Nachforderung aus der Restprobe is the request to add an analysis to a sample the laboratory already has, instead of bringing the customer back for a second collection. It comes up constantly. A result arrives, the customer or the physician wants one more parameter, and the material is still sitting in the laboratory refrigerator. Asking is often quicker and easier on the customer than a repeat draw, which is exactly why it needs a moment of care before the telephone call.
Whether the laboratory can do it at all is a question of Präanalytik rather than goodwill. Three things decide it. Stability comes first, because each analyte has its own window and some fall outside it within hours of collection while others survive for days in the refrigerator. Then remaining volume, since the original request was calculated for the original parameters and a residual aliquot may simply be too small. Then tube type, because a parameter that needs a different Antikoagulans or serum where plasma was drawn cannot be produced from what is there, whatever the volume. The akkreditiertes Labor answers all three from its own specification, so the pharmacy asks rather than assumes, and the answer decides whether a fresh sample is needed.
The part the pharmacy has to sort out first is consent, and it sits ahead of the logistics rather than beside them. The customer agreed to a defined list of analyses. A further parameter is a test they did not agree to, and the fact that the material is already in the laboratory changes nothing about that. So the pharmacy goes back to the person, names the additional analysis, explains why it has been suggested and obtains a documented extension of the original Aufklärung und Einwilligung. This matters most where the additional parameter carries weight the customer would not expect from the first conversation.
Cost is the second conversation and it happens at the same time. A self paying customer priced one panel and an addition changes the invoice, so the amount is agreed before the request goes out and noted with the consent. Only then does the request itself follow the normal route through the pharmacy record and the established Probenlogistik to the laboratory, which is where the note belongs in any case.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
