How Sonio integrates with your EHR

What you'll learn

How an exam travels from your EHR to your ultrasound machine and back, through Sonio.
Why ordering the exam in your EHR and starting it from the machine worklist keep everything linked automatically.
What the accession number is, and how Sonio uses it to attach images to the right exam.
Where to find the accession number in Sonio.

How the round trip works

For sites with an EHR integration, a Sonio exam usually follows this path. Each step hands off to the next when the integration and worklist are configured correctly.

The exam is ordered or scheduled in your EHR. This is the source-of-truth action for integrated sites. Everything downstream depends on it.
Your EHR sends the order to Sonio over a secure HL7 connection. Sonio creates the patient and the exam, and they appear on your Sonio dashboard.
Sonio publishes the order to the machine worklist. The worklist is the list of scheduled patients or exams that appears on the ultrasound machine. It is a DICOM Modality Worklist served through Sonio's on-site Uplink. The machine worklist only shows appointments within a limited scheduling window. Very old or far-future appointments may not appear yet.
The sonographer starts the exam from the worklist on the machine and scans. Because the exam came from the worklist, every image carries the correct patient and the accession number, so the images attach to the right exam in Sonio automatically.
The exam is completed and the report is signed in Sonio.
Sonio can send results back to your EHR. After the report is signed in Sonio, Sonio can send results back depending on your site's integration setup. For many sites, this may include the signed report in the patient's chart and, where configured, billing or charge information.

The two actions that make this automatic are ordering in the EHR and starting from the worklist. When the order is created in the EHR, the accession number is generated once and travels with the order from end to end, so images and the report reconcile on their own and results route back to the right chart. Starting the exam from the worklist (instead of typing patient details on the machine) is what stamps the correct accession number and patient ID onto the images.

The accession number

The accession number is the unique identifier for the exam order. It identifies the exam and helps Sonio match images from the ultrasound machine to the correct exam. It also travels with the results sent back to your EHR.

The accession number identifies the exam. The DICOM ID identifies the patient.

Sonio uses the accession number, together with your site information, to match images to the correct exam. If the accession number is blank, mistyped, or does not match, Sonio creates a new, unlinked exam instead of attaching the images to the existing one.

Where to find it:

The accession number is shown (read-only) on the exam in Sonio.
The patient's DICOM ID is on the patient Demographics.
You can also search the dashboard by accession number to find an exam.

💡Tip: start the exam from the worklist

Always start the exam from the worklist on the machine. When you select the patient from the worklist, the machine stamps the correct accession number and patient ID onto every image, and the images attach to the right exam in Sonio automatically. No manual matching needed.

⚠️ Skipping the worklist breaks the link

Creating the exam directly on the machine, or skipping the worklist and typing patient details by hand, breaks the automatic link. The images can land on the wrong exam or create a new, unlinked exam, which then has to be moved or merged by hand afterward.

Common questions / troubleshooting

Why do I have to start the exam from the worklist?

Starting from the worklist is what stamps the correct accession number and patient ID onto your images. That is what lets Sonio attach them to the right exam automatically. If you type the patient details on the machine instead, the images can end up on the wrong exam or on a new, unlinked one that has to be fixed afterward.

Where do I find the accession number?

It is shown (read-only) on the exam in Sonio. The patient's DICOM ID is on the patient Demographics. You can also search the dashboard by accession number to find a specific exam. See How to customize your dashboard

The patient is not on the machine worklist. What do I do?

First check that the appointment is scheduled around the current date, since the machine worklist only shows appointments within a limited scheduling window. For full troubleshooting, see I cannot find the patient/appointment on the US worklist.

What if our site has no EHR integration?

If your site has no EHR feed, you create the patient and exam in Sonio yourself. See How to create a patient in Sonio.