Prep the draw before the patient sits down.
Lab Prepper turns a list of Quest Diagnostics test codes into one consolidated draw plan: which tubes to pull, how many of each, what has to stay cold, and what would get the specimen rejected.
It exists so a patient gets stuck once instead of twice, and so a courier does not carry a tube that was going to be thrown out on arrival.
The problem it solves
An order comes in with eleven test codes on it. Somewhere in those eleven are a test that cannot go to room temperature, a panel that already contains one of the others, a tube that has to be filled exactly to the line, and a fasting requirement nobody mentioned.
Quest publishes every one of those requirements. They are just spread across eleven separate pages, and nobody opens eleven pages before a draw. So it gets done from memory, and memory is where redraws come from.
Lab Prepper reads those requirements once, keeps them in a dated reference, and works out the whole plan in the time it takes to paste the codes.
How it works
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Paste the order
Test codes, or a pasted list straight out of the EMR. A code adds its test. A plain name like CBC or TSH asks which test you mean before anything is added. Dates in the paste are ignored.
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It builds the plan
Tests are grouped by draw tube and by binding transport temperature, so a refrigerate-only test never ends up sharing a tube with a room-temperature-only one. Tube counts are sized off real serum yield, roughly 40 to 50 percent of draw volume, rather than the assay minimum, which is the usual cause of a short draw.
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Print the draw sheet
A worklist the phlebotomist works straight off: tubes in draw order, volumes, transport temperature, and every flag on the order. Full page, half sheet, or a tubes-only version for the rack.
What it catches
Anyone can count tubes. The value is in the things that quietly ruin a specimen after the patient has already gone home.
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Transport conflicts
A refrigerate-only test and a room-temperature-only test cannot travel in the same tube. The app splits them and says which constraint is binding and why.
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Duplicate and overlapping orders
A panel that already contains a separately ordered component, or two codes measuring the same analyte by different methods. Twenty nine overlap rules, flagged before the stick.
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Fill and handling rules
Citrate tubes that must be filled completely, tests that must be protected from light, tubes that must never be refrigerated, and one test that pins three dedicated tubes of its own.
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Fasting
Mandatory versus preferred, distinguished, so nobody reschedules a patient who did not need to fast or draws one who did.
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Order of draw
Light blue citrate first, lavender EDTA last, with the sequence stated on the printed sheet rather than assumed.
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Separation timing
Tests that have to be spun faster than the clinic's normal turnaround are flagged. The rest are not, so the warning still means something.
Preferred and condensed specimens
Quest often lists a preferred specimen and an acceptable alternative. Using the alternative can sometimes fold two tubes into one, which is better for the patient. Doing it silently is not acceptable in a clinical tool.
So Lab Prepper computes both plans and shows the tradeoff up front, for example preferred: 3 tubes plus 2 vials, 20 mL against condensed: 2 tubes, 16 mL, 1 substitution. Preferred is the default. Every substitution is labelled on the rack and on the printed sheet with the exact condition Quest attaches to it, and a substitution is never made into a tube the clinic does not stock or against a hard requirement. When condensing would save nothing, it says so rather than pretending.
Where the data comes from
Every test code is read live from the Quest Diagnostics test directory and stamped with the date it was checked. The current reference holds 97 codes, verified against the Florida service area, most recently on 15 October 2026, including whether Quest accepts each specimen frozen.
That date is printed in the app and on the draw sheet on purpose. Specimen requirements change, and a reference sheet with no date on it is a liability. Nothing in the reference was carried over from an older copy without being re-read.
A note on what this is not
Lab Prepper is a preparation aid. It does not replace the lab's published requirements or the judgement of the person doing the draw. For an unusual order, or any code not in the reference, the app says so plainly and points at Quest rather than guessing.
Privacy, by construction
Patient details stay on the device in front of you. The server only knows who the staff are and what they message and post for each other.
Draws are labelled by time slot, room or sequence, and a patient label (name and date of birth) can be typed and copied for the specimen. The order and the labels are read in the browser and are never sent anywhere.
Face sheets carry names and dates of birth. They are typed in, or read from a schedule screenshot right on the device. Nothing is uploaded or saved, and it is all gone when the tab closes. Printed sheets are PHI and should be handled like any paper chart.
Signing in keeps each staff member's name, email, initials, role, a hashed password and, if they add one, a profile photo and colour in the clinic's account database. Profile photos are of staff only, shrunk to a small square before they are saved, and visible only to coworkers who are signed in. A single cookie keeps you signed in. Each person also has a profile that only signed in coworkers can open: a title, a short bio, and an email, phone number and clinic extension that they choose whether coworkers see. Providers add their NPI number. People can post to their own profile, with one photo at most, and coworkers can react and comment. Bios, posts and comments refuse dates, phone numbers and long ID numbers. Post photos are shrunk on the device before they are saved, and each time a photo is added the app reminds the person that it must not show patient information, charts, labels, schedules or patients' faces. The app can't check a photo itself, so that is up to the person posting. Posts and comments stay until their author, the Owner or a provider deletes them. The clinic's manuals, checklist ticks, notes and list changes are stored there too, so the clinic's super users can see each person's history. Each person's To-Do lists are kept there too, private to them: only the coworkers they share a list or a task with can see it, and nobody else, super users included, can open it. Like messages, To-Do lists refuse dates, phone numbers and long ID numbers. Staff messages are stored there as well, refuse dates, phone numbers and long ID numbers, and are deleted after 30 days. Links can be sent in a message, unless the link itself carries a patient detail such as a DOB. Message and To-Do reminder pop-ups, if a staff member turns them on, are made by the app on that computer while it is open and go through no outside service. The search bar looks only through what each person can already open: tests and pages are searched on the device, and anything else goes to the clinic's own server as a few words, which are not kept. Face sheets are never searched.
Installs to a phone or laptop and keeps running with no signal, which matters at a draw station in a back room.
Who it is for
Primary care and family medicine practices that draw their own labs and send them to Quest. It was built for, and is in daily use at, Seaside Family Wellness, a primary care clinic in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
It is most useful where one or two people handle the draws, orders regularly run past five or six codes, and there is no dedicated lab tech to catch a bad combination before it ships.
Common questions
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What is Lab Prepper?
A web based tool that converts Quest Diagnostics test codes into a consolidated phlebotomy draw plan: tube types, tube counts, minimum volumes, transport temperature, urine containers, and the handling flags that cause rejected specimens.
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How does it decide how many tubes to pull?
It groups the tests by draw tube and by binding transport temperature, adds up the minimum volume each test needs, and divides by the serum that tube type actually yields rather than its draw volume. A generous margin setting adds a tube when the headroom is thin, on the principle that an extra tube is cheaper than a second stick.
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Does it store patient information?
No. Draw sheets are labelled by room or time slot, not by patient. Face sheets do carry names and dates of birth, but they are built in the browser and never saved or sent: close the tab and they are gone. The server stores staff sign in details, staff profiles and profile posts, checklist history, the clinic's manuals, staff messages and each person's private To-Do lists. Messages, posts and comments refuse dates, phone numbers and long ID numbers, and messages are deleted after 30 days. Links can be sent in a message, unless the link itself carries a patient detail such as a DOB. Photos on posts can't be checked by the app, so staff are reminded each time not to post anything that shows a patient. The only cookie is the one that keeps staff signed in.
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Does it work without internet?
Yes. Once installed to a phone, tablet or laptop it runs entirely offline and produces the same plans and printed sheets with no signal.
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Which labs are supported?
Quest Diagnostics today, sourced from the public Quest test directory. Other reference labs publish the same kind of specimen data and the approach carries over, so get in touch if you send to a different lab.
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Can I get one for my clinic?
Yes. Each clinic needs its own reference built, because tube inventory differs between practices, and a plan that routes to a tube you do not stock is worse than no plan. That build is the setup work. Get in touch and tell us which tubes you stock and which codes you order most.
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What does it cost?
Pricing is not set yet. It is in use at one clinic and opening up to others now, so early conversations shape what it becomes. Ask and you will get a straight answer rather than a quote generator.
Get one for your clinic
Tell us what you draw, which tubes you keep on hand, and where the redraws come from. That is enough to say whether this would help you and what setting it up would involve.
Test codes, tube inventory and the way your draws run are all we need.