Dependable DispatchBlog · · Dependable Dispatch
Choosing dispatch software for mobile lab, imaging and home health: a buyer's checklist
Mobile phlebotomy, specimen courier and portable imaging companies share one core problem: get a tech who can do the work to the patient inside the time that matters, and keep a record that holds up when someone asks what happened. Home health agencies share part of it when visits run as stops on a route. Generic field service and delivery tools solve some of that. They route vans well. They usually don't know what a timed draw is, or what a specimen handoff has to record.
These are the questions we'd ask any vendor, including us. Make the vendor answer each one on screen, on a demo day shaped like yours.
1. The dispatch screen
Dispatchers live on this screen for a full shift, so it has to show the whole day without hunting.
- Can you see every order, tech and client on one screen, with filters for client, tech, facility and order type?
- Do STAT orders and timed draws pin to the top? A STAT should show its age. A timed draw should show its window.
- What catches a wrong assignment? Most boards let you drag an order to a tech. Ask what happens after the drop: Undo when it lands on the wrong tech, and a refusal before it goes through when that tech doesn't work for that client.
- What happens on a reassign after the first tech confirmed? Is that tech told which order left their route, and does the new tech get it with its instructions intact?
- Can you stage work? Assigning tomorrow's orders tonight without buzzing every tech's phone saves a night of texts.
2. The tech's phone
If the route is slower than texting dispatch, techs will text dispatch, and the timestamps never get written.
- Does it need an app install? A route that runs in the phone's browser means no app store download and no update to push to every tech.
- Is the full order on the phone before the visit? Special instructions, the timed draw window, level and dose, and the address one tap from the tech's maps app.
- Is each step one tap? Confirm, en route, on site, departed, completed. Each tap is a timestamp you'll need later.
- What does the tech see when a stop changes? A cancelled or reassigned order should name the order and patient, not just say something changed.
3. Chain of custody and handoffs
This is the part generic tools miss. Our longer post on chain of custody has the full set of demo tests.
- Can a tech hand specimens to another tech mid-route, with each specimen checked off?
- Can a tech leave specimens at a facility for courier pickup, and does the courier see exactly what was left?
- Is there an audit trail on every order: who created, assigned, moved, handed off or cancelled it, and when?
4. Recurring work
- Does each facility have its own schedule for standing orders, including week-of-month patterns?
- Can you create a day's recurring orders in one step, without duplicates when the screen is run twice?
- Can it read an AM rounds list a facility sends, instead of making someone retype it?
5. Your service lines
If you run more than one kind of mobile service, check the software against each one, not just the first.
- Mobile phlebotomy and specimen courier: timed draws, drops at the lab, redraws with a reason, turnaround reporting.
- Mobile radiology: each tech's modality recorded in the system, and imaging clients who see imaging order options.
- Home health: visits on the route as stops, a timestamp at each step, and agency staff who can track their own visits.
One board for all of them beats a separate system per service line.
6. The client portal
- Can clients place orders and track status themselves?
- Does each client see only its own facilities and orders? Ask the vendor to sign in as one client and show you that another client's orders aren't visible.
7. Reports
- Turnaround by tech, from request to completion.
- A STAT report card showing how many STATs finished inside your target.
- AM rounds completion by date and facility.
- UTOs (unable to obtain), tracked apart from cancellations.
- Mileage by tech.
- CSV export for anything you need to send a client or put in a spreadsheet.
8. Security and compliance
- Is access scoped by role and by client? Dispatchers, techs and client users should each see only what their role needs.
- Are internal notes kept from techs and clients?
- Will the vendor sign a Business Associate Agreement? If the system holds patient information, you need one. Ask for it in writing, and ask what the vendor's HIPAA program covers today.
Our own answer, today: access is scoped by role and client, dispatch-only notes stay with dispatch, and every order change is logged. A full HIPAA program with a signed BAA for every customer is coming soon. Our security section lists what's in place now and what's still to come.
9. Pricing
- What counts toward the bill? Per user, per tech, per order? Do cancelled orders count?
- What's the setup fee, and what does it cover?
- What happens to the price as you add techs and clients?
Ask for the price in writing before the demo ends, worked out for a month at your volume.
10. Onboarding and cutover
- How do facilities, clients, techs and standing orders get into the system?
- How does cutover work so no order falls between the old system and the new one?
- Will the vendor walk a day like yours through the system before you sign?
On that last one, use demo data until a BAA is signed. Real orders are patient information, and even with names removed, dates of service and addresses still identify people. Until our BAAs are ready, we'll walk a day like yours through the board, the map and a tech's phone on demo data. Book a demo.