Last month it was announced that, to reduce unnecessary testing and improve patient care, restrictions would be imposed in Connect Care on the use of daily lab orders for inpatients. The original change created some issues with signing periprocedural orders, and so the change was rolled back. A fix has now been found and so, effective November 18, 2025, the default number of occurrences for daily lab orders will be set to 3 days, with a maximum of 7 days.
All admission order sets will be impacted. Personalized orders will have to be adjusted after the change to align with the new limits; supports will be available to help prescribers with re-personalization (details below). Prescribers signing periprocedural orders should not encounter problems again, but are encouraged to log a ticket if they notice any issues.
Inpatient orders for frequencies other than daily as well as outpatient orders will not be affected at this time.
How This Will Impact Prescribers
- Occurrence field default: For lab orders with a frequency of daily (including daily morning, daily afternoon, daily evening, daily timed, first occurrence then every 24hrs), the default will be 3 occurrences and can be adjusted to a maximum of 7. There will be no hard stops in the occurrence field, but will default to 3 days when left blank upon signing.
- Order validation warning: An order validation warning will identify which orders are not able to be signed without changes. The warning will appear when placing personalized orders, order panels, and/or order sets that have default occurrence of greater than 7 days for daily lab orders.
- Modifying/reordering: Daily orders can be modified/reordered at any time for up to 7 days. The “edit multiple” tool can be used to efficiently change the frequency and number of occurrences for multiple orders at once.
- Expiring labs: As previously posted, expiring repeating inpatient lab orders show up in the "Expiring Orders" section of the Orders activity 3 days before they expire. An "Expiring Repeating Lab 2d" column is also available to add to the Patient List to visually flag orders expiring within 48 hours.
- Order review: All inpatient lab orders should be reviewed at least weekly for ongoing appropriateness.
Support for Re-Personalization
Tip sheets to help prescribers with re-personalization of orders, order panels, and/or order sets are linked below. The Help Desk will be able to help prescribers needing additional support to navigate this change (1-877-311-4300, press 1 for Connect Care).