The patient portal
The portal is a separate shell for patients, under /portal. It shows the results a laboratory has released to you, from every laboratory you have used, and nothing a laboratory has not released. It is not a laboratory membership: a patient account cannot see a worklist, a specimen or anybody else's record.
Your account is linked to your patient record by the laboratory. Until a laboratory releases something, the portal says so plainly: "No laboratory has shared a result with you."
The pages
| Address | What it shows |
|---|---|
/portal | Results that came back recently, each with a one-line reading and what happens next |
/portal/history | "Everything, oldest at the bottom." Every result and every message, from every laboratory, in one list that nothing is removed from. Filters: Everything, Results, Messages |
/portal/notifications | Messages about your results and visits |
/portal/reports/:reportId | One report, with its versions and notes |
/portal/invoices/:invoiceId | One invoice and how it is settled |
/portal/orders/:orderId · /portal/home-collections/:collectionId | An order, or a booked home visit |
/portal/shares | Who can read your results, and the one-result link |
/portal/profile | "What we hold about you, and who put it there." |
Results in plain words
A result card says whether each number is inside or outside the usual range and nothing more. It is not a diagnosis. The portal states that "a result outside the usual range is not automatically a problem", and it deliberately does not tell you what a number means for you — the doctor who asked for the test has your history and can.
"What happens next" is built from what the record actually holds. When the order names a clinician with an accepted link to the laboratory, the page says your doctor has the result. When it does not, it says who ordered the test and that "the laboratory does not send results to anyone else on your behalf."
Reports and their versions
A report is a fixed snapshot of released results that the laboratory puts together. It is never edited:
- A corrected report is a new version. The earlier one is kept exactly as it was, and the page tells you which version you are reading and whether a newer one exists.
- Questions and notes under a report are append-only. Nothing written there is edited or deleted.
- Download gives the report as an HL7 v2 message or a FHIR R4 bundle — "files for another system to read. There is no live feed, so nothing is sent anywhere unless you send the file yourself." See HL7 v2 and FHIR as files.
Invoices, without a checkout
An invoice page shows what it covers and who it is from. Nothing is purchasable in the portal. The pay page (/portal/invoices/:invoiceId/pay) lets you tell the laboratory you intend to pay; in the product's own words, "it does not take a card, it is not a checkout, and pressing the button does not move any money." The invoice stays unpaid until the laboratory records the payment.
Sharing, and stopping it
/portal/shares lists everyone who can read your results. Stopping somebody's access is immediate, needs no reason, and they are not told. The page is honest about the limit: stopping access "cannot un-see anything they have already read."
A laboratory can never see this list, so a laboratory cannot tell that you also use another laboratory.
One-result link. To show a single result to somebody who is not on the list, create a link for that one result. It opens at /portal/shared/:token, needs no sign-in, shows that result and nothing else, and stops working on its own after seven days. You can stop it sooner. A link is not a login: anybody holding it can open that one result, so send it the way you would send anything private.
Your details
/portal/profile separates what you can change yourself (the name used when contacting you, a phone number, the language for messages, whether you are told when a result is ready) from what only a laboratory can correct, because it is part of a clinical record. Offers from laboratories near you are off unless you turn them on.
Feedback after a visit
A laboratory may ask for feedback through a link to /feedback/:token. That page signs nobody in and shows no result. Comments are read by the laboratory's quality team and are not scored by software. "Nobody replies to this box, and nothing here reaches a clinician."
Related: Email notifications · Clinician portal