value.
Doctor Closeout – User Name for non mapped users – Using the same logic as indicated above for the robot, if the ordering doctor value was not mapped to an Assist doctor, just show the ID in the name field rather than “robot”.
Doctor Closeout – User ID free form check box and text box/criteria logic. To support the logic of the ID being shown if there is no user mapping, added a free form selection criteria choice to pull back a single ID instead of a selection from the drop down (which would indicate a mapping existed).
Admin Web Site – Attachment Form Layout Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the attachment form layout data. These elements represent the form layouts for the electronic storage of attachments.
Scoreboard – Doctor Order Closeout Board – User ID if no name. The scoreboard that shows doctor orders was modified to show the ordering doctor ID in the name field if there is no name mapped to the doctor.
Universal Cassette POU – Patient Direct Print – In direct print mode (as opposed to drop file) there was no logic to include the patient name and to control the printing (i.e. X/Y, size, etc.). Added this to provide additional cassette printing flexibility.
Universal Cassette POU Magazine/Specimen Type Interaction – Modified the cassette point of use logic to default the magazine from the specimen type when relevant. Previously, this worked using the block/slide instructions data in the middle of the transaction.
Universal Cassette POU – Cache was displayed even direct print – Corrected this visual oversight where a cache directory was being shown even if the cache was not relevant for the configuration.
Universal Slide POU – Slide bar code compare to LIS Office Queue – For sites that compare Assist generated bar codes to LIS bar codes, added the ability at slide scan to determine if the slide created is anticipated by the LIS and to write to the database if there is a discrepancy and write to the office queue for entry into the LIS.
Admin Web Site – Office Queue Report – Full Bar Code – Added the full bar code field to the office queue report. This data can be useful when comparing LIS discrepancy comparisons.
Office Queue – LIS Bar Code Discrepancy Queue – Full Bar code and Protocol changes.
Admin Web Site – Control Tissue Maintenance – Histology, PCR, FISH, Flow, Cytogenetics checkboxes. Added these check boxes to the maintenance screen to allow for the categorization of the control tissue and the filtering when loading into drop down boxes.
Admin Web Site – Training Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training types. This is used in multiple modules of Assist and reflects the types of training (i.e. production, human resources, etc.) that can be tracked/performed.
Admin Web Site – Training Media Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training media types. This is used in multiple modules of Assist and reflects the types of training media (i.e. video, images, documents) that can exist.
Check In Module – Run Count – Modified the check in process to update the run count by 1 every time the processing run button is clicked. This gives a count of the number of times the run processing has been done and can be tied into the preventative maintenance process.
Admin Web Site – Training Media Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of training media. These are the training materials that can be accessed via the training functionality in Assist.
Admin Web Site – Training Choices Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the assignment of training materials to employees, departments, and manufacturing tasks as necessary to meet the requirements of training programs.
Office Queue Closeout – Criteria pass through to print log screen. Modified the routinie that launches the print log to take any criteria that has been entered on the underlying screen to the print log screen so that the criteria does not have to be specified a second time.
Office Queue Closeout – Log Print – Add Protocol value and full bar code. – Modified the log print routine to include these two additional columns.
Office Queue Closeout – Center log print pop up screen. Modified the print log screen so that it is centered on the parent screen when it is launched to be consistent with the other modules.
Interface Robot – PathQuest Interface – Check for full bar code in office queue – Modified this robot to check for the full bar in the office queue before writing it into the list of doctor orders. This eliminates redundancy where the order got entered and passed into Assist because of an exception in the office queue.
Universal Cassette POU – Specimen Type Abbreviation in description – Added a check box to the screen to allow for the opt in/out of showing the specimen type abbreviation in front of the specimen description when the drop down box is loaded.
Universal Cassette POU – Molecular Object Scanning – Resolved an issue where a message was being sent to the screen notifying that an invalid object had been scanned on the vial object.

December 2022

Check In Module – Equipment Processing Run Auto Close – The check for active processing runs was not working perfectly. If a run was active when the equipment was chosen, it would close it if the timeframe was exceeded but would not immediately notify that the equipment was available. If the equipment was selected a second time, it would reflect it as available. Adjusted so that both happen at the same time.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Type Listing – Extended this report to include protocols and protocol details so that a full break down of the doctor order type and how it will be reflected in slide printing routines can be seen.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Order Only No Print Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for orders to be marked just as orders but not to print at Microtomy. This supports the use of orders outside of histology labs (i.e. PCR, Fish, etc.) where the order is entered but slides should not print.
Admin Web Site – Scan Rate Report – Cleaned up the critieria section of the screen to make more consistent and visually appealing.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – “T” button. The pop up screen that is fired from this button did not filter to only show the orders for the extraction type that was selected. Correct this.
Interface Utility – Pathway Interface – Override Interface Logic – Added logic to the Pathway interface to consider the override interface flag when loading LIS interface information. This flag, if found ON for an accession number will skip it from updates as it would indicate that the employee manually made an entry that they do NOT want overridden by the interface robot job.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Resequence Button – Modified the logic behind the resequence button so that it only resequences unstained slides. Previously, stained slides and paraffin blocks could also be resequenced, which does not make sense.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab - Override Interface Check Box – Modified the save routine on the receiving tab to include the override interface check box and to save this data into the LIS interface table to mark an LIS interface record as something that a subsequent run from an interface should not override.
Universal Cassette – Pathway Location Identifier not triggering mismatch – Discovered an issue that could impact labs that use the Pathway LIS at grossing. If the same exact accession number, and suffix are process back to back, but with different location identifiers...and a mismatch is performed, the difference in location identifier was not noted. This was corrected.
Check In – Processor Batch Drop Down load – User Filter. Modified the processor history drop down load to have a check box to provide the choice of opting to ONLY see the equipment runs for the logged in employee or all of them.
Check In – Batch Task Scanning – Unload closes active batch. Modified the logic around equipment and task scanning batches to have the unload button actually close the batch.
Check In – Button Bar Codes – Added bar code functionality for load batch, close batch, and positioning of the batch history to cut down on the need to interact with the mouse.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Type Maintenance – Batch Only Type Checkbox. Added a check box to the equipment type maintenance screen to allow an equipment type to be marked a an equipment type solely for the purpose of batching. This is relevant for scenarios were a “batch” of specimens are being worked on and the “equipment” is a tabletop, drying station, etc.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance – Default Delay Days – Addd the default delay days field to the business unit maintenance. This value will be used for defaulting the delay notification in client/customer communications when an order cannot be processed normally.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance – Auto Release – Added this check box to the maintenance screen to mark a case hold reason as a value that will flag and immediately release. This is done to phase in/out case holds that also trigger QC information.
Universal Cassette POU – Case Hold Auto Release Logic – Added logic to the patient verification process to immediately release a case from hold if it is set to “auto release”. This allows for the case to show in history as a hold with an immediate release to note the impact of introducing a case hold and also to generate a QC message.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Audit Log Report – Robot User name – For specimen type transactions that were generated by an interface robot, the records were not showing up on the report due to lack of a match to a user name. Added the value “ROBOT” to include these rows on the report.
Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Maintenance – Run Cancelled and MFG Task. Added a check box to allow for a timer run to be marked as cancelled and also the ability to put in a manufacturing task if needed.
Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Report – Run Cancelled and MFG Task. Modified this report to include the run cancelled field and the manufacturing task.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Report – Task Cancelled and Task Cancelled Date. Modified this report to include the task cancelled Y/N value and the task cancelled date if relevant.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Transaction Report – Task Scan Cancelled. Modified this report to include the task scan cancelled Y/N value.
QC Module – Lab Operations Grid Click Criteria – The click of the lab informations rows now loads the critiera for prefix and accession into the fields on the other tabs.

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First Quarter 2023 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

January 2023

Scanner Engine – Pieces Font style pulled into configuration – Moved the settings for the pieces font into the configuration so that the font size, style, and field locations can be modified as needed by site rather than the settings being hard coded.
Universal Slide – Increased QC notes font size – Moved some of the buttons in the ribbon down to allow for an increase in font size to 16 from 12 to improve readability.
Universal Cassette – Debug Specimen Type Setting – Added a flag to the configuration to allow for message box pop ups to show the specimen type information to be used when debugging mapping issues.
Warehouse Module – Multiple Outbound Screen – Button Changes – Changed the buttons on this pop-up screen inside the warehouse module to match other buttons in Assist modules.
Warehouse – Object Filing – Utility and Void button changes – Changed the button sizes on the screen and the icons to be more consistent with the other modules of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Drawer Maintenance – No selections – If no filtering had been done to get into the appropriate warehouse structure, and the retrieve button was pressed, the screen would not load and would not send an error message. Corrected this to send an error to screen indicating that selections must be made.
Print Center – Multple Format Label Screen – Identifier on End - Added logic to have the toggle between PW and Non-PW LIS change the identifier on end check box where relevant.
Admin Web Site – Control Tissue Maintenance – Control Print Template, Control Label Description, Control CAP description
Sample Testing – Controls Warehouse – On demand ad hoc print screen – On the controls warehouse screen, added a print button to pop-up a screen to allow for the ad hoc printing of free form controls. Added multiple lines of content as well as the ability to pick the tissue.
Admin Web Site – Warehouse Destruction Picklist Report – Add From/To date criteria. Put this selection criteria on the report to allow for filtering of the data.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Search Description Criteria. Added a search description field to the maintenance screen to allow for the filtering of material types.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Sequence Generation – Modified the logic on sequencing to place a zero value in the sequence field for all material types other than unstained slides. Previously, the sequence value was a 1 which could cause sorting confusion with objects that DO legitimately use sequences.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Pathway LIS Add On Orders – Discovered an issue with the Pathway LIS where add on orders placed on a package from a prior calendar year would carry the location identifier of the new year instead of the original year for which the case was created.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Rush Selection Criteria – Added a checkbox in red font to the selection criteria section of the screen on the receiving tab to allow for the retrieval of “RUSH” cases.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Detail Grid Rush Designation. Modified the detailed grid to color code the material type in red font if the detail record has a rush designation.
Sample Testiing – Rush Button – Added a “Green/Red” button at the top of the screen with a RUSH designation and count to allow for visual ease in determining how many rush cases exist in the system.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Item Count Value. The count value at the top of the grid was off by one.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Clear Manifest Value. Changed the settings to clear the manifest number from the screen in the header area and the detail area after saving the record and generating the manifest.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Reload Inbound/Outbound. Modified the logic when a save action is performed on the shipping tab to automatically reload the inbound/outbound grid. Previously, the saved transaction on the shipping tab were not visible on the inbound/outbound tab without clicking the retrieve button again.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – No Remaining Criteria. Added a checkbox to the selection criteria for “No Remaining Items”. This allows employees to filter so that they only see packages in the summary view that have had all of their child objects returned.
Sample Testing – Shipment Tab – Manifest Tracking Number Changes. Modified the manifest printing routine so that the tracking number is only shown once in the header. It was getting duplicated in the header in some circumstances. Also set the child manifest to suppress if it is a duplicate of the header to cut down on noise.
Sample Testing – Shipment Tab – Manifest Utility - Modified the manifest reprinting routine so that the tracking number is only shown once in the header. It was getting duplicated in the header in some circumstances. Also set the child manifest to suppress if it is a duplicate of the header to cut down on noise.
Sample Testing – Manifest Utility – Automatically Uncheck Unassigned – In the selection criteria of the manifest utility, there is a checkbox to allow for the filtering of objects that are unassigned to a manifest. It can be confusing if a manifest is selected, but this checkbox is still selected and does not return data. Added logic that if the manifest is selected in the dropdown box, to automatically uncheck the unassigned value.
Sample Testing – Manifest Utility – All Material Criteria with Default. Added the all materials checkbox with the ability to default by the configuration to better control the defaults on the screen.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Date Criteria. Added from/to date criteria for both the “created” and the “returned” date to the selection criteria to better enable the ability to find relevant data on the screen.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Material Returned Column. Added the material returned column to the detailed grid.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Status Connection. Corrected an issue where the grid data was mismatched from the package header to the wrong status file. This was causing incorrect status values to show in the grid.
Interface Utility – Pathway Client Load – Sometimes, the Pathway LIS interface feed is sending empty client records over. These were getting written to the exception table. Changed the robot to simply suppress these transactions to cut down on the noise.
Interface Utility – Package Automatic Close Robot. Created a new interface utility job. It looks for packages with an open status but no detail material that needs to be returned and closes them after they have been in the system for more than 48 hours.
Sample Testing – Receving Tab – Detail Grid. Changed the grid to sort by sequence and then material type sort order and then material type description.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Material Ordering Screen – Increased the width of this pop-up screen and several of the grids to make the information more readable.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab – Detail View No Loading. Found an issue involving the detail view not loading if the date criteria was specified.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab – Save without Login. The screen was not checking to ensure an employee was logged in when a save was performed.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Object Conversion Tracking Data. Modified the process that creates the object conversion tracking data (i.e., unstained sides) to include the package and package detail record that generated the object records.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Object Conversion Deletion. Modified the delete process of a child object to clear any object conversion tracking information that was generated when the material was added to a package. Previously, the objects were not getting removed which made it appear as if more objects (ex. Unstained slides) existed for use than did.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Material Ordering Screen. Provided the ability to apply a singled order type against multiple objects if they are checked.
Universal Slide – Material Type Integration. Found an issue with a paraffin block material type with both unstained and stained slides that were entered via the Sample Testing module. Slide transactions were getting generated for the stained slides (i.e., client slides) when they should not have been printed.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Label Print – Modified the label print logic to not print the sequence number if it is zero. A change was made previously to no longer put a sequence number on material other than unstained sides. Since the sequence was printing by default on the various other material types, a zero was getting printed.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Description Search. Added a search field at the top of the screen to filter the material type based on description.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab – Concentraion Value Application. Modified the method used for applying concentrations to PCR Batches. Once a value is specifed, it will duplicate across ALL tests for the same extraction batch for the same accession number.
Admin Web Site – Culture Type Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the Cytogenetics feature add to the sample testing module. This screen allows for the creation of culture types or groupings that will be used to stratify and organize cultures.
Admin Web Site – Antibody Master Maintenance – Flow Flag – Added a checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow for an Antibody to be marked as a Flow specific antibody.
Admin Web Site – Culture Master Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of cultures. This is part of the sample testing module where cultures are tracked.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Listing – Employee Criteria Error – The logic behind the criteria for the employee was flawed. It stopped looking at the user ID once it encountered a dash. That means any user ID with a dash in it would not pull data correctly.
Universal Slide POU – Sequence Specification – Added logic to the universal POU to allow for the manual specification of sequence numbers when printing slides. In technical component scenarios, a client might submit a block that has already been cut from and want slides produced starting with a specific sequence or slide number. If Assist is tracking the first cut of this slide, the routine already worked. If it needs to start at a different sequence, the field needed to be available for specification as a starting point. Added this to the screen with the ability to show/suppress as needed by configuration.
Universal Slide POU – Duplicate Count – In order to better support the addition of manual sequence logic to the module, moved the duplicate count value (which is rarely used) to a less prominant location on the screen and reduced the size of the font to fit in better.
Universal Slide POU – Sequence Add to Specimen/Part. Allowed for the ability to print the slide sequence number as a “dash value” on the end of the specimen/part if needed (i.e., A1-1). Also provided the ability to reflect this change in the bar code. This was largely done to support client requirements to put the sequence in the bar code.
Universal Slide POU – Pieces Issue with Pathway and prior year cases. For the Pathway LIS, there was a scenario where the “Pieces” information could carry forward from a prior year. Corrected the way this retrieval is performed.
Universal Slide POU – Patient Demographics issue with Pathway and prior year cases. For the Pathway LIS, there was a scenario where patient information could carry forward from a prior year. Corrected the way this retrieval was performed.
Check In – MFG Batch Scanning – Parent/Child MFG Tasks – Added extensive logic to the check in module for manufacturing tasks. The batch logic had been previously added, but the ability to have a batch of cases/accessions that also applied to a GROUP of tasks did not exist. Added this logic to create multiple individual task transactions off the scanning of a parent task number.
Interface Utility – Order Load – Multiple parts – Found an issue where it was possible for the multi cassette identifier (i.e., part) to get truncated if more than one character and only reflect the second character (i.e., A-18 gets downloaded as A-8). Corrected this.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Bundle Maintenance – Cleaned up the screen to be more visually appealing and consistent with the other maintenance screens.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Holdng Site Maintenance – Contact Name. Added a contact name to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a default employee name to reference when dealing with a holding site.
Sample Testing – Specimen Holding Site Maintenance – Contact Name. Added a contact name to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a default employee name to reference when dealing with a holding site. This is for the maintenance area inside the sample testing module.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Delay Reason capture and SpecimenDelayHistory. Added the abililty to write delay reasons into a history table to keep track of all the delays that have been speified over time on a specimen order. Also added the specimen delay reason information into the notes on the communication log.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Contact Name. Added the ability to capture a contact name to be associated with a specimen order to keep track of the employee that was being worked with in the processing of the order.
Admin Web Site – Attachment Form Library Maintenance – Delay Form Type. Added a checkbox for the delay form type to be able to mark an attachment form in the library as a delay form.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Print Interactive Forms – New Variables. Added variables for Holding Site Contact name, delay days, and delay reasons to the interactive form logic.
Sample Testing – Specimen Ordering – Print Form – Refresh Button. Added a refresh button to the screen to allow for changes to the data fields on the screen and to have these values refresh into the variable driven information in the interactive form.
Admin web Site – Specimen Delay Reason Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of specimen delay reasons. These reasons are used inside the sample testing module and allow for the indication of specific traceable reasons for the delay of a specimen.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Reference Type Maintenance – Default Path. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for a default network/computer path to be specified to be associated with a reference type. Typically used in the upload of attachments inside the specimen tracking/specimen order section of Assist.
Main Scanner Engine – Case Components Tree. Extended the screen to better accomodate the text being reflected in the case components tree area of the screen.
Main Scanner Engine – Pieces Information Positioning. The X/Y coordinates for the pieces information was getting overridden in different places on the screen. Changed the logic to consistently position to the same place regardless.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Part Identifier on Non-Block objects – An issue was found where the “mandatory part number logic” was getting applied to material types where a part number would not be relevant such as formalin bottles. Modified so that the logic only applies when the material type requires.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Location Identifier getting cleared on save. For the Pathway LIS, the location identifier was getting clear on the screen after generating notifications and was not getting loaded back correctly when the screen reloaded. Corrected this.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Screen not clearing on criteria selection if no data. If a package was selected, and then selection criteria was specified that returned no packages, the package drop down would reflect not specified, but the screen was not clearing of the prior case. Corrected this.
Universal Slide POU – Intentional Logout clears scan history. On the slide POU screen, put logic in place to clear the scan history if a logout transaction is performed via either the logout button click or the scanning of the logout bar code. If the logout occurs due to the automatic inactivity timeout, the history is left. This allows for history to survive a timeout but to provide the option via configuration to clear the last cases worked by an employee when leaving for the day.
Universal Slide POU – Patient Name Abbreviation Logic. Modified the patient name logic to allow for the specification of the number of digits to use when printing a patient name on a slide. The logic now allows for the specification of a number of character limits for first and last name assuming the interface into Assist carries the data in two fields.
Universal Slide POU – Free Form Checkbox and Refresh Button. An issue was identified where if the employee had clicked on the “Free Form” checkbox to type in protocols and then clicked the “refresh protocols” button, the screen would show the protocol drop down but the free form checkbox was still clicked. Modified to not display the protocol drop down after a refresh and “honor” the free form checkbox.
Unviersal Slide POU – Patient Override Disable. Added a configuration choice to allow for the disable of the patient override option for sites that do not want to have that ability provided to employees.
Universal Slide POU – Scan Classification Override Defaults based on configuration change. Added logic so that if a configuration change is performed that the scan classification override will match the default source of the configuration that was chosen. This is to help in not logging scan transactions incorrectly (i.e., Microtomy vs. IHC vs. Facing, etc.) for sites that capture the specific types of transactions.
Universal Slide POU – Login clears history if new employee. Added an additional ability to clear the scan history when a “new” employee logs into a session but to allow for the history to remain if the same employee logs back in. This supports the return of an employee that has auto logged out.
Universal POU – Send Keys – Pad Zeros Logic – The copy clipboard feature of Assist gives the ability for a site to determine if leading zeros should passed into Windows or not. The feature had a flaw where it was padding based on the size of the last accession successfully parsed rather than on the default maximum number of digits for the number wheel. Corrected this.
Universal Slide POU – Mandatory Slide Transaction Scan Only. Added the ability to place a check to require a slide (i.e., child scan) transaction after a cassette per SOP if a site wants to mandate a slide scan for a cassette
Universal Slide POU – Clear Button – Added a clear button to the slide point of use screen to provide the ability for an employee to clear the screen especially if in scan only mode with mandatory slide object scan enforcement. Otherwise, it can be difficult for an employee to keep processing if a bad cassette transaction is submitted via scanner or manual entry.
Universal Slide POU – Scan Only Manual Entry Features. Added multiple features to support the ability to use the screen in scan only mode to accomodate manual cassettes and manual slides.
Universal Slide POU – Doctor Order View. Visual Changes and sequence number. Made some cosmetic changes to the doctor order view to make the panel more visually appealing. Also modified the order listing itself to include the sequence number if one is present.
Universal Slide POU – Scan History – Sequence Number – Modified the scan history window to show the sequence number from the slide if one is present.
Admin Web Site – Culture Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the status values that can be associated with a culture inside the Sample Testing, Cytogenetics tab.
Warehouse – Void Pop Up – Visual Changes – Modified this pop-up screen to include button icons to make the screen match the rest of the warehouse module. Also added select all and unselect all button to the screen.
Warehouse – Rescan Pop Up – Visual Changes. Modified this pop-up screen to include button icons to make the screen match the rest of the warehouse module.
Warehouse – Picklist Screen – Create Picklist button. Added a button to this screen to allow for a picklist to be manually generated.

Warehouse – Warehouse/Cabinet Assignment – Multiple Changes – Rearranged the screen to be more visually appealing. Placed the cabinet scan field at the top and put the new destination warehouse information at the bottom. Modified the routine to include a logout button. Added a checkbox to allow for a choice between automatically filiing on cabinet scan or showing on the screen and allowing for a button to perform the move. Set the selection of the warehouse location drop-down values to automatically load the storage listing area.
Warehouse –Cabinet/Drawer Assignment – Multiple Changes – Rearranged the screen to be more visually appealing. Placed the drawer scan field at the top and put the new destination warehouse information at the bottom. Modified the routine to include a logout button. Added a checkbox to allow for a choice between automatically filiing on drawer scan or showing on the screen and allowing for a button to perform the move. Set the selection of the storage cabinet drop-down values to automatically load the storage listing area.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Maintenance. Show license number. Added the license number to the default grid view on this maintenance screen.
Admin Web Site – Employee Screen Report Listing – Active Only Flag. Added logic to enforce the active only flag for both entry and as part of the selection criteria to cut down on visual clutter.
Admin Web Site – Corporate Division Maintenance – LISCrossReference Field. Added a cross reference field to allow for the integration of divisions into other systems.
Admin Web Site – Department Master Maintenance – ReportingPreference and Sort order option. Also Employee only and manfacturing only.
Interface Utility – Daily Product Count Utility – Created this utility to calculate production daily counts for reporting purposes and the use in scoreboard applications.
Admin Web Site – Division Department Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the creation of the mapping of manufacturing departments and divisions of a company for use in sales reporting.
Universal Module – Scan Software Number Field. Modified the point of use cassette and slide routines to include the date/time of the executable and write it into the database.
Universal Slide POU – Doctor Print Algorithm. Always Cassette Identifier. Added logic to add a part identifier to the doctor orders being processed if one should always be present but it got entered “upstream” without.
Print Center – Bottle Labels Multiple – Accession Prefix/Free Form Toggle Issue. There was an issue where an employee could flip into “free form entry” mode and type in a value for the accession prefix and then toggle OUT of “free form entry” mode and the original value types would be the one that printed.
Universal Cassette POU – Purge/Clear Cassettes. Added logic to the “clear cassette” button to prompt whether ALL cassettes should be cleared or just the unscanned ones.
Universal Cassette POU – Cassette Already Scanned Enforcement. Added a check based on configuration so that if a cassette has already been scanned, an error can be thrown to warn the employee that they have previously scanned the block in case an accident was made.
Universal Cassette POU – Pieces Adjustment. Added a button to the screen to allow for a full display of all of the blocks in a case. This will be a listing of cassettes that have been scan and displays the number of pieces that were input and allows for the change of the pieces if necessary.
Universal Module – Screen Size. Increased the size of the screen to support more information being displayed in the scan history window.
Universal Cassette POU – Over 26 parts logic for alpha part identifiers. When more then 26 parts exists for sites that have alphabetic part identifiers, the routine was not handling once the part count got to “Z”. Now the logic moves back to the top of the alphabet with AA, AB, etc. Moves to BA after passing through AZ.
Universal Cassette POU – Emergency Cache Directory. Added an emergency cache button to the point of use for sites usiing drop file logic. This was done to allow for the writing of the drop file to an alternative directory in the situation where a local drop file printer is down. If this path is set to a network drive, the drop file folders can point there and be read by third party software to print to another printer in the environment. The logic can also be tweaked in the print queue history to then write an active queue record when in emergency mode.
Universal Cassette Queue – Emergency Cache Directory. Made the same changes as above for emergency mode and the point of use to also work for the queue.
Universal Cassette POU – Suffix Inside Part = “N”. There was a flaw in the formation of the bar code if the suffix inside part was set to “N”. This only impacts the Pathway LIS and is a rare configuration, but has been resolved.
Universal Cassette POU – Queue History Write. The queue history was not being updated correctly for quantities greater than 1. Only one history queue record was being written regardless of the number of cassettes that were printed.
Universal Cassette POU – Clear Button and Bottle Field. Using the clear button was clearing the bottle field even if the “no” option was taken but was leaving cassette in the list.
Universal Cassette Queue – Outlet Addition. Added the outlet drop down field to the cassette queue to allow for the printing of queue transactions to a different outlet than the point of use outlet.
Admin Web Site – Login Screen. Active User ID. The login screen was ignoring the active flag and would allow an inactive user ID to log into the web site. Applied this flag to the login logic.
Universal Cassette POU – Suppress File Drop in emergency mode. Modified the cassette print logic when in emergency mode for file drop sites. Set the emergency transaction to write to the print queue but NOT to generate a record into the emergency file drop location since nothing is monitoring that file.
Universal Cassette POU – History queue reflect emergency printer. Modified the print queue to allow for a change to emergency mode for the queue to look to the emergency file location in case the queue is not being used to pass emergency print requests instead of the queue database.
Universal Cassette POU – Emergency Mode Allowed flag. Added a configuration flag to determine whether or not the emergency mode button is enabled.
Universal Cassette POU – Emergency Mode Removal at Logout. Set logic to turn off emergency mode at logout so that the setting has to be intentionally set by the employee.
Universal Cassette POU – Emergency Mode Does not require child scans. When in emergency mode, the cassettes are more than likely being printed in batch mode. Want to show the cassettes that were sent but do not require the scan of those cassettes before being allowed to proceed to the next requisition or bottle.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Interface Protocol Routing Maintenance – Search Interface Type Drop down was not loading. Corrected this.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Specimen Type Not Saving. Found an issue where the specimen type was not saving for material types that did not allow sequence numbers. The seqeunce number field on the screen did not accept values of zero, but the data was being saved with a zero, which did not allow it to show when being modified.
Scoreboard – Distribution Grid – Percent of Total. Added a column to the distribution grid scoreboard view to reflect a percent of total on slide counts. Made this column visible by configuration.
Scoreboard – Birthday Board. Created a birthday board to allow for the display of “birthdays of the month” based on the Assist employee master file.
Admin Web Site – Culture Duration Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of culture durations. This is part of the cytogenetics feature set inside the sample testing module.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Specimen Type Not Saving. Found an issue where the specimen type was not saving for material types that did not allow sequence numbers. The sequence number field on the screen did not accept values of zero, but the data was being saved with a zero, which did not allow it to show when being modified.
Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Added a “wildcard” checkbox to allow for partial accession number vs. exact accession number retrievals. Previously the only choice was partial. Added this for both the summary and detail retrieval.
Sample Testing - Inbound/Outbound Tab – Added the accession prefix and location identifier to the selection criteria for both the summary and detail view to allow for better filtering of the data retrieved on the screen.
Sample Testing - Receiving Tab – Added the accession prefix and location identifier to the selection criteria to allow for better sorting/retrieval.
Sample Testing - Receiving Tab – Added logic to ensure that a second package cannot be created for the same accession number.
Sample Testing - Receiving Tab – added database fields to store the software version, executable date, and machine name to the database to provide better traceability as to where a record came from in the database for managing versioning.
Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab – Bulk Status Change Added. Provided the ability to update multiple culture status values using the +/- buttons and a separate status drop down and save button.
Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab – Culture Tracking Audit Log – Added an audit trail for all maintenance activity against a culture record.
Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab – Cell Count, Volume, Notes application. Set the routine to update all three fields for all records included in the submission master when one of the records is updated. This keeps these values in sync across all values for the accession when a single culture record is changed without having to update them all individually.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Detail Area Row Selection Error. Found a way to make the detail area selection not load the maintenance section of the screen correctly. Resolved this issue.
Sample Testing – Material Order Screen. Panels across order categories. Made a modification to the material order screen to support the selection of panels (i.e., kits) where the kits cross order categories. Previously, the screen only supported kit selection if all of the order types were within the same category.
Admin Web Site – Kit Detail Maintenance. Order Types across categories. Modified this maintenance screen to allow for the cross of a kit/panel across multiple order categories.
Sample Testing – Material Order Screen. Panel Selection issue. When panel selection was being performed, the first cell in the list of order types was showing as selected. It did not impact functionality but did not visually reflect the components of the panel.
Admin Web Site – Collection Point Maintenance – Duplicate check and filter by description. Put logic in place to make sure that the same collection code is not used across multiple collection points to protect data integrity.
Scanner Engine – Routing Designation – Added logic to allow for the routing designation from the LIS Interface screen to show above the scan history and for an alert to sound.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance. Modified the material type maintenance screen to allow for the specification of two new fields: SpecimenIdentifierAllowed and PartIdentifierAllowed. These will be used to ensure at receiving inside Sample Testing that specimen/part identifier information is being entered correctly.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Material Type Specimen/Part Allowed Logic. Added logic to the receiving tab to check the speciman/part allowed flags on the material type to enforce whether or not the data is allowed on data entry.
Universal POU Slide – Client Specimen/Part. Modified the routine that pulls the client specimen/part information to look into the sample testing material submitted area of the database to pull out any information that was entered and print it if the information was not found in the LIS Interface table first.
Sample Testing PCR Communication Log – Found an issue where the communication log entries were getting saved by default with the incorrect status defaulted which was stopping the notes from showing in the communication log.
Admin Web Site – Transaction Log Listing – Extended this report to show the date/time stamp of the software that generated the data.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance. Added a table for bar code reserved characters. Added a check to the protocol detail entry maintenance screen to not allow the usage of any values located in this table.
Admin Web Site – Culture Tracking Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the culture tracking records that are generated inside the sample testing module of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Culture Tracking Audit Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the audit log of all changes made to individual culture tracking records inside the sample testing module.
Admn Web Site – Specimen Order Step – Automatic Email Checkbox. Added a checkbox to the specimen ordering pop up screen so that specimen order steps can turn on/off the automatic email option.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Entry – Automatic Email driven by order step. Modified the specimen order pop up screen to turn the automatic email check box on/off based on the step that is selected from the drop down box.
Admin Web Site - Bar Code Reserved Maintenance – Added a maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of a list of characters that cannot be placed into protocol values due to their reserved keyword status inside bar codes.
Distribution Send Out. Software Time Stamp. Added the date/time stamp of the software executable to the database to capture each time a record is written to simplify knowing which version of the software generated a transaction.
Distribution Send Out. Manifest Printing. Add bar code position X/Y as configuration variables and standardized buttons on the utility screen.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Reconciliation Report – Outbound Data Fields. Added the outbound data fields to this report and also cleaned up the selection criteria layout to make the screen more visually appealing. Formatted the accession number field instead of showing in separate columns, added the object type description, and removed several empty columns from the report.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Items Note Returned. Manifest Number and Object Type. Added these two fields to the report and added the manifest number to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Maintenance. Default Specimen Business Location. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for defaulting.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Mandatory Specimen Type. Added this field to the screen to allow for the indication of whether or not a material type must have a specimen type entered during sample testing material entry.
Sample Testing – Receving Tab – Mandatory Specimen Type. Added logic in the sample testing module to enforce the mandatory specimen type flag from the material type table when entering orders.
Admin Web Site – Notification Maintenance – Expanded the notification maintenance screen to support multiple new views to ensure compatibility with SMTP servers that need more recent versions of TLS and also to support HTML email send outs.
Notifier Module – Modified this “robot” to allow for the sending of outbound SMTP message using the most up to date credential logic and security. Also expanded to allow for the send of HTML payloads for sophisticated email reports. Added logic for tying into the email library.
Inventory Module – Employee Active Check. Found several places inside the inventory module where the Active flag was not being checked when working with employees and authorizations. Modified all places that check for employee information to enforce that the employee must be active.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Enforce patient name. Added a configuration flag to enforce whether or not the patient name can be left blank.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Multiple Notes Show most recent. The original note text was being shown on the detail area instead of the most recent. Modified this to reflect the most recent with all of the historical entries shown in the communication log.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Order Type Naming. Added a configuration flag to allow for alternative naming of the order type (ex. Test Name).
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Hide Order Category. Added a configuration flag to allow for the hiding of the order category to cut down on screen complexity if there is only a single order category.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Order Type Duplicate Check. Added logic to not allow for the same order to be placed twice on a single case and also added a check box for a “close on save” feature to not require the clicking of the close button.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Clinician naming. Added a configuration flag to tallow for alternative naming of the clinician (ex. Ordering Physician).
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Date of Birth Empty. Added the ability to have no date specified (“None”) with the date of birth and reflect it as such on the screen.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Specimen Collection Date Empty. Added the ability to have no date specified (“None”) with the specimen collection date and reflect it as such on the screen.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Default printer. Added a configuration flag for a default printer, but also added logic that if the default printer is changed to print, the screen remembers that change and it becomes the active default for that session.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Save On Close with errors. Found an issue where if errors were made from a validation stand point on the entry screen that the screen was closing without indicating that there was an error and that the data was no saving. Moved the “close on save” to after the point where validation was successful and the order actually saved.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Delay Reason Attachments. Found an issue where the delay reason was being requested on all attachments even if it was not a delay reason type of attachment. Resolved this to be active only on an attachment that is designated as a delay attachment.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Resolved the issue where if errors were made from a validation stand point on the entry screen that the screen was indicating that the order must be saved when test ordering was clicked rather than showing the actual error that should have been shown.
Sample Testing – Specimen/Block Ordering. Attachment Fax Number. Added configuration flags to allow for flexibility in determining if the fax number should load from the client or the holding site when an automatic form attachment loads.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Surgical Technique. Added a drop down for the surgical technique to allow for the specification of this information on the receiving details section of the screen. Moved objects around on the screen to accommodate this new data.
Sample Testing – Flow Tab. Designed the flow tab including the grid and all of the drop down fields.
Admin Web Site – Flow Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the various flow status values that are used on the Flow tab of the Sample Testing module.
Admin Web Site – Antibody Template Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of antibody templates. These templates are used to establish a one to many relationship between order types and antibody combinations or cocktails.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance – Antibody Template Dropdown. Added this dropdown to the order type maintenance screen to allow for the specification of antibody templates for order types that have associated antibody cocktails.
Admin Web Site – Antibody Master Maintenance. Selection Criteria. Added a check box for Active only, Flow only and the antibody description into the selection criteria for the screen.
Admin web Site – Antibody Template Details. Created this screen to allow for the creation of the “child” level of antibody panels that can be associated with order types.

March 2023

Distribution Module – Manifest Buttons. Changed the manifest buttons: Create, Print, Utility, Reconcile to be picture buttons of a standard size rather than “word” buttons to fit in with the architecture of Assist.
Distribution Module – Create Manifest and Require Manifest – Added configuration buttons to provide the ability to enable/disable these screen objects.
Admin Web Site – Antibody Master Maintenance. Font Color Addition. Added the font color to this maintenance screen to allow for the color coding of antibody values.
Interface Utiity Robot – LIS Electronic Requests Comments. Added logic to the robot utility to pull forward any interface comments and place them in the order master comments field.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Listing – Created this report to serve as a specimen type dictionary that lists the case types, specimen categories and specimen type information that is set up inside Assist.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Protocol Routing Maintenance – Active Flag. Added an active flag to this maintenance screen to allow for routing records to be inactivated rather than deleted.
Stain Queue – Equipment protocol routing – Active Flag. Added logic into the stain queue to look at the active flag off the routing maintenance screen to not include transactions into the stain queue interface to staining platforms.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance. Business Unit Criteria. Added a drop-down box for the business unit to be used as selection criteria for filtering the order types.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Reconciliation Report – Date Range Error. The to date was defaulting to 12 AM instead of 12 midnight which was causing data not to retrieve correctly for the limitation of the to date.
Distribution Module – Shipment Tracking Open Scan. The open scan logic was not working correctly. Fixed this so that it operated to send the next scan into the shipment field when the “Open” checkbox is checked.
Distribution Module – Manifest View Wide Screen. Added a “wider” version of the distribution screen that shows the manifest items being added as scans are performed when the manifest is being done.
Distribution Module – Active manifest pull back from drop down. Added the ability when in the “wider” manifest view to pull back an active manifest to add to it or see the objects that were on the manifest.
Distribution Module – Manifest/Accession duplicate check. Added logic to the manifest view to warn the employee if the same accession is scanned more than once for an open manifest to warn that a duplicate scan has been performed.
Admin Web Site – Surgical Technique Maintenance. Cassette/Slide Text. Added two new fields to the surgical technique maintenance screen for the cassette and slide text to allow for information to be appended on the human readable when printing the objects to handle things such as Frozen Sections.
Universal Cassette POU – Surgical Technique – Added a drop-down listing to the screen to allow for the specification of a surgical technique for the specimen. This is a new field in the specimen type tracking table and allows for the designation of a specimen as something like a frozen section to print seperately on cassettes/slides as needed. This drop-down is positioned by the specimen type and the override button of the specimen type will also update the technique if it is visible and specified.
Accessioning – Surgical Technique. Added a drop-down listing to the screen to allow for the specification of a surgical technique for the specimen. This is a new field in the specimen type tracking table and allows for the designation of a specimen as something like a frozen section to print seperately on cassettes/slides as needed. This drop-down is positioned by the specimen type and the override button of the specimen type will also update the technique if it is visible and specified.
Universal Cassette POU – Standardize Buttons – Several of the “alternate” views of this screen (ex. Manual login) still had “word” buttons rather than pictures. Changed this to be more standard.
Universal Cassette POU – Magazine Fall through logic. Modified the logic for the selection of the cassette magazine. It will position first by accession prefix which will be overridden by the specimen type but ONLY if the override check box is not selected.
Admin Web Site – Accession slide count maintenance. Clear slide recipe. The slide recipe section of the screen did not clear if the “header” record was clicked after first selecting a detail record. This was visually confusing.
Universal Slide POU. Scan classification override. Modified the scan classification override so that a selection will turn the position protocol by specimen on/off depending on the override (ex. IHC, SST, RCT turn it off).
Universal Slide POU. Print Template. Hide Magazine. Discovered that the print template was not loading correctly the first time into a routine to hide the magazine for sites that have choices between a printing platform without magazines (ex. Zebra) and WITH magazines (ex. Leica).
Universal Module. Template Tab. The template tab had a visual issue where the modifications area was overlapping onto the grid area. The screen worked, but looked bad. Also converted the save and delete buttons to be picture buttons instead of words to be consistent.
Admin Web Site – Scan Classifications Override. Position by protocol, show requisition, and use specimen quantity check boxes were added to allow for these fields on the screen to be marked for the universal module screen views to adjust as indicated.
Admin Web Site – Printer Prefix Override Maintenance. Specimen Type, Target printer, and object type. Added these drop downs and fields to the override maintenance screen to provide for another layer of “fall through” logic when choosing magazines.
Universal Cassette POU – Scan Classification Override. Use Specimen Quantity. Added this logic so that if the scan classification override is used, the check box for “Use Specimen Quantity” can be tied to the classification instead of the configuration.
Universal Cassette POU – Scan Classification Override. Show Requisition. Added this logic so that if the scan classification override is used, the requisition information ont he screen can be hidden. This allows things such as “More Tissue” scans to be different from manual mode.
Universal Cassette POU – Magazine Selection Fall through logic. Looks for the magazine at the prefix level first. Then looks for specimen/magazine cross reference. Then looks for a magazine from the block slide instructions. Then looks for the magazine in the prefix override with the specimen.
Sample Testing – Receiving – Unstained Slide bar code. The bar code was carrying the protocol value from the order type rather than the protocol value for the slide recipe to which the order type is married when printing the slide label from the receiving screen. Corrected this assuming it is a single value on the order tie. Otherwise, kept the order type. This was to resolve an issue with the stain queue interface where the values on the order type were not synced to the values on the slide recipe.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Audit Log. Surgical Technique was added to the report and also to the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Prefix Printer Override Maintenance -Added the specimen type and object type to the grid and made them visible. Added the specimen type, prefix, object type, and “no specimen” to the selection criteria.
Doctor Module – Activation Error. The doctor module did not have logic to show the “not activated” message at launch if not activated. Fixed this issue.
Universal Cassette – Case Rush Visual Notification. Put logic into the universal cassette POU to turn the accession section of the scree blue if there is rush against a case and sends the alert beep codes to the scanner. The routine checks on requisition scan and also reflects the text “Case Rush” in the screen header. The header and color scheme switch back to normal when a non-rush case is scanned.
Admin Web Site – Referring Physician Maintenance. New Placeholder Checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow for an indication that the physician is not “real” but is rather a placeholder to allow for entry of a new value. This is only used in the specimen order screen in the sample testing module.
Distribution – Manifest Creation. Removed the text string “Manifest” from being written into the manifest description. This is redundant since the description is in the manifest table, it IS a manifest. This allows for data to be shown more concisely in manifest drop down lists.
Distribution – Manual Login Screen Buttons. Adjusted the buttons on this panel to be picture buttons instead of word buttons to be more consistent with the rest of the module.
Distribution – Manifest Creation. Modified the manifest creation process to require a user to be logged into the module before creating a manifest and also to put a default “open” status on the manifest header record to introduce manifest status to distribution manifests.
Distribution – Manifest Contents Write. Modified the distribution module so that detailed data is written into a new manifest contents database table as scan transactions are performed. Previously, the manifest number was updated on the distribution table and that was the only way to see manifest contents. This adds a seperate manner of tracking.
Distribution – Manifest View. Added logic plus deletion. Added a “wider” version of the distribution screen where the contents of open manifests can be displayed and added to if needed. Objects can also be removed from the manifest contents without having to go to the manifest utility screen.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Category Maintenance – Specimen Priority. Added a numeric field to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a specimen priority. This will be added to the algorithm for automatic distribution.
Admin Web Site – Body Source Maintenance. New placeholder checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow for an indication that the body source is not “real” but is rather a placeholder to allow for entry of a new value. This is only used in the specimen order screen in the sample testing module.
Admin Web Site – Manifest Status Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of a status value that can be applied to a manifest. This is found inside the distribution module.
Distributon – Manifest Utility Requires Login. Added logic when the manifest utility button is clicked to require that an employee is logged into the module. Added the same logic for the reconcile button.
Distribution - Manifest Utility Scan History. Modified this screen to allow for the scan history object identifier to pull from the override abbreviation field in the configuration if it exists.
Distribution – Manifest Utility. History Details. Added the manifest status the details area.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Maintenance. Created/Last Maintained Information. Added created and last maintained information for user/date to the table to serve as an audit log.
Check In. MFG Task Library Button. Added a button to this module for sites that perform task scanning to show the full task library.
Check In Module. MFG Task Bundle Scanning. Added logic to this module to allow for the tracking of task bundles where one task can be scanned and equate to mutiple manufacturing tasks.
Admin Web Site. Specimen Order Step Maintenance. Delay Step. Added a check box to the specimen order step maintenance screen to allow for a step to be marked as a delay step.
Sample Testing – PCR Batch Utility. Added a suppress closed check box to the selection criteria. Also modified the batch drop down to show the font color in the status color of the batch. Also added the batch status to the top of the grid to easily indicate the status of the batch visually.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. PCR Batches Drop down. Modified to show all “non-closed” status batches and added color coding to the font on the drop down to indicate the color of the batch statuses.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Extraction Batches Drop down. Modified to show all “non-closed” status batches and added color coding to the font on the drop down to indicate the color of the batch statuses.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Free Form Order Type. Added a checkbox to the screen to allow for a free form order type description to be toggled with the drop down list to allow for the use of text in the selection criteria.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Configuration Override. Created this screen to allow for the specification of configuration settings at the business unit level as opposed to settings for the configuration in general or personal for a user at a time.
Sample Testing. PCR Tab. Gear button. Modified the gear button with the view checkboxes to write into the personal configuration table if settings are changed so that the settings will load the next time the employee logs in.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Show Order Type on main screen. Added a check box to the receiving screen to allow for the toggle between material type and order type. This allows the employee to see the orders without having to go back to the entry screen pop-up.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Status Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of distribution auto status values. These are used inside the distribution module where auto distribution is performed.
Distribution. Manifest Header Maintenance- Added a button to the manifest utility to allow for detailed changes to the manifest header information.

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Second Quarter 2023 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

April 2023

Print Center – Manufacturing Task Label. Added this sub-screen to allow for the printing of manufacturing task labels.
Admin Web Site – Product Category Maintenance. Manufacturing Checkbox. Added this check box to mark a product category as manufacturing.
Admin Web Site – Product Master Maintenance. Date/User maintenance timestamps and product department. Added last maintained date and user information and a product department to the maintenance screen.
Quality Module Manufacturing. Version Information. Modified the write into the transaction log table to include the date/time of the executable
Interface Utility. Auto Distribution Logic. Added a routine to the interface utility to allow for the creation of automatic distribution information for sites that “pre-distribute” cases based on an end of day process.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Log. Created this report to allow for reporting on the number of times that the distribution automatic interface job has run, the timing, etc.
Admin Web Site. Multiple Piece Maintenance. Show RecordNumber. Added a check box to the top of the web page to allow for the display of the multiple piece record number to support sites that need to create multiple piece bar codes.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Exceptions Report. Created this report to show the exceptions that have occurred by the auto distribution robot when this feature is used.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Daily Report. Created this report to provide the detailed view of data from the auto distribution process. This data gets “rolled up” to a summary view.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Summary Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the summary level of data that is generated by the auto distribution “robot”. This is the summary table indicating the actual results of the auto distribution project and is used by the distribution module to determines how cases get routed. This report provides visibility to the data set.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Audit Log. Created this audit log to show exactly how the auto distribution robot created the summary table at an accession level. The report can be used to verify the operations of the process and provides detailed analysis of business rules such as specimen type exclusions and doctor licensure to better enable credentialing personnel to make better decisions about specimen/pathologist mixes in staffing.
Issue Tracking. Standard Icon buttons. Added the standard picture/icon buttons to the issue tracking (help desk) screens inside Assist to make more visually compatible with the other modules.
Issue Tracking. Description inclusion in detailed grid. Added as much of the issue tracking description into the detailed grid as would fit to give a better idea of the issue when looking at the list. Also added a free form notes field in the criteria to filter by issue description wild card matches.
Issue Tracking. Selection Criteria Priority. Added the priority to the selection criteria in the issue tracking module to allow for the filtering of specific issue priorities.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Testing sites were not defaultiing correctly by business unit. Corrected this to have the screen default correctly.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Holding Site Maintenance Disable Fields. Multiple fields on the holding site maintenance screen were confusing to some sites that do not use those fields. Added configuration choices to disable these fields.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Duplication Communcation Log Notes. Found a scenario where the communcation log notes could get duplicated when notes were entered BEFORE going to the test ordering screen. Closed this loophole.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Email Library automation. Added the ability to launch pre-formatted emails directly to the email client of choice (ex. Outlook) based on formatted emails much like the attachment library where the email has variables that fill in from the active order.
Sample Testing – Specimen Order Tab. Days left column reset. The days left column was getting reset to zero when a specimen order was saved even if the steps were not changed. It was resetting the number each time to give an artificial deadline extension. Stopped this from happening and only change the number of days left when a step changes.
Admin Web Site – Business Unit Step Email Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the mapping of business units, specimen order steps, and email library items. This provides the ability to tie the email library into specimen order steps by business unit to customize standard email forms but to do so by BU in case an Assist instance is used by a single organization with multiple business units in the same database.
Admin Web Site – Communication Log Audit Log. Created this report to provide an audit log of all of the communication log activity that has been done during the processing of specimens and the capture of communication events.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Concentration Interface Report. Created this report to allow for reporting over the equipment concentration interface transactions that have been performed. This interface is inside the sample testing module on the PCR laboratory tab.
Admin Web Site – Distribution State Priority Maintenance – Created this maintenance screen to allow for the maintenance of state codes along with a priority value. This data is used in the auto distribution algorithm to allow for certain client states to be prioritized at a higher value when performing auto distribution in case their is limited doctor licensure to read the cases (i.e., distribution them first so that the eligible doctors are not consumed from a quota perspective on other states).

May 2023

Universal Cassette Queue – Quantity Column. Added the cassette quantity to the cassette queue grid so that the number of cassettes to be printed by an individual row is visible.
Universal Slide POU – Client Accession Tracking. Added logic to write to the client accession tracking table when processing PC/TC client private labelled slides so that a cross reference can be kept of the number of client blocks processsed along with any cross reference back to company LIS accession to be used for ensuring block counts and billing reimbursement.
Universal Cassette Queue – Hide Instructions and Quantity options. Added logic to provide for the suppression of the Instructions and quantity.
Universal Slide POU – Client Accession Tracking Logic. Added extensive logic to allow for additional parsing rules to be called and processed when working with block that originated from outside of an organization (i.e., a client block). Often the rules for these objects do not match the internal rules where the bar codes can be controlled and this new logic algorithm allows for some “out of the norm” rules when handling. This provides laboratories with greater flexibility when absorbing technical component work.
Legacy Scanner Engine – Client Accession Tracking Logic. Added logic to the legacy scanning engine (typically Microtomy) to allow for the successful scanning of client blocks utilizing the new client accession tracking logic and any matching slides that were printed under the same ruleset.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Maintenance. Client Prefix Checkbox – Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for marking an an accession prefix as being a client accession prefix as opposed to an internal use. This allows for different parsing rules when processing the bar codes.
Admin Web Site – Client Accession Prefix Maintenance. Multiple fields associated with parsing a client accession number for received blocks were added to the screen.
Accessioning – Not Specified Specimen Type. If a specimen had a type associated to it, and a subsequent scan was performed with a specimen type of “not specified” the original value was left in the database and was not getting removed. Corrected this and also wrote the delete transaction to the audit log for traceability.
Universal Module – Protocol Display (Brain Button). Was suppressing from view any slide that was configured as a blank slide. Modified to show the text “No Instruction” if a blank slide is going to print as part of the protocol package.
Accessioning Module – Specimen Type Changes. MultiCassette Choice. Added logic to the Accessioning module when writing to the specimen type tracking table to include the cassette identifier (i.e., part) or not.
Accessioning Module – Specimen Type Clear on Save. Added a configuration choice to the accessioning module to allow for the specimen type to clear as each specimen is processed or to stay in place.
Distribution Module – Client Accession Tracking Logic. Added extensive logic to the distribution module to allow for the processing of client blocks/slides for PC/TC work compatibility using the new logic that was put in place at other data collection points in the Assist workflow. This allows for the customization of the parsing engine to support bar code logic that does not match the internal parsing logic of the normal lab bar codes.
Distribution Module – Sequence Addition and Manifest Inclusion. Modified the distribution module to write the sequence number into the database if relevant and also included the ability to print the sequence number on the manifest.
Main Scanner Engine – Embedded Specimen Type Scanner Capability. Added logic to allow for the scanning of specimen type bar codes when the specimen type override view is displayed. Previously, the scanner was de-activated when this view was displayed which meant selections had to be made using the mouse.
Quality Module Manufacturing – Screen Error Traps. Added detailed error traps into the manufacturing quality module to provide extended troubleshooting when an error is encountered. With all of the interfaces and image processing done by this module, it provides extended error messaging to help support personnel in determine the cause of issues.
Admin Web Site – Image Review. Delete Button Changes. The delete button did not work if the actual image was no longer at the location represented by the UNC path on the image view. If the images have been physically purged or corrupted, there was no way to remove the placeholder from Assist. Modified to still allow for deletion in the event that the file was not actually present at the location.
Quality Module Manufacturing – Login Screen. Standard Buttons. Modified the screen to use standard picture buttons instead of words to be compatible with other modules.
Admin Web Site – Client Accession Tracking Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the client accession tracking information that is part of the technical component/professional component logic built into Assist to support laboratories that product slides for outside entities. It provides tracking of the objects received and what objects (typically slides) that got produced for the client.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Slide label print with client accession. If the client accession (i.e., alias) had part information specified that needed to print, it was set to print on seperate x/y coordinates from the alias/client accession which made it challenging to line up correctly. Added a configuration flag to append the specimen/part to the accession number to make the data more visually appealing.
Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab. Cell Count settings apply all. Changed the logic on the feature where the cell count and volume settings apply across all cultures on an accession. Changed the logic so that this is still true but only if the culture type is not an enrichment culture type.
Admin Web Site – Culture Type Maintenance. Drop Prep and Enrichment type checkboxes. Added these two checkboxes to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of what kind of culture type is being created/maintained so that different algorithms can be processed based on the culture type.
Admin Web Site – Client Accession Print Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the client accession objects that have been printed. This is part of the Processional/Technical component logic built into Assist. This is a listing of the slides (typically) that are printed based on client blocks.
Doctor Module – Tab Order Logic. Changed the way that tabs are called from a hot key perspective. The actual tab names are used to identify the correct tab page number rather than calling based on the numbers which could cause issues if tab order was changed around.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Maintenance. Doctor Schedule Maintenance. Capacity Percentage. Added this field to the doctor schedule screen to allow for an indication of a doctor not working a full load for a day (i.e., taking a half day) as part of the new auto distribution logic.
Admin Web Site – MFG Case Status Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the manufacturing section of Assist. This allows for the status of a case to be tracked and have values mapped to multiple LIS platforms to tie status values together.
QC Module Out. LIS Status Check Interface. Added logic to the manufacturing quality module to check for a status inside the LIS using the status cross reference table. This was done to provide visibility to the fact that a case that is actively being worked on in the faciity may have been cancelled or held in the underlying LIS or ERP system.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Summary Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for direct maintenance/intervention over the data created by the auto distribution robot. This allows for overrides of data when a situation has changed from when the AI processed what doctor should get what cases for processing.
Admin Web Site – On Call List Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of on call lists. This is part of the feature set that allows for the various Assist screens to provide visibiity of on call information to reduce the amount of printing of call lists for the facility.
Admin Web Site – Interface Type Maintenance. Add Last Record, Last Date, and LIS. Added the last record number, last date value, and LIS fields to the interface type maintenance screen to allow for improved functionality with some of the interface jobs controlled by the various Assist interface robots. By providing both record number and date, the data migration/replication jobs can process data based on either methodology.
Admin Web Site – Interface Transaction Type Maintenance – Created this screen to provide the ability filter/categorize the interface records into transaction types (i.e., A – Add, P – Purge, etc) as needed by the various interface engines.
Admin Web Site – On Call Area Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of on call areas. This is part of the new feature in the Assist modules to show call lists for employees. Call areas represent an area of company (ex. Maintenance, Security) for which contact information needs to be made available to staff.
Admin Web Site – On Call List Details Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of on call detail information. This is part of the new feature in the Assist modules to show contact information for whom to contact when there are problems. This is the lowest level of data and includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.
Robot – Distribution Auto Interface. Modified to include doctor percentage capacity logic. Modified the AI engine for the automatic distribution robot to include doctor filtering by percentage of capacity. Added functionality to allow this to be done by standard percentage all the time for a doctor vs. a percentage override for a specific calendar day (ex. Working a half day).
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Audit Log. Case totals and percentage. Add the case totals, percentages and total cases to the audit log for the automatic distribution AI robot to make the data more meaningful.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance. Default Case Percentage. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of a default case percentage to assign for a doctor. This value is used by the automatic distribution AI robot when determining how to assign cases to doctors.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Maintenance. Default Schedule Percentage. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification of an override percentage to be used for a doctor on a specific day. This value is used by the automatic distribution AI robot when determining how to assign cases to doctors.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Report – Created this report to provide summary level visibility to the automatic distribution assignment of cases to doctors by the AI robot.
Admin Web Site - Equipment Interface Maintenance – Acknowledgement File Suffix. Modified this maintenance screen to allow for the entry of a seperate file suffix filter just for acknowledgements. This allows the interface return files to be in the same directory as the send files without there being an issue.
Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Batch Status. Added the batch status to the grid and added color coding to make them easy to stand out. Also added the FISH batch status to the selection criteria in order to filter the data being displayed.
Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Batch Dropdown. Added color coding to the drop down to indicate open vs. pending. Added all “non-closed” values to the drop down. Added functionality to the status drop down in the change area to be used as either criteria or the save status.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Detail Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for direct maintenance/intervention over the data created by the auto distribution robot. This allows for overrides of data when a situation has changed from when the AI processed what doctor should get what cases for processing. This is at the detail level before case summarization has been performed.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Exception Summary. Created this report to provide summary level counts of the exceptions that were generated by the auto distribution AI robot so that management decisions can be made regarding licensure, case type/specimen mixes, etc.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Not Assigned. Created this report to provide visibility to the accession number records that have been generated by the AI distribution robot but that have not been distributed.
Stain Queue – Assist Activation Error. The stain queue did not have a message indicating a warning if an activation record was not found. Added a message to better troubleshoot when a configuration is not set correctly.

June 2023

Universal Slide POU. Upper Case Protocols. Added logic to allow for two configuration flags to print the human readable in upper case only for the protocol and also for the value that goes into the bar code.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Summary Report. Added Distribution date, active flag, and distributed doctor to this report.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Bundle Maintenance. Modified this screen to allow for a retrieve of all bundles without having to know an existing one. Previously, you had to specify a task before clicking retrieve instead of being able to see all of them.
Universal Cassette POU – On Call Information. Added a on call button to the cassette POU screen that will show all of the “on call” phone numbers defined for a site. This can be used to eliminate the need for on call lists of paper printed out in the laboratory.
Universal Slide POU – On Call Information. Added a on call button to the slide POU screen that will show all of the “on call” phone numbers defined for a site. This can be used to eliminate the need for on call lists of paper printed out in the laboratory.
Sample Testing. PCR Tab Concentration Entry. There were issues with the concentration values when performing manual overrides/saves. Modified the logic to allow for specification of which value is being manually updated and added logic to handle overrides.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Doctor Order Review (magnifying glass). When this button was clicked to display the doctor order listing, the sequence number was not visible for either the doctor orders or the sample testing orders (before doctor order generation). Added the sequence to both grids.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Generation Audit trail. The order master audit trail was not getting created when a “doctor order” was created using the sample testing module. The audit data is generated when orders are submitted from the interfaces, doctor module, or closeout screen, but there was an exclusion from Sample Testing which made research challenging if all of these modules are in use in a facility. Added this auditing step.
Universal Slide POU. Doctor Order Grid. Sequence Number visibility. The sequence number was loaded into the doctor order grid, but was not visible. Modified the screen load to show this “S” column.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. When a template is specified, it was assuming that the sequence should start at 1. If individual material had been specified before the template or if two or more templates were utilized, the sequences would be duplicated on the same specimen. Modified the template addition to look for the last selected sequenece number to start the next number.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Default Printers. The configurations settings for the default block and unstained slide were the same. Created a new configuration value of “DefaultBlockPrinter” so that the block printer default can be specified without impacting the unstained slide value.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Material Order Pop Up Screen. Modified the deletion button press to verify that doctor orders have not already been generated. If orders have been generated, throw an error to the screen to notify that the orders need to be cancelled for verification that the specimen is not already being worked in a different part of the lab.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Delete All Option. Modified this check box associated with the delete button to allow for a full delete of all material against a sample. This can only be done if no orders have been generated against the material order. If orders have been placed, the steps must be taken to ensure no one is working on the order and it is cleared using the order modification pop up screen.
Sample Testing. PCR Tab. Vial Label Printing. The notation values specified against an existing PCR extraction order was causing the notation portion of the bar code to repeat if the label count was greater than one, which made the bar code size increase. Fixed this issue to only reflect the notation once in the bar code.
Sample Testing. PCR Tab. Extraction View order type duplication. When notations were used against a single PCR order, the data in the grid was repeating for each extra notation (i.e., N1, T1, etc.) This was causing a many to many join situation and was causing odd behavior when listing the order type and printing.
Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Email Library. When the email prompts were being passed into the email program of choice (ex. Outlook), the preformatted email messages were getting set as all upper case regardless of how the data was entered into Assist. Corrected this issue.
Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Attachments Library. When using the interactive forms logic, the various variables were getting set as all upper case regardless of how the data was entered into Assist. Corrected this issue.
Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Holding Site Maintenance. Added red asterisk values that can be controlled via the configuration to mark various fields on the screen as mandatory.
Sample Testing. Specimen Ordering. Email Library Functionality. Modified the email library to include a feature to filter form emails by business unit or an “always available” flag.
Admin Web Site – Case Hold Reason Maintenance. Production Hold checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to provide the ability to note a case hold reason as one that would halt production.
Admin Web Site – Email Library Maintenance. Always available and default business unit. Added these two fields to the maintenance screen to allow for filtering of the email library by business unit and to allow for always present members of the library.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab. Not all objects showing. Found an issue where if there was a duplicated object (i.e. same block twice) that the routine to load the details available for return was getting exited without displaying all of the details. Fixed this issue to ignore the duplicates and keep loading subsequent information.
Admin Web Site – Tissue Size Maintenance. Case Hold Reason. Added a drop down for the specification of a case hold reason to be associated with a tissue size value. This can be used to automatically put cases on hold based on the tissue run they are on.
Admin Web Site – Tissue Size Maintenance. Moved this maintenance screen into the equipment category of the maintenance area to logically group the screen with the function.
Admin Web Site – Accession Usage Report. Detail View. Most Recent Date. Added a “most recent” date field to this report to show the last scan date/time for an accession number.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Generation. Added two new fields when creating doctor order records to capture the configuration number of the sample testing module (in case there are more than one) and the configuration code to allow for discernment of the sample testing module vs. other methods of generating a doctor order (i.e., doctor module, closeout, universal, etc.) to provide more advanced audit trails.
Universal Slide POU. Loading Submitted Testing Routine. Modified this routine to write to the doctor order audit table when a record is pulled directly from the submitted testing database and added the fields for where the data came from and the configuration.
Admin Web Site. Doctor Order Audit Report. Sequence Number. Added the sequence number to this audit report.
Admin Web Site. Order Master Audit Report. Sequence Number. Added the sequence number to this audit report.
Admin Web Site. Doctor Order Listing. Added the sequence number to this report. Also combined the various accession number related fields into the single “full accession” field. Cleaned up the selection criteria section of the screen to be more visually appealing. Changed the sort order to show by date, then accession.
Admin Web Site. Material Submission Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the high level information regarding material submissions. The report includes the date/time of the “package” header, the material records and any testing assigned to the materials.
Universal Slide POU. Auto Generate Doctor Orders. Modified this routine to write to the doctor order audit table when a record is pulled directly from the submitted testing database and added the fields for where the data came from and the configuration.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Material detail save and specimen type. The screen was writing “empty” specimen type tracking transactions if no specimen type was specified. This was not really causing any issue but was generating unneccessary data. Elimintated the transaction if no specification has been made.
Universal Slide POU. Generate doctor orders from material submission issue. There is a routine in the universal slide that looks at the material submission testing for any orders that should be processed but were not generated in the sample testing module. This was intended to be a “failsafe” for forgetting to press the “generate orders” button in the sample testing module. BUT, the routine did not factor in the material types that have the “suppress orders” check box set and were pulling forward orders for materials that should be skipped. Resolved this to work as expected and factor in this flag.
Sample Testing. Object Conversion Tracking Logic. Found a flaw in the object conversion tracking logic. The check to see if an object was already in existance was not operating correctly causing the number of objects to become higher than it should. Resolved this issue.
Sample Testing. Fish tab. Screen reload button. Added a button to the screen to allows for wiping out changes to the selection criteria and take them back to screen load.
Check In Module. Day End Status Button. Added a visual button to the screen to reflect the last day end transaction (based on day end type) to provide visibility for check in operators of the status of day end.
Check In Module. Tissue Run Auto Case Hold. Added logic to pull into the tissue size drop down the indication of whether or not a tissue run should put the accessions placed on the run into automatic case hold based on the reason specified on the tissue size maintenance screen.
Check In Module. Case Hold Automatic Addition. Added logic to the check in process to automatically put all cases on a tissue run onto case hold if the tissue run selected was an automatic case hold run. If a case hold is already in place for the same reason, it will be removed before a new one is put back (to establish an accurate timeline). A write will be done to the active case hold table as well as the history audit log.
Check In Module – Automatic Timer Countdown Close. The only vehicle for marking a tissue processor run as complete has historically been the scoreboard countdown timer. Not all sites use this module. Added functionality to the main module when the processor history checkbox is loaded to close all runs that are beyond their end time. This does NOT mark them as unloaded, just as finished. It will come up to two days past to get historical OR the actively selected batch.
Check In Module – Automatic case hold removal. Added logic to automatically remove any case holds that were placed on the accessions in a tissue run by the process of loading the tissue run discussed above.
Check In Module – Case Hold Button. Added the “standard” case hold button to this module. Provided the ability to turn case holds on and off via the screen. Set the case hold reasons up to respond to scanned codes instead of pure drop down.
Check In Module – Existing Case Hold Processing. Modified the logic of this module to check for case holds at object scan (ex. cassette). If hold is found, turn the case hold button red, make a beeper error sound and launch the case hold screen view with the existing case hold shown in the drop down (and disabled) with the “delete” as the only choice. These settings are all in the configuration for change as needed.
Scanner Module – Case Components Screen Size. Widened the screen to allow for less horizontal scrolling of the case components area.
Scanner Module – Case Components Information Changes. Modified the case components logic to allow for the tissue processor run information to be broken down into the various components and added as child “nodes” to the tree and collapsed them to the parent level. Processor batch, tissue run, equipment, run count were added as children.
Scanner Module – Case Components Information Additions. Modified to add pieces to the tree. This was also available underneath the main section of the screen but included it into the tree so that the piece counts of all specimens in the accession could be seen at the same time if needed.
Scanner Module – Login Screen Buttons. Modified the buttons to be the standard size and to be icon buttons instead of text buttons to be standard with the rest of the module.
Scanner Module – Case Components Information Additions. Case Hold Information. Added case hold transactions to the tree so that visibility would be provided to show why a portion of a case might not be available with the other components. All case hold transactions are visible.
Scanner Module – Case Components Information Case Hold Headers. Placed the literal values for the case hold “tree” into the configuration for simply tweaking. Also added color coding to the release vs. hold on the case details.
Scanner Module – Standard Image buttons. Continued the process of converting more “text buttons” to be the standard image buttons to increase consistency.
Scanner Module – Case Hold Screen. Include Cassette Checkbox default. There was no setting to allow for the defaulting of the checkbox for including the cassette identifier on the case hold screen. Added this.
Scanner Module – Case Components Information Changes. Added the ability to include embedding information in the “tree” as well.
Admin Web Site – Recipe BOM Listing. Created this report as part of the inventory functional area to provide visibility to the list of “recipes” and their bill of materials. These can be finished goods recipes or sub assemblies.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance. Lock Material After Hours. Added this checkbox to allow for “locking” a material type to not allow delete at the point that it has had orders placed against it. This prevents the deleting of a paraffin block after hours have been submitted to the lab.
Sample Testing Module. Receiving Tab. Material Submission Audit Log. Added a new audit log table to the database and put write transactions in place for every add, update, or delete to a submission so that a data “chain of custody” audit trail exists.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Group Maintenance. Created this screen to provide for maintenance over material type groups. These groups are used to categorize material types by the “sub labs” they may go into for filtering purposes (Ex. PCR, FISH, etc.)
Admin Web Site – Material Type Grouping. Created this screen to provide for the association of material type groups with material types. This allows for better filtering of material types to reflect only the items that should be in use inside specific functional areas of a facility.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Detail Delete. Modified the delete routine to not allow the deleting of material types with the lock value checked (#2) if doctor orders have been generated even if not for the individual object being deleted.
Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Material Type Grouping Criteria. Added the material type grouping to the selection criteria and added logic to use this in retrieving specimen orders.
Stain Queue – Manual Entry. Found an issue with the location identifier for sites using the Pathway LIS where the year was getting left off the location identifier on a manually typed entry. Correct this issue.
Interface Utility – Case Components Robot. Previously, the case components robot only looked at “transaction” data (i.e., Grossing, Embedding, Microtomy, etc.). Modified the routine to also consider distribution and equipment tracking (check in) to give a better view of objects.
Doctor Closeout – New Fields. Added new fields to the closeout including the source of the orders and the configuration number of how the screen was built when the order was written. Also standardized the screen buttons to be icon buttons instead of words to be consistent with the other Assist modules.
Doctor Module – New Fields. Added new fields to the doctor module ordering including the source of the orders and the configuration number of how the screen was built when the order was written. Also standardized the screen buttons to be icon buttons instead of words to be consistent with the other Assist modules.
Sample Testing – FISH Tab. Batch Type/Order Type Filter. Added a checkbox to the screen (based on configuration) to allow for a filter of FISH orders based on the batch type/order type grouping maintenance screen. This can be used in conjunction or instead of the material type grouping to derive the needed list of FISH orders.
Admin Web Site – On Call Report – Created this report to provide visiblity to the on call information (i.e. call lists, after hours, etc.) that can be entered into Assist and be viewed in the various module.
Check In Module. Case Components Logic. Added case component tracking logic to the check in module. This is logic that keeps track of the last touch point for a specimen/object and was previously only written by a robot job.
Admin Web Site. Case Hold Reason Maintenance. Show Record Number option. Added this check box to the screen to allow for display of the database record number to help with making custom bar codes.
Admin Web Site. Timer Countdown Report. Case Hold Reason. Added the case hold reason to the report to reflect automatic case holds that exist on timer countdown data.
Admin Web Site. Case Components Tracking Report. New Fields. Added the sequence number, deactivated by record, and DBTableCode fields to the report.
Quality Module Extended. Auto Update Feature. Made some fixes to the quality module auto update feature to ensure functionality and also to capture the prior and current date/time stamps of the executable into the installation history reporting.
Admin Web Site. Software Installation History Report. Added fields for the original and updated software executable to this report and also added the installation message (i.e., success or failure).
QC Module Extra – End Task Button. Added this button to the screen to allow for the explicit ending of an open task without requiring the existence of the end task bar code.

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Third Quarter 2023 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

July 2023

Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. The “Suppress” closed checkbox in the selection criteria was not working correctly. This was fixed.
Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. Grid default view. The status value for specimens that have not been worked yet were showing with a blank status column. Changed the “no status” value to be “None” rather than an empty cell in the grid for better clarity. Did the same thing for the culture date if there is no date because the culture has not been created yet.
Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. Selection criteria changes. Added a “suppress closed” checkbox for the culture status (order status already existed) to add more flexibility. Set this checkbox to “off” by default.
Sample Testing. Cytogenetics tab. Culture Tracking and Audit Log Changes. Added several fields to the culture tracking and audit log tables to make the audits more meaningful in regard to where data came from with the new data specifically being the computer name and the software version.
Sample Testing. Cytogenetics Tab. Audit log clearing. Noticed when working with the cyto tab that when switching accession numbers that the audit log was not clearing on the click of the retrieve button which could make the screen confusing as the audit trail from a prior record was being displayed. Now the grid clears on retrieval.
Admin Web Site – Culture Tracking Audit Log. Modified the report to include the machine name and software version that made the changes.
Admin Web Site – Culture Tracking Report. Modified the report to include the machine name and software version that made the last change to the data.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Vial label print with multi part information. The specimen letter was not printing in either the human readable OR bar code. Added configuration options to print or suppress these values as needed.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Analysis Report – Batch Number Criteria. Added the batch number to the selection criteria to allow for improved data filtering.
Admin Web Site – Timer Countdown Report – Batch Number Criteria. Added the batch number to the selection criteria to allow for improved data filtering.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Report – Batch Number Criteria. Added the batch number to the selection criteria to allow for improved data filtering on both the summary and detail version of this report. Also added the batch number to the report. Added formatting to the full accession number to add dashes to make the report data more visually appealing.
Check In Module – Auto Batch Close. Added logic to the check in routine to determine whether or not a check should be performed for open processor batches. If any are found with an end date less than the current date, they are closed. This feature should only be activated if the “unload process” is not being used to indicate when a processor run batch should be closed.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Category Maintenance. Category Metric Value. Added this value to the specimen category maintenance screen to make the information available in automatic distribution. This value can be used instead of or as an adjunct to the metric values that can be specified at the specimen type level.
Universal Cassette POU. Case Hold Changes. Modified the case hold entry screen to include comments and reorganized the screen to be more logical.
Universal Cassette POU. Case Hold Reason Scanning. Added logic to allow for the scanning of case hold reasons. If this is scanned from the main grossing screen, it immediately presents the case hold screen as if the button were pressed and positions the case hold reason drop down to the bar code value scanned.
Universal Cassette POU. Requisition Switch with no bottle. Found a couple of visual changes that needed to be made with how the error condition is handled when a second requisition is scanned after the first with no child scan. Modified the error reset on no error inside requisition to clear the screen.
QA Out Module. Task Being rejected error. There was a problem inside the routine for loading rework data to the screen that was causing an erroneous message of “Taks does not exist for the selected MSP”. Fixed this issue.
QA Out Module. Clear rework data on new case. Found an issue where the rework tab was still showing information from a prior case if there was no rework data on the current case. Set the retrieval routine to clear the screen before attempting to load new data.
QA Out Module. Rework Audit Log Capture. Added logic to the rework request process to introduce an audit trail capturing all of the rework request transactions to see all of the changes over time.
QA Out Module. Rework Audit Log Toggle. Added a toggle choice to the rework screen to provide for display of rework request active data as well as providing visibility to the new audit log data to see all of the transactions associated with the rework request.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Override Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the specification of schedule override information for doctors in terms of workload quotas and such for sites that take advantage of distribution limitations.
Admin Web Site – Rework Reason Audit Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the newly created rework reason audit log.
Admin Web Site – Client Accession Prefix Maintenance. Sample bar code and comments fields have been added to this maintenance screen to allow for entry of the bar code that the prefix is designed to handle. Comments are also provided to allow for a detailed description.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Analysis Report. Run Start/Run End columns. Added these two columns to the report to provide additional information.
Admin Web Site – Material Submission Audit Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the detailed audit log that is written to any time a material submission record is modified.
Universal Slide POU – Order Master Update Changes. With the routine that automatically prints doctor orders at cassette scan, it was discovered that the status was changing but the last changed user/date fields were not getting modified and no record was getting written to the audit log to reflect the status change. Corrected this to record both.
Sample Testing - FISH Detail Audit Log. Modified the FISH tab so that the transactions adding accession to and removing from batches go into an audit log for more detailed tracking.
Sample Testing – FISH Tab Audit Log. Added an audit log tab to the FISH batch details area to show full audit trail information in regard to FISH batches.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Schedule Defaults Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the specification of default values of case capacity and case metrics for a doctor with an effective start and end date. While capacity values can be specified at the distribution location level, this allows for an effective start/end of default changes from the values for the doctor in general.
Check In Module. Software Time Stamp. Modified the check in write to the equipment tracking table to include the executable date/time stamp to help in determining version information.
Universal Cassette POU. Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN).
Accessioning Module. Software Time Stamp. Software Time Stamp. Modified the check in write to the equipment tracking table to include the executable date/time stamp to help in determining version information.
Admin Web Site – Equipment Tracking Analysis. Modified this report to sort by tracking start date if “include date” is selected rather than just by the date without the time stamp to make the data show in true chronilogical order.
Accessioning/Opening Module. Login Panel standard buttons. Modified the login and cancel buttons to be standard picture buttons.
Admin Web Site. Client Accession Prefix Maintenance. Delimiter Package Drop down. Added this drop down to the maintenance screen so that delimiter packages can be specified for specific client prefixes to handle technical component work.
Admin Web Site. Delimiter Package Maintenance. Comments field addition. Added a free form comments field to the screen to allow for a detailed description to be entered to explain the purpose of the delimiter package.
Distribution Module. View Options Grouping. Added a view options group box to the upper right-hand corner of the screen. This view option will provide additional choices between manifest view, auto distribution views, etc. to meet the increased demand for viewing options.
Distribution Module. Manifest Printing Area. Reorganized the manifest printer choices to make them more visually appealing and decreased the font size to allow for more information to be displayed on the screen. This was also done in anticipation of adding alternate printer choices to the screen.
Distribution Module. Alternate Printer Logic. Added a second printer and checkbox to the manifest printing area. This allows for the specification of an “alternate” printer. This was done to simplify the transactions for users that wanted to print a physical copy of a manifest to a paper printer as well as an electronic copy to a fax printer and/or PDF printer without having to go through a reprint process.
Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Reorganized several cosmetic items on the tracking tab to have the screen make more visual sense. Added defaults to the view choice between transactions and zone scan information. Added accession information to the selection criteria to allow for better filtering. Added a check to make sure an employee is logged in before allowing data retrieval.
Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. The zone scan side of the tracking tab was already operational and working fine but the transactional side of the inquiry was not in place. Added the ability to display transactions from a chain of custody standpoint over the main transactional audit log.
Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Extended the transactional scanning data stream to include equipment tracking (ex. tissue processors and other equipment loading touchpoints) to provide more in depth information on the chain of custody information on a specimen and/or accession.
Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Extended the transactional scanning data stream to include distribution data (ex. doctor slide distribution, send outs) to provide more in depth information on the chain of custody information on a specimen and/or accession.
Sample Testing. Tracking Tab. Extended the transactional scanning data stream to include warehouse data (ex. banking) to provide more in depth information on the chain of custody information on a specimen and/or accession.
Accessioning Module. Default cassette identifier specimen type tracking. Found an issue where the “type” of cassette identifier flag “A/N” was getting written into the specimen type tracking table, which was not valid. Corrected this to be the value “A” or “1” if data is written and implied values are in play.
Admin Web Site – Block Slide Instructions Maintenance. Description criteria. Added a description criteria field to allow for the filtering of data ont he screen by wildcard character matching.
Accessioning Module – Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.
Accessioning Module – Case Hold Reason Scanning. Added the ability to scan case hold bar codes to select the appropriate case hold reason from the dropdown listing when the case hold panel is visible.
Scanner Engine – Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.
Universal Slide POU. Case Hold Functionality Changes. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.

August 2023

Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance. Special Stain Filter. Added a checkbox to the selection criteria to allow for filtering of special stains to allow for finding stains vs. recuts, deepers, etc. in a more timely manner.
Distribution Module – Inbound Manifest Logic. Modified the logic of the inbound process to remove the manifest selection. Previously, if a manifest were active and inbound scans were performed, they got added to the manifest which was incorrect processing.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Rate Report. Clear Employees Button. Added a “Clear” button to this screen to allow for the removal of all employee filters from the list box on the screen.
Admin Web Site – Block Slide Instructions Maintenance. Protocol Magazine Override checkbox. Added this checkbox to allow for the specification of whether the block slide instructions record should override the protocol magazine for sites that have complicated slide magazine selection logic.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Report. Date of service and sort order. Added the date of service column to the report and provided the ability to sort based on this date of service field OR the transaction date (i.e., scan date) via a selection area.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance. Order type deactivation check. Modified the order type maintenance screen to check to ensure that there are no active orders against an order type before allowing it to be deactivated.
Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry. Included the date of service field on the details section of the inquiry.
Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry. Free Form Accession Prefix Criteria. Added a checkbox to the inquiry to allow for the entry of free form prefix criteria instead on only having the choice of choosing from the drop down list.
Warehouse Module – Warehouse Inquiry. Date of Service Criteria. Added the from/to date of service as a criteria option on the inquiry screen. Also added the field to main grid view and changed the accession number field to display as a formatted accession number rather than listing in each of the component parts.
Main Scanner Engine – Block Request Screen. Standard Buttons. The batch block request screen did not make use of standard buttons for the print and cancel. Added the standard picture buttons to make the screen consistent.
Distribution Module – Manifest Utility – Reworked this pop up screen to clean up the functionality of how to modify manifest data. The screen was simplified and changes were made to make the screen more visually appealing.
Distribution Module – Manifest Print Changes. Modified the manifest print routines both from the utility screen and the main screen to include the protocol value for slides and to move around the layout in both summary and landscape mode to make the reports more visually appealing.
Distribution Module – Overdue Warning Button. Added a “green/red” button to the top right hand section of the screen to reflect a count of objects that are overdue based on a configuration value for number of days. This reflects items send OUTBOUND with “RETURN EXPECTED” that have not been scanned back in via distribution or warehouse.
Scoreboard Module – Case Hold Scoreboard – Created a scoreboard to show outstanding case hold records. Shows the total in the header and the most recent “X” active case holds with the “X” deteremined by configuration.
Scoreboard Module – Case Rush Scoreboard. Created a scoreboard to show outstanding case hold records. Shows the total in the header and the most recent “X” active case holds with the “X” deteremined by configuration.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance. Overdue Days. Added an overdue days text box to the distribution location maintenance screen to allow for the customization of the definition of an overdue case by distribution location.
Warehouse Module - Overdue Warning Button. Added a “green/red” button to the top right hand section of the screen to reflect a count of objects that are overdue based on a configuration value for number of days. This reflects items send OUTBOUND with “RETURN EXPECTED” that have not been scanned back in via distribution or warehouse.
Sample Testing – Inbound/Outbound Tab. Max Rows Addition. Added a row count box to the screen to add a “maximum” number of rows that can be returned to prevent a huge amount of data being requested and locking up the screen.
Admin Web Site – Object Storage Transactions Report. Date Of Service. Added the date of service column to this report. Also modified the layout of the report to remove the component parts of the accession as showing seperately and added a single “full accession” column to the report.
Warehouse Module – Date of Service Capture on scan. Added logic to the warehouse module to determine the date of service of an accession when it is scanned. This is determined by looking for the first scan transaction in Assist against the object being scanned to provide a date/time different from the time the object was scanned into the warehouse to determine when an object can be purged.
Warehouse Module – Object Type/Drawer Object Type Error Check. Added logic on the main filing screen to make sure that when the object type is changed that the object type for the active filing drawer is the same as the object type of the object scanned.
Sample Testing – Case Rush Functionality. Added logic inside the sample testing receiving tab to write case rush transactions into the database for case rush tracking and scoreboard functionality rather than just capturing in the material submission workflow.
Scoreboard – Order Cancellation Scoreboard. Build a new scoreboard view for cancelled orders that can be displayed for other portions of the laboratory until the cancellation order is acknowledged to inactivate the cancellation transaction.
Admin Web Site. Order Status Maintenance. Cancel Status Checkbox. Added this checkbox to allow for the stratification of an order status as being a cancellation. This will allow for the routing of order changes into the cancellation table.
Admin Web Site. Case Rush Report. Last Maintained Information. Added the last maintained date and employee to the case rush report to provide a better audit trail and consolidated the accession number into a single column.
Admin Web Site. Case Rush Maintenance. Last Maintained Information. Added the audit trail last maintained date and user to this screen. Also added the bottle/cassette identifier to allow for rush data to be specified at the specimen/part level.
Sample Testing – Receiving Header Save. Chain of Custody. Modified the save routine for the header receiving package creation to write a record into the main Assist transactional table for chain of custody/Audit trail purposes.
Sample Testing – Receiving Detail Save. Chain of Custody. Modified the save routine for the detail receiving package creation to write a record into the main Assist transactional table for chain of custody/Audit trail purposes.
Sample Testing – Flow Save. Chain of Custody. Modified the save routine for the Flow package saves to write a record into the main Assist transactional table for chain of custody/Audit trail purposes.
Accessioning Module – Case Rush. Added the last maintained date and user to the case rush database write routine to provide better chain of custody information.
Universal Module – Cassette/Slide POU. Logout Logic. Modified the logout logic for sites that are using employee time tracking. If there are open time buckets, on logout, close the most recent abandoned bucket to keep from having odd time tracking issues.
Distribution Module. Case Hold Functionality. Added logic to how the case hold functionality works. Added the ability to look at the production hold vs. “information only” case hold information. Also provided detailed ability to view all of the case hold information on the case hold view rather than just the description (ex. WHO put the case on hold and WHEN). Brought this feature set up to the same standard as the universal module for grossing to be consistent.
Distribution Module. Protocol History. Modified the scan history information that is shown on the screen. When protocols and slide tracking numbers are displayed, the screen was not big enough to hold all of the information. Placed the protocol and tracking information on a seperate line in the scan history list.
Distribution Module. Case Component History Choice. Added a configuration choice to the module to allow for printing history based on case components as opposed to being limited to just microtomy history.
Distribution Module. Case Component History. Sequence Number. Added the sequence number and tracking number to the history on a seperate line to provide more information on the history.
Admin Web Site – Case Component Acknowledgement Report. Tracking Number. Added the tracking number to this report to provide more information about case component acknowledgements.
Admin web Site – Case Component Tracking Report. Sequence number and full accession. Reformatted the full accession number instead of showing each portion in a seperate column and added the sequence number/tracking number to provide more data.
Warehouse Module – Drawer Utility Screen. Accession number formatting. Changed the formatting of the accession number to make it more visually appealing.
Universal Module. Cassette Queue. Arrival sequence printing. Added a configuration choice to print by accession number order OR arrival sequence. Previously, the screen only printed in accession number order.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider Type Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of service provider types. This is part of new functionality being introduced into Assist to allow for the tracking of “outsourced” work being performed.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of service providers. This is part of new functionality to support outsourcing service providers in mulitple sections of Assist.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Location Maintenance. Service Provider Drop down. Added the service provider as a value that can be associated with a distribution location. This allows for the specification that distribution locations might be outsourcing partners inbound and outbound and for automated distribution.
Print Center. Slide Label Print Screen. Print Template. Added the print template drop down box to the slide label print screen to allow for “standard” template customization of label printing for sites that use this screen.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Manifest/Printing Area. Rearranged this section of the screen to clean it up. Changed a couple of the options to make more accurate as to what they do. Specifically renamed the “Close Package” check box since it was not named as accurately as it could be. Made the manifest number larger.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab Auto Close Utility – Added the accession number to the criteria so that a single case could be retrieved if needed.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab Auto Close Utility – Row count. Added the row count to the screen when many rows are retrieved.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab – Inbound/Outbound Refresh Option – Added a checkbox to the shipping area to allow for the choice of reloading the inbound/outbound screen at the point of save on the shipping tab.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab - Auto Close Utility – Added configuration choice to enable/disable the auto open choice due to the risk of accidentally opening up all closed packages.
Sample Testing - Shipping Tab - Auto Close Utility – Status Choice. Added a filtered status drop down to this utility that only shows “closed” status values to allow for the assignment of a specific status when auto closing packages.
Sample Testing – Top of Screen - Close Pending Button – Added a large status button to the top of the screen that lists a count of packages that SHOULD be eligible for closure. The logic produces a count of packages where all materials that are flagged for return are returned. Clicking this button launches the auto close utility just like from the shipping tab (box with wrench button).
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Detail/Header Accession check. Added logic on the detail save to ensure that the accession number of the active package matches the accession number of the detail object.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Accession Across Multiple packages. Modified the logic to limit an accession number from existing on multiple packages. If the same accession is submitted more than once, the logic prevented the accession number from being entered against more than one package. Since over the lifetime of the accession, it could come back into the lab, adjusted the rule to be that the accession can only exist on one OPEN package at a time to allow for appropriate tracking of a “resubmitted” specimen to be able to have separate received/returned timelines.
Admin Web Site - FISH Batch Details Audit Log – Created this report to provide visibility to the FISH batch details audit log.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). Under the order modification pop up screen, added a checkbox to indicate an intentional deletion of a “non-open” order. There is a checkbox that drives this behavior and it can be enabled or not based on configuration choices. Also added a comments box which can be enforced to require an explanation for the deletion of a “non-open” status order.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). When an open status order was deleted, no audit trail record was being written into the doctor order audit log because the order never “really” existed. This has been changed to now record the deletion especially since all status orders can now be deleted.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). Order Cancellation Logic. If an order is deleted, a cancellation transaction can now be written (based on checkbox) to drive the cancellation scoreboard to let other sections of the lab know not to process the order. It is an “opt out” transaction since the order may have never left accessioning before needing to be deleted.
Sample Testing. Receiving Tab. Order Modification (Magnifying Glass Button). Full Reset button (Test Tube button). Do not allow a full order flag reset if there are any orders. Must process the order screen and delete before resetting the flag.
Distribution Module. Auto Distribution View. Modified the distribution module to include the auto distribution view that can be toggled to from the manifest view section of teh screen. The default between the two can be chosed inside the configuration.
Distribution Module. Doctor Name/Abbreviation Toggle. Added a checkbox inside the auto distribution area to allow for control of whether the full distribution location name is displayed or the doctor abbreviation.
Distribution Module. Day End Display Button. Added a button on the auto distribution view that shows the date/time of the last day end that has been completed. This allows distribution personnel to see what the date/time is being used to drive the auto distribution data.
Distribution Module. Write Auto Doctor Inactivation Data. If a distribution location is marked as “inactive” and the target is removed from auto distribution, a record is written to the inactive table for analysis.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Inactivation Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the inactivation transactions that were made during automatic distribution where doctors were taken out of the active list of targets for object distribution.
Admin Web Site – Security Maintenance. Service Provider. Added a dropdown for the specification of a service provider on the security maintenance screen. This allows for the specification of an external vendor, outsourcer, etc. as a user badge.
Stain Queue – Automatic Order close using Sequence number. The on demand scan routine did not make use of the sequence number when applying the automatic status value which was causing problems when an entire case did not hit the stain queue at the same time.
Stain Queue – Sequence number inclusion in grid. Added the sequence number to the stain queue grid view.
Stain Queue – Scan On Demand. Scan History and Sequence number. Added scan history information to the stain queue on demand scanning so that transactions can be viewed and also added the sequence numbers.
Stain Queue – Queue Modification. Sequence Number Inclusion. The queue modification (right-hand section) of the screen did not include the sequence number to allow for changes. This was added.
Sample Testing – Cytogenetics tab. Chain of custody capture. Added the chain of custody information for the cytogenetics save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
Sample Testing – FISH tab. Chain of custody capture. Added the chain of custody information for the Fish save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
Admin Web Site. Material Type Maintenance. Default Print On checkbox. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen so that at receiving, the material label print choice can default on or off to save the clicks.
Sample Testing – PCR tab. Chain of custody capture for PCR extraction. Added the chain of custody information for the PCR extraction save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
Sample Testing – PCR tab. Chain of custody capture for PCR order. Added the chain of custody information for the PCR order save to write into the main Assist transaction log table for reporting.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Material Type Default Print On. Added the logic to the “default print” setting for the material type so that the items will be pre-selected to print when added.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Inactivation Report – Specimen Category and Type. Added these two fields to the report.
Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Day End Details Display – On the section of the distribution module that handles automatic distribution, the status of the day end transaction is critical for the functioning of pre-distribution. While the “last day end” value is already visible on the screen, there was no visibility to historical day end transactions without running a report on the admiinistrative web site. Added a button to pop up a screen to see historical day end transactions.
Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Doctor Inactivation Detailed Logic. Added detailed logic to the automatic distribution functional area to mark a doctor as inactive at the specimen category and type level rather than simply at a doctor level. This allows for taking a doctor out of the mix for auto distribution by “product lines” if they need an ad hoc different mix of products.

September 2023

Admin Web Site – FISH Batch Details Audit Report. Inclusion of active data. The audit report was modified to add a checkbox to allow for the display of both active FISH batch data as well as the historical audit log information to provide one report for all data.
Admin Web Site – Business Brand Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of business brands. Brands represent different lines of business that an organization can utilize and allows for the assignment of brands with clients to keep track of which section of the business the client works with (one to many).
Order Closeout – Doctor Orders. Order Cancellation logic. Added the ability to write to the order cancellation table if an order is cancelled.
Universal Slide POU – Doctor Order Printing. Order Only No Print Order Types. The doctor order print routine was ignoring this flag. Corrected this to suppress order types that have this setting active.
Distribution Module – Auto Distribution Unassignment. Added logic to allow for the removal of distribution data or back out of distribution to put records back into the mix if they were done via error. This was done using the pop up screen for the visual of assignment.
Distribution Module – Auto Distribution Show Rules. Added a checkbox to the auto distribution area to show the rules for an accession. The client demographics are displayed along with the specimen types for the case with a list of doctors that are eligible to read the case from a licensure standpoint.
Admin Web Site – Client Brand Maintenance. Created this maintenance screen to allow for the assignment of clients to business brands in a many to many fashion. If there are multiple business brands for a company and each brand does business with a client, this allows for the capture of under which brand an individual case was being worked or sold.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider Maintenance. Maximum Case Workload and Allow Maximum Overload. Added the maximum case workload field to the service provider to keep track of the maximum cases that are allowed to be worked (ex. outsourced) to a service provider. This will throttle the assignment screens in Assist UNLESS the allow override checkbox is selected which provides the ability to override the maximum value.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Material Submitted Save/Audit Trail. Added the original record number from the original material submitted record number to allow for the audit trail of submitted testing to tie to the detailed audit trail.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Template audit trail. Discovered that the use of the template to add material submitted details did not write to the audit trail. Added this functionality to close the loophole on auditing.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Package Drop down Auto Load. Modified the logic on the receiving tab to sort the data in the package drop down by created date in descending order (i.e., most recent at the top) and added a configuration flag to preload the most recent if configured.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Package drop down logic. Modified the package drop down load to change the color of the package label to green if there are multiple values to help distinguish from no data found in which case the label will be black.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Client Details Display Button icon. The icon on this button was the magnifying glass which was the same as the order details section and was therefore confusing. Changed the icon to be unique (File Folder picture).
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Client Details Pop up Screen. The pop up screen to show client related details from the interface was not loading correctly. Fixed this issue.
Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Day End Selection – Added the ability based on a configuration flag setting to change the active day end value. This feature would typically only be used by an Assist administrator during testing, but COULD be used to back date automatic distribution if this was needed.
Distribution Module – Auto Distribution – Unassigned Display. Modified the automatic distribution inquiry screen to give the ability to see any accessions that did not get assignment done successfully to a doctor for troubleshooting purposes without having to go to the administrative web site.
Admin Web Site – Material Submitted Report and Audit Log. Created this report to provide visibility to the material submitted data that is part of the sample testing module in Assist. There is a toggle choice to go between the “live” data and the audit log data for research purposes.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider Workflow Maintenance – Created this screen as part of the service provider logic (i.e., outsourcing) to be able to create specific specimen workflows that an be assigned to a service provider.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider Workflow Status Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for maintenance of the service provider workflow status values. These are used as part of the service provider (i.e., outsource vendors) tracking.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Order Notation pop up screen. Show Copy concentration value, PCR Repeat, and Extraction repeat choices. Added three new fields to the notation specification and display them on the screen as values for the order notation is changed.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Order Notation pop up screen. Concentration Value display. Added the three concentration values to the pop up screen (C1, C2, Cavg) but ONLY if the screen is displayed coming from the Order Type view of the PCR tab as opposed to the extraction side where the values are suppressed.
Admin Web Site – Order Type Maintenance. Reflex Type. Added a checkbox to the screen to allow for the specification of an order type as a reflext order type for use in the sample testing module of Assist in the PCR functional area.
Admin Web Site – Order Notation Maintenance. New field additions. Four new checkboxes were added to this screen: Copy Concentration Value, PCR Repeat, PCR Reflex, and Extraction Repeat. Each one of these determines how the order notations behave inside the sample testing module/pcr tab area.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Order Notation pop up screen. Order types for reflex notations. Modified the pop up notation screen to allow for the entry of reflex orders if the notation indicates a reflex order is being generated.
Check In Module – Case Hold Functionality. Modified the case hold logic to provide the ability to scan repetitively into case hold mode. Previously, the case hold screen would toggle forward to case hold and back to the main screen, but the screen could not be effectively used as a pure case hold screen. This repetitive hold scanning is now allowed.
Distribution Module – Auto Distribution Manual Login. When the manual login option was used, the auto distribution data was showing on the login screen, which was odd. Hid this section of the screen to cut down on confusion.
Interface Utility – Auto Distribution Exceptions. The write into the auto distribution exceptions table did not capture the auto distribution job run date/time that generated the exception which made it difficult to see the specific reason an accession did not get distributed if it has passed through the auto distribution logic more than once.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Exceptions Report. Auto Distribution Run Date. Added this column to the report to better indicate the “run” to which the exception belongs.
Distribution Module. Auto Distribution Exceptions Screen. Inside the auto distribution section of the distribution module, added a pop up screen to allow for the display of any/all exceptions that might exist for objects that did not qualify for automatic distribution.
Admin Web Site. Service Provider File Type Maintenance. Created this screen as part of the distribution area of Assist factoring in service providers and outsourcing. This is specifically geared toward digital objects and this maintenance screen allows for the specifications of which Windows file types should be considered for distribution when working with digital objects and service providers.
QC Module Manufacturing. MFG Task Tab. Multiple sources of employee. Modified the QC module plus manufacturing task tab to handle situations where an employee is known only to Assist, only to the LIS, or to both to better handle sources of task scans and display.
QC Module Manufacturing. Rework Tab. Multiple sources of employee. Modified the QC module plus manufacturing task tab to handle situations where an employee is known only to Assist, only to the LIS, or to both to better handle sources of task scans and display on the rework tab area.
Admin Web Site. Service Provider Workflow Reference Maintenance. Created this maintenance screen to add more flexibility to oursourcing operations. This screen allows for the specification of which workflows can be assigned to a service provider (i.e., outsourcer) and how many cases and specimens can be assigned.
Admin Web Site. Service Provider Workflow Status Reference Maintenance. This screen was created as part of the outsourcing/service provider logic inside Assist. This status data is where the various workflow status values that are “eligible” for a service provider are mapped. This supports the idea that different providers can perform different workflow steps and/or status values.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Daily Summary Report. Override On, Manual Creation, Manual Creation Date, Manual Creation user. Added the above fields to this report to provide visibility to additional data that has been added to the auto distribution process.
Distribution Module. Auto Distribution Grid. Remaining Cases column and Addition/Subtraction column.
Distribution Module. Auto Distribution Process. Unplanned accession addition logic. Added logic to the distribution module to allow for the scanning of objects (i.e., slides) that were not part of the auto distribution “pool” of objects that are supposed to be distributed. This allows for ad hoc scanning with tracking added to keep a + value to show how many cases were distributed above the planned number from the auto distribution artificial intelligence routine.
Interface Utility. Auto Distribution. Manual Creation Field defaults. Multiple fields were added to the auto distribution database tables to keep track of records that are generated manually. Changed the AI to put blank default values into these fields rather than leaving them as null values.
Interface Utility. Auto Distribution. Original Day End Data and Rollover Count. Added fields for the original day end information to the table that is created by the artificial intelligent distribution robot to capture the original data and also a count of the number of times data has been processed by the robot.
Admin Web Site. Distribution Auto Daily Summary Report. Original Day End Year, Month, Day and Override Count fields. Added these fields to the report to report on the new information that has been added to the database.
Scoreboard. Multiple Shipment Board. Adjusted cell/font size and color/data keys at top of screen. Added a header line to the top of this “board” to show the key of what grid colors and calculations mean and adjusted the contents of the grid cells.
Admin Web Site. Outsource Work Tracking Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the outsource work tracking information for sites that use service providers to outsource work.

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Fourth Quarter 2023 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

October 2023

Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Added a warning to the receiving tab if changes are made on the details of a package that has a closed status. The warning it telling the employee to “reopen” the package so that it will show correctly on the various screens if it has been changed. This is controlled by configuration whether or not the check is made.
Admin Web Site – Assist Licensing Maintenance – Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of the Assist licensing logic that is being introduced into mulitple modules of Assist to allow for the purchase of license packs for the various modules.
Clinical Module. License Activation Logic - Modified the clinical module of Assist to check for available license pack quantities for the usage of the software to better facilitate large scale application roll outs for clients.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab - Modified the logic on the shipping tab to sort the data in the package drop down by created date in descending order (i.e., most recent at the top) and added a configuration flag to preload the most recent if configured.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Detail Inquiry – Specimen Type/Order use location identifier. The location identifier was not being applied in the critieria for the specimen type and order retrieval which was showing prior year data in the inquiry for sites that use the Pathway LIS. Corrected this inquiry lookup.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Sequence Zero Only. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the specification that the material type in question cannot have sequence numbers. This will be applicable inside the Sample Testing module of Assist.
Warehouse Module – Cabinet Template – Drawer Creation extra fields. There have been several new fields added to the cabinet and drawer tables over the years that have not been included in the template creation. The field values would not be known at template creation time, but Nulls were getting written into the database. Added the fields with blank placeholders instead.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab - Package Number Criteria. Added the package number to the selection criteria to allow for the pull back of a specific package when one is known.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Package Accession number update logic. Discovered that the update of the parent record did not perform a check to make sure that all previously entered detailed accession records matched the parent. This was allowing the end users to mismatch the parent package record from the children. Added an error check for this scenario when performing a package parent update.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Resequence Button. Found an issue where the resequence button did not work correctly when multiple specimen/part records were on a single package. The numbering did not consider the change in specimen/part and also did not consider the “always zero sequence” value. Corrected both of these issues.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab – Delete All button hourglass. The “wait” hourglass was not being used when the delete all button was clicked which could cause confusion as to whether or not the screen was still processing the command. Added the hourglass.
Admin Web Site – Multiple Pieces Maintenance – Show Record Number Checkbox. This toggle button was not working correctly. This has been fixed.
MFG Module – LIS Scheduled Field. Added this field to the screen to allow for the capture of whether or not the task scanned was scheduled inside the LIS. This is assuming the “enforce” is turned off and an LIS interface check exists.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Transaction Report – LIS Scheduled Field. Added this field to the report to show task transactions and whether or not they were scheduled tasks in the LIS.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider File Type Maintenance. Sent file path and credentials. Added fields to the database to allow for the capture of the file path and credentials for sending outsourced digital files by file type/service provider.
Doctor Closeout – First Display Employee/Time Stamp and display count. Added logic into the doctor closeout screen to capture the first date/time that a record is displayed on the screen. Also capture the employee that is logged into the screen the first time the record is displayed. Additionally added a counter value that increments by one every time a record is displayed on the screen to provide line of sight to how often an order is displayed and the original time.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Order Listing – First Closeout Display Information and display count. Added the first displayed date/time stamp, employee and display count to this report to provide visibility to these new data fields that are being captured as explained above. This can be valuable when looking at TAT with orders.
Admin Web Site – Material Type Maintenance – Histology Suppress Print check box. Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for the specification of material type that should never print when encountered at microtomy. This is helpful in facilities where blocks/orders are receiving that need to go to histology but only SOME of the object need to have labels/slides printed.
Universal Slide POU. Histology Suppress Print choice. Added logic to the slide point of use routine to not print orders if they are associated with material types (i.e., from the Sample Testing module) that have the Histology Suppress Print option selected.
Admin Web Site. Doctor Order Type Listing. Multiple new fields. Modified the doctor order type listing to include lots of new fields that have been added to the order type table.
Admin Web Site. Material Type Listing. Created this report to provide a “dictionary” of all of the material types created in Assist and the various settings associated with them.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Extraction View. Grid row count. Added a count value to the screen to show the number of rows of data that were included in a retrieval.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Report. Active Only Checkbox. Added this checkbox to the screen to allow for the filtering out of only active licenses with active being defined as the current date between the effective start and expiration dates.
Admin Web Site – Doctor License Summary – Created this report to provide summary counts of how many doctors are licensed by state to provide management with meaningful data as to clients and state coverage.
Admin Web Site – State Accession Summary – Created this report to provide summary information to show the volume of accessions that are coming into the laboratory by state.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Daily Summary – Created this report to show an alternative view of the automatic distribution data to show accession volumes by doctor according to the automatic distribution logic with additional data to show ACTUAL distribution so that overrides and discrepancies can be analysed.
Admin Web Site – Order Workflow Maintenance. Generate notifications checkbox. Added a generate notifications checkbox to this maintenance screen to allow for the suppression of notifications if a facility is using workflow tracking but not notifications.
Sample Testing – Receiving tab. Generate notifications logic. Modified the sample testing order generation process to consider the new generate notifications option and suppress the notifications if indicated.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Order Deletion Logic. Tweaked the logic associated with deleting detailed orders against materials. Made sure that the deletion is allowed if there are no orders associated with a specimen/material or the order master generation process has not been performed.
Sample Testing – All tabs. Use Business Unit logic. The loading of several drop down boxes on this screen is driven by membership in different business units. Added a flag to allow for this attempt to filter to be removed if business units are not being used.
LIS Interface Utility – Client Master Addition. New Fields. Added several new fields as placeholders when writing into the client master file to not have “null” additions.
Admin Web Site – Sample Missing Client Report. Created this report to provide visibility to the material submission packages that have no associated client. This report can be run with counts/date and also as an accession listing.
Interface Utilty – Auto Image Hold Robot. Created a new unattended robot job inside the interface utility for sites that capture images and then close them after processing. The robot auto closes images after they have been open for X days after the creation. This greatly improves the performance of the image capture screen by not loading multiple thumbnail images of active pictures on the screen.

November 2023

Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Assignment audit log purge. Added logic to the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot to purge data from the assignment audit log table based on configuration flag and days back configuration value to prevent database bloat.
Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Exceptions audit log purge. Added logic to the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot to purge data from the exceptions audit log table based on configuration flag and days back configuration value to prevent database bloat.
Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Doctor Capacity check. Moved the capacity check for doctors to the top of the auto distribution algorithm so that all of the subsequent testing is not done which wastes time if over capacity distribution is not allowed.
Universal POU. Show Suppress Print Option. Recently, in the doctor order view, a column was added to indicate whether or not suppressed orders should be visible in the list. A check box was added to the grid to allow for the control of this behavior by site. This will also prevent the loading of the records to the grid if they should be suppressed.
Admin Web Site – Inventory Master Maintenance. UDI Label 2 Field. Modified the inventory maintenance screen to allow for the inclusion of a second line of UDI description for sites that use UDI labels and need more space than the original 60 characters of description.
Universal Slide POU. Business Unit Logic. Add the ability on doctor orders when printing slides to pull the business unit code for the doctor that placed the order and put in parameters to print the business unit code for sites that need to do this.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Extraction Repeat orders. These orders were not displaying correctly. Were coming through with no order type. Found the issue and corrected.
Sample Testing – PCR Tab. Extraction Notation Deletion. There was no ability to delete notation records (repeat, etc.) so added a delete button but can only remove extraction records if they have not already been started. It was added to allow for the removal of true mistaken additions.
Sample Testing – Shipping Tab and Manifest Utility. Added the ability to print the patient name to the manifests on the line below the accession number.
Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Run Start/End date/time stamps. Added a run start and run end date/time stamp to the utility to capture the exact time for the robot job to complete and also to allow for determination of whether or not the job is currently active.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Log. Extended this report to include the run start and run end date/time stamps that have been added to provide visibillity to this information.
Scoreboard – Auto Distribution Board. Created this scoreboard view to provide a count of the outstanding accessions by day end year, month, day that have not been distributed. This is a valuable “count down” for sites that use the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot.
Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Auto Close Run Date/Time. Added logic to the robot to look for audit log transactions with a missing end date/time. If the “missing” audit records are outside of a threshhold specified in the configuration, add an end date to close out an “aborted” run. This is needed due to the logic being added to ensure that the robot is not running concurrently.
Interface Utility – Auto Distribution. Concurrency Check. Added logic to the auto distribution robot to check for a job that has been started but not completed to allow for the prevention of a redundant job run. The “auto close” that was added will close any abandoned jobs.
Admin Web Site – MFG Tasks Maintenance – Batch Task flag. Added this checkbox to the maintenance screen to allow for marking of a manufacturing task as eligible for use on batch screens such as the check in module.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Transaction Report – Cancelled By and Cancelled Date/Time fields. Added these fields to the report to provide visibility to the information.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Detail Inquiry. Screen redesign and addition of specimen type source. Modified the inquiry to better display information and show the source in the specimen type area of the inquiry.
Doctor Module – Workload Detail/Summary Tab – Added an entire tab to the doctor module to handle the display of auto distribution information. This provides line of sight to what information has been/will be sent to a doctor for reading. Has selection criteria for filtering the data and can also be displayed as detail and summary information.
Doctor Module – Diagnostic Tab. Alt-B toggle fast key for fast code category enforcement. Added logic so that the alt-b key press or dictation will toggle the fast code category enforcement checkbox on the screen.
Admin Web Site – LIS Interface Detail Inquiry. Accession wildcard lookup. Modified the selection criteria logic to use a wildcard on the accession number instead of an exact match. This was needed to handle a leading zero issue on some accession numbers.
Scoreboard – Auto Distribution Unread Board. Created this scoreboard view to provide a count of the outstanding accessions by day end year, month, day that have not been distributed but do not have a “doctor read” timestamp. This is a valuable “count down” for sites that use the auto distribution artificial intelligence robot and doctor module to indicate processed.
Doctor Module – Information Tab. About Box Button. Added a “?” button to the information tab to launch an about box pop up screen to show information about the executable such as date, version, etc.
Check In Module – MFG Task Version. Write Transaction Log. Added logic to the check in module when using the new manufacturing task scan tab view to have the option to also write transactions to the main Assist transaction log based on configuration flag.
Admin Web Site – MFG Task Employee Summary. From/To Time drop down. Added from/to time drop down boxes to allow for specific hours of the day to be included in the reports.
Universal Module – Slide POU. T Number calculation. There was an issue with the “T” number on the latest update in some scenarios with the first slide not getting the value. Resolved this issue.
Admin Web Site – Manufacturing Employee Task Entry. Created this screen to provide a method of entering and/or updating employee/manufacturing task transactions. This data is typically creating using the various Assist manufacturing modules, but this web option allows for overrides or entry for sites/employees that do not have access to the desktop modules.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Time Report. Speed Enhancements. Made modifications to this report to try and speed up the detail version data retrieval.
Main Scanner Engine – Slide Scanning Section. Protocol Alternates and slide tracking. Added the slide tracking variables in case they are encountered in a slide bar code and also added handling for protocol wildcard alternatives.
Doctor Module – Workload Tab. Double Click on workload row to show details. Added logic to the workload tab so that a double click on a workload record will show all of the auto distribution information associated with the record.
Doctor Module – Transaction Log on Retrieve button. Added logic to write a transaction log record to the database when the retrieve button is pressed for a manual accession number entry to capture the fact that the accession was accessed via the doctor module.
Doctor Module – Transaction Log routine. Modified the write routine to capture the date/time stamp of the module into the scan software number as is done with the other modules of Assist.
Doctor Module – Auto Distribution Update. Modified the accession retrieval routine, whether via button or scan to update the auto distribution database table with the doctor read timestamp and doctor that read the case to close the loop back to distribution on the timeline of when the case was read by a doctor.

December 2023

Check In Module – LIS Integration Database name from control data. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the control data table in the Assist database and removed the values from the various SQL strings to ease portability.
Check In Module – LIS Integration Database name from config file as override. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the config text file as an override at the individual computer level from the value that was added in the Assist database.
Manufacturing Module – LIS Integration Database name from control data. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the control data table in the Assist database and removed the values from the various SQL strings to ease portability.
Manufacturing Module – LIS Integration Database name from config file as override. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the config text file as an override at the individual computer level from the value that was added in the Assist database.
QA Out Module – LIS Integration Database name from control data. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the control data table in the Assist database and removed the values from the various SQL strings to ease portability.
QA Out Module – LIS Integration Database name from config file as override. Added logic to the module to pull the LIS database information from the config text file as an override at the individual computer level from the value that was added in the Assist database.
Universal Slide POU – IHC Print variables. In order to handle the scenario where a different printer is used for IHC labels than from “regular” slides a full set of IHC variables has been added to allow for a completely different set of X/Y coordinates for “regular” vs. IHC label templates. Ex. a true slide printer (i.e., Leica) for regular slides and a Zebra label printer for IHC.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Material Order sort order. The material order pop up screen was showing the detailed data in arrival sequence instead of full accession sequence. Added logic to allow for sort order routing of either arrival OR full accession with sequence number.
Sample Testiing – PCR Tab. Extraction batch number automatically unchecks unassigned. If an extraction batch number is specified on retrieve but the check box for “unassigned only” was selected, no data would be returned which could be confusing. Modified the logic to automatically uncheck the unassigned checkbox if a valid number was entered into the batch number field.
Universal Slide POU – Doctor Order View. Selection column hidden. A previous change to the suppress print option column being hidden caused the selection column to be hidden. This was corrected.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Order Delete process was changed to reset the order master flag on the material submitted record if the data was cleared from the sample testing grid.
Main Scanner Engine – Patient Retrieve/Encryption Logic. Added logic into the main scanner engine when patient names are retrieved from the LIS Interface table. If names are retrieved and have not been encrypted, they will be done now.
Warehouse Module. Warehouse Inquiry. Modified the logic associated with pathway retrievals to include the location identifier and the accession prefix if the free form field was used.
Admin Web Site – Employee Scan Time Report. A new field was added to the report to show a “Y/N” value for auto logout in the detail view to reflect whether the employee logout transaction was from inactivity or an intentional logout.
Admin Web Site – Accession Prefix Summary Report. Specimen Count column. There were already columns on this report for case count, cassette count (i.e., part) and slide count, but there was no column for specimen count (i.e., bottle). This was added.
Universal Slide POU. Protocol drop down list size. Added a variable to the configuration to allow for customization of the size of the protocol/stain drop down on the screen. For sites with a large listing of protocols and a small screen resolution, this allows for the drop down to be customized so that it does not go off the screen.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Order delete with comments. Added logic on the comments specification on an order delete to add the comments to the communications log.
Sample Testing – FISH tab. Batch details select all/unselect all button functionality. Added these two buttons to the fish batch detail area to eliminate the need to click each check box individually.
Sample Testing – Flow Tab. Communications Log. Modified the flow tab so that any comments entered into the flow tab get added to the communications log with a prefix on them to indicate that they came from flow.
Interface Utility - Auto Distribution Algorithm Changes. Modified the auto distribution algorithm to work based on doctor capacity value. This used to be the specimen metric but was changed. Added a configuration flag to allow the value to be derived from either the doctor schedule case value or case test value field.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Daily Report – Specimen Metric converted to Doctor capacity value. To reflect changes that have been made in auto distribution.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Daily Maintenance - Specimen Metric converted to Doctor capacity value. To reflect changes that have been made in auto distribution.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Daily Summary. Added the summarized doctor capacity value to this report. Previously, only the case count values were shown.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Doctor Report. Modified this report to include the summarized doctor capacity value.
Admin Web Site – Doctor Auto Not Assigned Report. Modified this report to also show the doctor capacity value.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Summary Maintenance. Modified this screen to include the doctor capacity value instead of the specimen metric to reflect changes that were made to auto distribution.
Admin Web Site – Distribution Auto Summary Report. Modified this screen to include the doctor capacity value to reflect changes to the auto distribution robot.
Case/MFG Task Entry Module – Created this brand new module to handle the capture of case/accession number and manufacturing task completed. This module will be used typically for remote workers to indicate completed tasks where scanning infrastructure will not be present.
Distribution Module – Invalid default distribution location. Discovered an issue where if the configuration value for the default distribution location did not exist in the distribution location table in the database, that the screen did not load correctly. Modified the screen load routine to survive this situation.
Admin Web Site – Collection Points Maintenance. Include Auto Distribution check box. Added a check box to this screen to allow the auto distribution robot to key off the box for determining the inclusion of accession numbers. Previously, this key was done based on collection point grouping which could cause some odd “naming” for collection points. This makes the inclusion more logical and intentional.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Maintenance. CPT Code information including price and cost fields. Added a CPT code drop down to the specimen type maintenance screen to allow for mapping of billing codes to tissue types. Also included histology cost and price fields and test cost and test price fields to be used in analyzing price/cost increase/decrease decisions.
Admin Web Site – CPT Category Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of CPT code categories which
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance. CPT Code drop down. Added the CPT code drop down to the individual slide recipe section of the screen so that CPT codes can be associated with the detail stain area of the screen.
Admin Web Site – Accession Slide Count Maintenance. Header section CPT code drop down. Added the CPT code as a choice on the screen header section of the screen. This provides for the ability to collect CPT information at the “panel” level with override ability at the individual stain level.
Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab. Communications Log. Modified the Cytogenetics tab so that any comments entered into the Cytogenetics tab get added to the communications log with a prefix on them to indicate that they came from Cytogenetics.
Sample Testing – Flow Tab. Communications Log View. The notes asterisk button was not launching the communications log screen. Modified this to work correctly.
Sample Testing – Cytogenetics Tab. Communications Log View. The notes asterisk button was not launching the communications log screen. Modified this to work correctly.
Sample Testing – Receiving Details Tab. Workflow Defaulting. If there is only workflow listed in the drop down box, make it the default instead of “not specified”.
Sample Testing – Receiving Tab. Specimen Type Tracking information. Several new fields have been added to the specimen type tracking table but were not in the write routine. Corrected this and also added a write transaction to the specimen type tracking audit log which was not being done.
Universal Module. Specimen Type Tracking Logic. CPT Code information. Modified the routines that write to specimen type tracking table and audit log to also capture the CPT code number from the library and the actual code.
Admin Web Site – Client Master Maintenance. Client Code selection criteria. Added the client code as part of the selection criteria to allow for lookup based on the code or LIS cross reference field with a wildcard search.
Accessioning Module. Specimen Type Tracking Logic. CPT Code information. Modified the routines that write to specimen type tracking table and audit log to also capture the CPT code number from the library and the actual code.
Main Scanner Engine. Specimen Type Tracking Logic. CPT Code information. Modified the routines that write to specimen type tracking table and audit log to also capture the CPT code number from the library and the actual code.
Sample Testing. Material Order Pop Up Screen. Order type text alignment. Added a Y/N flag to determine whether or not the order type description is listed in the grid left justified or centered.
Sample Testing. Material Order Pop Up Screen. Added logic to use the order type short description in the ordering grid instead of the full description if the text length is larger than can be effectively displayed in the grid.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Information Report. CPT Code Column. Added the CPT code field to this report.
Admin Web Site – Specimen Type Tracking Audit Log. CPT Code Column. Added the CPT code field to this report.
Admin Web Site – CPT Code Library Maintenance. Created this screen to provide for maintenance of the CPT code library.
Admin Web Site – Queue Loader Settings. Machine Name Criteria. Added the machine name to the criteria on this maintenance screen to allow for filtering of data.
Universal Module – Universal Cassette POU. 3 New Hot keys. On the grossing information pop up screen, three new hot keys have been added. ALT-D clears the clinical information area. ALT-M clears the grossing notes area. ALT-Q clears the patient history area.
Universal Module – Universal Slide POU. IHC Variable addition for data matrix bar code size to allow for a different variable value for an IHC vs. a “regular” bar code.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider Workflow Status Maintenance. Overdue Days. Added this field to the maintenance screen to allow for the capture of a number of days that would indicate that an accession/case stayed in a status too long.
Admin Web Site – Service Provider Eligible Status Maintenance. Created this screen as part of the service provider/outsourcing section of Assist. It allows for the capture of which status values are valid for the outsourcing/routing of work at the service provider level.
Admin Web Site – LIS Electronic Connections Maintenance. Inbound/Outbound and Outbound Designation Fields. Added fields to allow for the marking of mainframe interface connections as inbound vs. outbound and to carry a designation of where the data originated.
Admin Web Site – Status Cross Reference Maintenance. Created this screen to allow for the maintenance of status values for the service provider outsourcing section of Assist to match status values in Assist to status values inside an LIS/ERP.
Distribution Module. Scan History Checkbox Inaccuracy. Resolved a report issue where scan history was not being “check off” correctly in the scenario that an accession was partially distributed. The screen was then reopened and the accession was scanned again. The slides were checked off in order rather than by specimen/part causing objects to reflect as processed when they had not. This was ONLY an issue is a void transaction was not done the first time through the process.
Admin Web Site – Order Cancellation Report. Created this report to provide visibility to order cancellation transactions. An order cancellation can be performed on a doctor order with required acknowledgement in an attempt to stop special cuts and stains to be performed that are not necessary.
Sample Testing – Multiple Tabs. Require employee login. It was discovered that there were several retrieval transactions that could be performed without an employee being logged into the application. Added this edit check to all of the tabs retrieval buttons.
Stain Queue – On Demand Scanning. Write to transaction log. When using the on demand scanning feature on the stain queue, added a write into the main Assist transaction log for the scan transaction for chain of custody tracking.
Stain Queue – Configuration Button Feature. Added the standard Assist configuration change button to support multiple LIS formats when performing on demand scanning into the stain queue.
Sample Testing – Pickup Tab – Selection criteria changes for accession number. Row count inclusion. Wait hourglass on retrieve and save. On the pickup tab added selection criteria to the screen for the accesson number and prefix. Also added a row count of data that was retrieved and added the wait hourglass on the retrieve and save button click events.
Sample Testing – Pickup Tab - Auto Pickup Routine. Added an automatic pickup button to roll through all of the various sub labs and look for transactions against a sample testing package and mark it as picked up in case the pickup process does not happen.

2023 Quarterly Changes

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4th Quarter 2023

2022 Quarterly Changes

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3rd Quarter 2022

4th Quarter 2022

2021 Updates

2020 Updates

2019 Updates

2018 Updates

2017 Updates

2016 Updates

2015 Updates

2014 Updates

2013 Updates

January 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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December 2017 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

January 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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November 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

December 2016 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

January 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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June 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

July 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

August 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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December 2018 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

January 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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April 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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August 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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November 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

December 2019 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

January 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

February 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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April 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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June 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

July 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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September 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

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December 2020 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates

January 2021 Assist Tracking Changes and Updates