Referring doctor WhatsApp desk
Referral doctor desk: reports, history and statements on WhatsApp. No login.
Doctors send patients to labs that are easy to work with. PathLab Software sends the signed report to the referring doctor the moment it is validated, answers "history" with the patient's previous results, calls automatically on a critical value, and sends a referred-patient statement each month.
Sent from your lab's verified WhatsApp Business number · patient consent recorded at registration · every delivery in the audit trail
HbA1c: 6.8 → 7.1 → 7.9
Hb: 11.9 → 11.2 → 10.8
Lipids (Mar): LDL 142 H
Sample data · fictional lab, doctors and patients
What the doctor desk does
Signed report on validation
The same QR-verified PDF the patient gets, sent to the referring doctor the moment the pathologist signs. Amended reports are re-sent with "Amended" on the header.
History on request
The doctor replies "history" or a patient name and gets the last visits side by side: trends for HbA1c, creatinine, TSH, whatever the lab has run.
Critical-value auto-call
Potassium 6.8, platelets 38,000, glucose 32: PathLab Software calls and WhatsApps the doctor, asks for an acknowledgement, retries, escalates to the lab in-charge and logs every step. It supports, never replaces, the lab's duty to inform.
Referred-patient statement
Patients and tests per referrer each month, with amounts billed under their rate list, sent as a PDF and kept in your accounts. A record, not a referral payment.
Order from WhatsApp (planned)
Planned: a doctor sends "CBC, LFT for Revathi S, 45 F, home collection tomorrow" and the front desk sees a pre-filled order to confirm. Today, doctors reply TODAY, HISTORY, STATEMENT or ACK.
Privacy by default
Each doctor sees only patients referred under their name. WhatsApp consent is recorded at registration; every send is logged with time and number.
Critical-value alerts: delivery, failures, retries, escalation and evidence
The automated call is a safety net, not the lab's whole process. It supports, and never replaces, clinical judgement or the lab's duty to inform the treating clinician. This is exactly what the software does today.
| Stage | What PathLab Software does | What your staff do |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | A result (typed or from an analyzer) crosses the critical low or high limit you set per test parameter; an alert opens on the Validation screen. | Set and review critical limits with your pathologist. |
| Delivery | A voice call reads the patient, test and value and asks the doctor to press 1; a WhatsApp alert asks them to reply ACK. If no referrer is on the order, the lab in-charge is called instead. | Keep referrer and in-charge numbers current. |
| Delivery failure | No phone number: logged and escalated at the next check. Provider or network error: logged as a failed attempt; the result is still saved and the retry clock keeps running. | Act on the open alert; do not wait for the retry. |
| Retries | Unanswered or unacknowledged calls are retried about every 10 minutes, two attempts in total. | Phone the doctor yourself while the alert is open. |
| Escalation | After two unacknowledged attempts, the alert is marked Escalated; the lab in-charge gets a call, a WhatsApp alert and an in-app notification. The alert stays open until a person acknowledges it. | The in-charge informs the clinician and records it. |
| Acknowledgement | Recorded from a key press on the call, an ACK reply on WhatsApp, or manually by lab staff, with name, channel and time. | Record manual calls with who you spoke to. |
| Audit evidence | Every event (raised, dialled, failed, escalated, acknowledged) is time-stamped in the alert's log and the audit trail; the report prints "Critical value communicated to … at …". | Review the critical-value log monthly for your ISO 15189 file. |
Voice calls run in sandbox until your lab's voice provider credentials are added; in sandbox, calls are logged but not placed, and alerts stay open for staff to handle. Only the demo workspace simulates a doctor's acknowledgement.
The report a doctor, and a patient, receives
Your header, Tamil or English, reference ranges by age and sex, H/L flags in colour, a delta note against the previous visit, the pathologist's electronic signature and a QR code anyone holding the report can scan to check it against the lab's record.
- Patients get the report plus an optional short explainer in Tamil or English that never diagnoses and always points back to the doctor.
- Doctors get the report link with the abnormal values summarised in the message text so they can act without opening the file.
- Both can scan the QR on any printed copy to see the signed original on PathLab Software's verification page.
Open the sample report and its live QR check See every report feature
SRI LAKSHMI DIAGNOSTICS
Sample data · fictional lab and patient
01-10-2026 · 10:42
Complete blood count
| Test | Result | Unit | Ref range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haemoglobin | 10.8 L | g/dL | 12.0–15.5 |
| WBC | 7,400 | /µL | 4,000–11,000 |
| Platelets | 2.6 | lakh/µL | 1.5–4.0 |
| ESR (1st hour) | 28 H | mm/hr | 0–20 |
Delta: Hb ↓ from 11.2 (previous visit). Kindly correlate clinically.
Dr. S. Anand
Dr. S. Anand, MD Path
Signed electronically 10:42 · verify by QR
Why WhatsApp instead of a referral portal
Every established lab platform offers a referring-doctor portal or app. Ask the doctors around your lab how many have the password. A busy GP sees 60 patients a day and will not open a fourth app to check one report; they will phone the lab, and your front desk will read numbers over the phone. The doctor desk removes that call. The report is already in the WhatsApp thread they use all day, from the number they recognise, with the abnormal values in the message itself.
The same channel carries critical-value alerts; how they work, fail and escalate is set out in full below.
Referred-patient statements give a doctor or clinic a monthly list of the patients they sent, the tests done and the amounts billed under their rate list, computed from the same orders that produced the reports. They are records, not referral payments. In India, paying or receiving commission for referring patients is restricted for doctors under the National Medical Commission's professional-conduct regulations and several state rules; PathLab Software does not calculate referral payouts for doctors, and each lab must follow applicable law. The optional adjustment field in the app is meant only for lawful business arrangements such as hospital or corporate outsourcing rates.
For lab owners: setting it up
Add each referring doctor with their WhatsApp number, rate list and whether they receive reports on WhatsApp. Patients are asked at registration whether reports may be sent on WhatsApp; doctor copies go only to the referrer named on the order, and you can switch them off per referrer. That is the whole setup. A doctor who messages the lab number gets a short menu of replies: TODAY, HISTORY, STATEMENT and ACK.
For the WhatsApp side of the setup, including consent wording and Meta template approval, see the guide on sending lab reports on WhatsApp automatically. Already using analyzer interfacing? Reports reach the doctor minutes after the sample finishes on the machine, which is the turnaround that makes a GP choose your lab over the one next door.
Frequently asked questions
Do doctors need to install anything or create a login?
No. The lab adds the doctor's WhatsApp number once. Reports, history and statements arrive as ordinary WhatsApp messages from the lab's verified business number. Doctors can reply with simple words such as "history" or "today".
Is sending patient reports to a doctor on WhatsApp allowed?
Yes, when the doctor is the referring clinician on the order and the patient consented at registration. PathLab Software records that consent, sends over Meta's encrypted WhatsApp Business Platform, and logs every delivery in the audit trail.
How does the critical-value call work?
When a result crosses a critical limit, PathLab Software places an automatic voice call and sends a WhatsApp alert to the referring doctor, who acknowledges by pressing 1 or replying ACK. Unanswered or failed calls are retried about every 10 minutes; after two unacknowledged attempts it escalates to the lab in-charge by call, WhatsApp and an in-app alert. Every step is logged. The call supports, and never replaces, the lab's duty to inform the clinician.
What if the call fails or nobody acknowledges?
A failed call (no number, network or provider error) is logged as a failed attempt and does not stop the result from being saved. The alert stays open on the Validation screen until a person acknowledges it, and lab staff must still phone the clinician themselves while it is open. The log shows each attempt, failure, escalation and the final acknowledgement with name, channel and time.
What is in a referral statement?
A referred-patient statement lists, for one month, the patients a doctor, clinic or corporate referred, the tests done and the amounts billed under their rate list. It is sent on WhatsApp and kept in your accounts. It is not a referral payment: in India, paying doctors for referrals is restricted by NMC professional-conduct regulations and state rules, and each lab must follow applicable law.
Can a doctor see results from other labs or other doctors' patients?
No. A doctor sees only patients referred under their name at your lab. Patients can additionally share their own reports with anyone they choose.
Show this page to your referring doctors
Then book the free setup. We add your first ten referrers and their rate lists during onboarding.