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# How to Collect Samples for an Investigation

Your Clinic may have an in-house lab or may be collecting samples to send to an external Lab. In either case, you

Let us see how to do this:

**1**. Go to **Investigations** and click on **Collect Sample.** It will show all Investigations that have been ordered today or yesterday for which Samples have not yet been collected. Select the Patient Investigation you want to take the sample for.

![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/4aaa7eeb74e1d000/abce735e-0af2-48c3-9494-a604bc_10rc5uw.png)

**2**. A **Collect Sample** window will open up. You can fill in the **Sample Reference No:** and add any note if required.

**(a)**.If you are maintaining an in-house Lab you can set up Clinicea to auto-generate **Sample Reference No**. Just set the preference to **YES** for _Auto-Generate the File No._ and this is done. You will find the preference under **Tools** | **Organization** | **Preference | Clinical.**

![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/8bc514246e84d000/05a6c4fa-9653-4174-99ab-3129ab_13gpne0.png)

**(b)**. Alternately, If you sending your samples to a third party to be tested, you can manually enter the reference number as well. This Reference Number would likely be the one which is provided you by the third party Lab against the samples collected. The Auto-Generate File No. preference, in this case, should be turned off.

You can see the **Lab** this sample should be sent to. The **specimen** that should be collected _ex: urine, blood, stool etc.._ You can also see how the collected specimen be stored in **Specimen Storage.** All of this information appears only if set in [Investigations](https://help.clinicea.com/en/article/how-to-set-up-investigations-8riqa8/).

The barcode gets generated automatically and can be printed out using a Label Printer.

Once you have entered the required information, click on **Save.**

![](https://storage.crisp.chat/users/helpdesk/website/7f3418bfb3c09400/73b7734b-d0bb-430b-9a09-e9c03e_b7p3ct.png)

**3**. The Patient Investigation is now removed from the Collect Sample list, to prevent duplicate entries.