Your GP or the staff at the testing clinic should tell you how long it will take to get your test results — usually, it takes 1 to 3 days. If your test result is negative, you will receive an SMS text message or a phone call from the doctor or clinic that took your test.
Please book an appointment online if your doctor hasn't requested a follow-up consultation and you are still experiencing symptoms. The reception staff cannot read out your results to you over the phone for privacy reasons.
If a result is sufficiently abnormal to cause any immediate medical concerns the doctor will contact you themselves. If a doctor wants to discuss a test result where there is no significant level of concern, they may ask reception to book you in for a routine telephone call.
Some doctors call, text or email patients with results, while others require in-person visits. No federal or state law dictates how or when doctors share test results with patients — legally, both approaches are fine. “Ultimately, it's the patient's information, and it should be accessible to them.”
Unless there is something out of the ordinary that needs to be addressed, your doctor will likely email or call you with these results.
How long does it take for my doctor to receive my test results? Routine pathology is generally processed within 48 hours of collection, however, specialised testing can take several days. Speak with your doctor for more details prior to your test. Do I need to pay for my pathology test?
The receptionists are only able to give limited information about test results, depending on what the doctor will have noted when they were received. If the doctor has commented that they are normal, the receptionist can tell you this.
Some urine samples can be analysed quickly using dipstick and the result is available on the same day. For other tests we may need to send the urine to the laboratory and this can take 5-7 days for the results to come back to the practice. These are sent electronically and checked every day by the GP's.
The results of urine tests can be affected by diet, dehydration, medicines, exercise, and other factors. Sometimes, you will be asked to come back and give another sample.
The drug test is under review
Medical Review Officers (MRO) review each and every drug test SwiftCheck provides. Sometimes, the MRO must dive deeper into the results to ensure an accurate result is reported. This involves contacting the candidate to request proof of prescriptions for the potential drug test results.
It could be the doctor had the wrong phone number, or the wrong address. To this day, we tell patients the responsibility is on us to communicate with them." But the backup for patients should always be to call their doctors if they aren't notified of the results of tests, Dunham says.
The receptionist can't give the results until the doctor has reviewed them. Mine have always been fine, and the receptionist said last time that she shouldn't say anything but it'd have been reviewed by the doctor quicker if they expected anything to be wrong, so it'd be reviewed and not to panic.
Receptionists are never told of a patient's confidential consultations (appointments), but they do have access to people's records so that they can type letters and carry out other admin duties.
If you have access to your personal health record in your NHS account, you may be able to see hospital test results. Find out more about personal health records. If you have questions about test results in your GP health record, contact your GP surgery.
Urgent results: we will contact you immediately (so please ensure we have your current and correct contact details recorded). Non-urgent results an appointment required: our receptionist will make a routine appointment for you when you call for your result. This result by definition can wait until the next appointment.
Receptionists will only be able to assist you with results received which have been seen by the Doctor and marked as "Normal, no action required, inform patient". Please do not ask the receptionists any questions regarding your tests as they are not clinically trained and will not be able to assist you.
The receptionist will tell you if the results are normal or if you need to speak to the Doctor. Results can take between a few days and a few weeks to come back, depending on what you have had done.
Reception staff are trained to ask certain questions in order to ensure that you receive the most appropriate medical care from the most appropriate health professional at the most appropriate time.
Many health care groups have adopted this method of posting results directly to patients; but there are enough doctors still out there who do not share results with patients, that I think it's worth stating again: No news is NOT good news. When your doctor orders a test, ask how and when you will learn of the results.
Work together to reach a diagnosis and treatment plan. If you feel like you're not being listened to, find a second opinion or ask the physician to refer you to a specialist. If all else fails, bring a trusted friend or family member to your appointments to help you make your case.
If a normal or negative test result comes back, the physician can telephone the patient with the “good news,” and patients have the option of canceling the follow-up appointment. Although it is preferable to give bad news face-to-face, there may be times when giving bad news over the phone is unavoidable.
Excess fluids can impact the accuracy of the test results, so if your urine is diluted or pale yellow, hold off on taking a test. Diluted urine tends to also have diluted hCG levels which can skew the test results. Take a test when you naturally need to pee.
Urine cytology: In this test, a microscope is used to look for cancer cells in urine. Urine cytology does find some cancers, but it's not reliable enough to make a good screening test. Urine tests for tumor markers: Newer tests look for certain substances in urine that might be a sign of bladder cancer.