Healthcare Provider Information
Preparing patients for their tests
We are asking patients to plan ahead by booking an appointment online, as this will help reduce lineups and wait times. To accommodate this, we have doubled the number of available appointment slots.
Some tips for booking appointments:
- While mornings may be preferable to some, there are often many appointment slots available at many locations during the mid-day hours.
- If you anticipate your patient will require bloodwork, please ask your patient to book an appointment at the lab in advanced for the same day their medical appointment is booked, or the next day, to ensure test results are processed and reported back to you in a timely manner.
- Please advise patients that if they are unfamiliar with our online appointment booking system, they can request a family member to book an appointment on their behalf.
- To identify a LifeLabs Appointment Centre, please visit our Location Finder.
- A note for LifeLabs Genetics customers (i.e. Panorama NIPT prenatal patients):: Patients are encouraged to contact our Genetics Helpline at 1-844-GENEHELP (1-844-262-4357) if your patient requires urgent or time-sensitive testing, such as the Panorama NIPT Prenatal test, and are unable to book an appointment within the next two business days.
Instructions on booking an appointment:
- Visit lifelabs.com, and click ‘Book Appointment’ in the top menu.
- Select your province, then click ‘Book Appointment’. Search for the location nearest you, and click book appointment on your chosen location.
- Then click ‘Next’ after reading appointment instructions.
- Then select the available date and time convenient for you, click ‘Next’.
- You’re then booked!
Instructions for booking an appointment on behalf of a family member:
- Visit lifelabs.com, click ‘Location Finder’, OR, visit myresults.lifelabs.com and click ‘Location Finder’
- Find your location, then click ‘Book Appointment’. Then click ‘Next’ after reading appointment instructions.
- Select the available data and time they want to book, click ‘Next’ again.
- You can either log into your existing account, or create a new one on behalf of them. Once all the information is confirmed, you can enter their name for the appointment. Then simply confirm the appointment!
About LifeLabs Appointment Centres
Some of our patient service centres are operating as LifeLabs Appointment Centres. At these locations, we are requiring customers to book an appointment in advanced online.
To find out if a location is currently operating as an Appointment Centre, please search for that location via our Location Finder.
Please note that walk-ins will not be turned away. Instead, walk-ins that attend these Appointment Centre locations will be converted to appointments for a later time.
We aim to accommodate walk-ins with an appointment within the same day. If your patient requires an urgent test, or is an elderly, vulnerable, or immunocompromised patient, we will escalate our services to accommodate them as soon as possible when they arrive. Please note these appointments may still require 10-30 minute waits depending on volumes.
Walk-in patients that are converted to an appointment may wait in their car, at a nearby coffee shop, or in any location that allows for proper physical distancing. They will not lose their spot in line. If they have any mobility issues or health conditions that prevents them from waiting elsewhere, they may wait for their turn in the waiting room.
If the facility has reached its maximum capacity for the day, we will provide them with the information to complete their test at another nearby location; or they can book an appointment for another day.
If a computer or the online service is not available to your patient, they may our call our Customer Care Centre at:
- 1-877-849-3637 for Ontario
- 1-800-431-7206 for B.C
- 1-888-333-0222 for Saskatchewan
For more information about our appointment services, please see the FAQs below.
Please note that locations that are not designated as LifeLabs Appointment Centres will accept walk-ins, appointments, and Save My Spot users as normal.
Email and fax requisitions
Every day, we process thousands of requisitions manually so customers can visit any LifeLabs collection centre.
To email a patient’s requisition, please follow the steps below:
- Create one email per patient
2. Email a PDF copy of the requisition to the dedicated email address
BC: PatientREQSBC@lifelabs.com
ON: PatientREQSON@lifelabs.com
- Use the patient’s legal first name and last name as the subject line
To fax a patient’s requisition, please use the following fax numbers:
ON Fax Number: 905-795-9891
BC Fax Number: 1-888-674-0370
*Disclaimer: LifeLabs is accepting requisitions via email to support our patients who present to a Patient Service Centre with an electronic requisition. There is a risk of inappropriate disclosure when emailing a requisition from a public email domain. The patient is responsible for the security of the electronic copy of the requisition when it is on their mobile device or when it is emailed from the patient’s public email domain to LifeLabs. LifeLabs will maintain the security of the requisition when it is received by LifeLabs.
To help us process requisitions efficiently:
- Fax or email a single requisition at a time;
- Record only the patient’s first and last name in the subject line;
- We aim to process requisitions within 24 hours of submission. To allow enough time for processing, please ask your patients to wait until the next day to visit one of our collection centres. If that is not possible, we recommend that they bring a physical copy of their requisition to the LifeLabs collection centre instead.
- If you send the requisition to your patient, you do not need to fax or email it to us, as we will be processing the patient’s copy.
- A note about ordering requisitions & booking appointments: emailed or faxed requisitions take about 24 hours for our systems to process. If a requisition is emailed by a health care provider or patient, please remind the patient to allow for 24 hours processing time when booking an appointment. If a patient is able to print their requisition, we encourage booking an appointment the same day as their medical appointment.
Preparing patients for when they arrive
Sanitizing hands & wearing a mask
When a patient arrives, they are asked to sanitize their hands and wear a mask while in our facility and while standing in line to help ensure their safety and the safety of others around them, especially in situations where physical distancing isn’t always possible.
Please note that while restrictions are lifting in public settings in certain provinces, face masks will remain mandatory in clinical settings, such as our Patient Service Centres, until further notice to ensure the health and safety of all customers and employees.
Advanced registration with our greeter
Our greeter is there to help ensure a patient’s visit goes smoothly. Upon arrival, our greeter will register them and ensure they are in the queue, as well as:
- Ask COVID-19 screening questions
- Confirm appointments & Save My Spot users
- Confirm requisitions (if your requisition was emailed or if they have a hard copy)
- Manage space in waiting rooms
Proactive Screening
We are screening anyone who visits our patient service centres. Upon arrival, the patient will be asked a few questions to determine if they screen positive for COVID-19. Even if they screen positive, they will still be served, but given a mask to wear if you do not have one, isolated from others, and processed at an accelerated rate.
Our greeters will ask patients the following questions:
- Have you had a fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, headache or difficulty breathing in the past 14 days?
- Have you had contact with a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 in the past 14 days?
- Have you been recently instructed to self-isolate/quarantine by local public health authorities due to travel or contact history?
- Did you or your physician email or fax in your requisition?
Physical distancing
While physical distancing requirements have been removed in alignment with Public Health recommendations, we encourage customers to respect the comfort levels of others who may prefer to exercise additional caution.
Sanitation
Proper sanitation always remains one of our top priorities to ensure everyone’s health and safety. We’re asking all customers to sanitize their hands upon arrival, but we also have many cleaning measures in place such as:
- Decontaminating rooms and equipment immediately after servicing a customer.
- Regular cleaning of any surface that is frequently touched by customers (i.e. door handles, coat hangers).
- Decontaminating washrooms immediately after it is used by a customer that screens positive for COVID-19.
Support for vulnerable populations and the immunocompromised
Patients who are elderly, immunocompromised, or considered to be part of a vulnerable population, are strongly encouraged to utilize our Appointment Booking service when planning a visit so they can limit the time spent at our locations.
If a patient requires further assistance when they arrive, they may ask any LifeLabs staff member for support, such as a chair if they have mobility issues, to be seated in the waiting room, to be seated in an isolated waiting area if they are immunocompromised.
Patients are also asked during our screening process to indicate if they are immunocompromised or are otherwise in a vulnerable population. We will take several proactive actions to ensure patient safety and well-being by providing a mask, isolating patients from other individuals at our location, and expediting service.
Providing COVID-19 laboratory testing
Please note that our Patient Service Centres in British Columbia and Saskatchewan do not collect specimens for COVID-19 testing.
Collection services will be made available at a limited number of LifeLabs locations by appointment only for both asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals in Ontario Peel Region. COVID-19 sample collection services will be available at the LifeLabs located at 3427 Derry Road East, Mississauga, Ontario, from 11am – 7pm, Mon-Sat (closed on long weekends.)
For information about how to access COVID-19 testing in other locations and provinces, please start by visiting local provincial self-assessments tools online (see links below) to determine if testing is required, and follow the directions provided.
For more information, please visit our COVID-19 testing page.
COVID-19 antibody testing now available
LifeLabs is pleased to offer its COVID-19 antibody test, helping customers and their health care providers assess and determine prior COVID-19 infection. Antibody testing, also referred to as serology testing, can also help individuals and their health care providers understand if they’ve had prior infection or exposure to COVID-19—even if they were asymptomatic.
Please visit our COVID-19 Antibody Test product page for more information.
