FAQ regarding laboratory tests

No, you can’t. You must always present a referral from a health care provider. We will receive your referral electronically if it has been made by the public health services (hospital or health centre) of North Savo, North Karelia, South Savo or East Savo. Paper copies of referrals are provided by private doctors and occupational health care, for example. If you have a paper referral, please take them with you to the laboratory.

Please ask your doctor or nurse for preparation instructions when they assign you a lab test. Please also ask your doctor for information regarding your tests and their significance in terms of your treatment.

Your results will be provided by your health care provider.

Your health care provider will make the referral and register it in MyKanta. From ISLAB, test results are transferred to your health care provider, who registers them in MyKanta. If any referrals or results are missing, please contact your health care provider.

Yes, if you bring a paper copy of the referral made by your doctor with you. Tests will be taken based on the referral. There are some limitations regarding tests on referrals made by private health care providers. For more information, please see Preparation instructions for laboratory tests.

Only in exceptional cases. It is important that you use a sample container provided by your health unit or the laboratory. When you request a sample container, we will check your referral. That way we try to ensure that the sample is fit for examination when you bring it to the laboratory, and that we can analyse it without delay (the health care provider has made the referral in advance).

Please see the instructions provided by the laboratory where you plan to leave your sample. In some laboratories, the serving number machine has a separate serving number for picking up and leaving sample containers.

You can drink a glass of water while fasting. Please avoid eating gum.

For tests that require fasting, you should stop eating and drinking 10 hours before the test. Avoid fasting for more than 14 hours, although tests can still be carried out after that.

We will ask for your social security number after printing the sample label. This way we can make sure that the sample label that we have printed has the correct person’s information on it. That way, when we stick the label to the sample container, we can be sure that the sample container has the correct patient’s information and that the test results will be received by the right person.

Please consider going to one of our other laboratories. You can visit any ISLAB laboratory. Some laboratories serve customers with urgent tests without an appointment.

No, it wasn’t. Patients are called in the laboratory within 10 minutes from their appointment time.