How does site level accession numbering work?

How does site level accession numbering work?

VetView allows you to set each Accession Number independently depending on your lab sites.

These settings are controlled under the Sites/Users tab under Lab Setup.

How do I set up a Site to have its own series of accession numbers?

If you set the site level accession number setup to be unique (with it's own prefix, digits, and suffix), the system searches for and assigns (depending on whether or not you auto-accept at the site level or not) the next available number that includes all prefix and suffixes that match exactly.

If you leave a setup blank at the site level, the system will pick up that setup from the laboratory level, so if you have a prefix assigned at the laboratory level, but not at the site level, the number assigned will have the laboratory prefix assigned to it. The same is true of null values at the digit or suffix setup at the site level. This allows the system to know how to number the accessions if no site specific setup is indicated at all, which is required for some institutions.

I am getting an error trying to generate new accession numbers after setting up the site numbering.  How can I fix it?

Your lab level and site level accession numbers should have the same number of the Length value even if the prefix is inherited. 

The digit indicator drives the next accession number that typically changes, however, if an integer is found in your system that exceeds the number at your site level setup (your site is set at 5 digits, but your laboratory is set at 6 digits, and all other setup generates the exact same prefix and suffix information), then the accession number suggester is going to break when attempting to assign a site-level accession number. This is because if the database contains an accession number that has the exact same prefixes and suffix, and 6 digits, the suggester looks for the next available integer, and will return a 6 digit integer to suggest as the next number.

If, however, the site level specifies a 5 digit integer be assigned, the system will not accept the suggested number, and therefore you will get an error.   

As a result of the above-mentioned error, if you attempt to accept multiple requests from the request screen, and this scenario is happening, you will get errors on each of the accessions that you attempt to accept that runs into this issue. Your users will additionally see this same issue when they attempt to manually accept the accession from the accession screen if the number does not auto-generate. they'll hit the accept button, and the accession number suggester will suggest the 6 digit number, run the check to ensure it's a 5 integer number, and throw an error message, therefore not assigning the accession number. This issue/error will resolve if you take the steps mentioned below.

If you run into the scenario last mentioned above, you need to do one of the following two things:

• Check your database to see if there are erroneous accession numbers that somehow include 6 integer numbers rather than 5. Correct those to 5 integer numbers, and this should resolve your issues. by integer, I mean that if you padded the 5 digit number with a 0 at the beginning, the system reads that as a 5 integer number, so 6 digit numbers that were padded with a 0 at the beginning should not cause this problem.
• Change your setup such that would generate for the laboratory and the number that should generate for the site is slightly different (unique prefix or suffix). This should also resolve the issue.