Performing Quality Control on a Shipment

It would be bad practice to not check the contents of a shipment before shipping it. Aliquots can get misplaced in storage, for example, and a mistake like that is much easier to correct before it has been shipped.

The process of checking each specimen's label against the information that LDMS will put on the shipping manifest and in the shipping file is called QA/QC. This is done in LDMS Shipping on the Shipment QA/QC tab. QA/QC should be performed at both the sending and receiving laboratories for the same shipment, to make certain what was sent is what was received.

Figure: The Shipment QA/QC tab. Selecting Pass or Fail will advance automatically to the next aliquot. You can also simply scan the aliquot.



There are two ways to do QA/QC: manually or using barcode scanner. Using a barcode scanner is by far the easier (and more accurate) method.

Performing QA/QC

  1. Select the shipment batch for which you want to perform QA/QC from the Setup Shipment tab.

  2. Select the current container (the one you're currently checking or filling) from the Container Name list.

  3. Pull the first selected aliquot out of the container. Where the first aliquot is located in the container will depend on the sort order.

  4. If you want to assign an other specimen ID or comments, complete the appropriate field; this information will be appended to aliquots in your local LDMS database, as well as in the shipping file.

  5. Do one of the following

    • Compare the aliquot's label to the information on the QA/QC tab. If the information matches, click the Pass Aliquot button, or press Alt Z . If the information does not match, click the Fail Aliquot button, or press Alt X .

    • Scan the aliquot with a barcode reader; LDMS will pass or fail the aliquot based on the global specimen ID.
      Note: If scanning non-LDMS barcodes, check the Scan Barcodes with Alternative Identifiers? box.
  6. Put the aliquot in the shipping container in the correct location.

  7. Continue until all aliquots in the container have been checked.

  8. Repeat for each container in the Container Name list in the upper-right corner.

  9. After checking every container in the Container Name list, click the button from the LDMS toolbar.

The semantics are a little different, depending on whether you are shipping a storage container or individual aliquots. If you're shipping individual aliquots, you'll be putting aliquots into a new container, based on the sort order you selected on the View Shipment tab. If you're shipping a container, you're pulling the aliquot out of a container, checking it, and putting it back in the same spot. Other than that, the process is the same.

The QA/QC column on the View Shipment tab displays one of the following to indicate the status of the batch:

  • Complete - All specimens passed QA/QC.
  • Complete with Errors - Some specimens passed and some failed QA/QC.
  • Not performed - QA/QC has not yet been performed
  • In Progress - QA/QC has been started, but is incomplete.