Hi everyone,
We are integrating our EMR with OpenELIS (latest version: 3.2.2) and running into a permission/visibility issue across lab units.
Our Workflow:
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Orders are sent from our EMR into OpenELIS.
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We have unit-specific Lab Technicians (e.g., Cytogenetics, Hematology, etc.).
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A Lab Technician receives the sample, processes it, and enters the results for their specific unit.
The Issue: When logging in as a Cytogenetics Lab Technician (assigned reception and results permissions specifically for Cytogenetics), the user can see all incoming orders across all lab units on the Test Order Dashboard and Incoming Orders Pane.
Interestingly, the Workplan / Results Pane works as expected and restricts the unit dropdown strictly to Cytogenetics.
How can we configure or restrict the Incoming Orders Dashboard so technicians only see test orders assigned to their specific lab unit? Any guidance or pointers would be greatly appreciated!
@Bhupesh_Gupta is the term Role-Based Workflow Separation familiar ?
Thanks for the detailed writeup! What you’re seeing comes down to how OpenELIS separates Pre-Accessioning (Order Reception) from Post-Accessioning (Workplan/Results Entry) permissions.
Why this happens:
Incoming electronic orders (FHIR ServiceRequest / HL7) sit in the Electronic Orders queue before they’re accessioned, and a single requisition can carry tests for multiple units (e.g. a Cytogenetics karyotype and a Hematology CBC in one order). Because of that, the Test Order Dashboard / Incoming Orders Pane runs on site-wide reception permissions (Electronic Orders / Add Sample / Sample Reception) rather than test-section-restricted ones.
Once an order is accessioned, OpenELIS breaks it into individual Test/Analysis records tied to a Test Section, which is why Workplan correctly restricts the unit dropdown but the Incoming Orders pane doesn’t.
Recommended fix ( Role-Based Workflow Separation):
If your facility has (or can designate) dedicated reception/accessioning staff:
- Remove “Electronic Orders / Sample Reception” permissions from unit-specific Lab Technicians.
- Grant reception permissions only to central Reception staff, who receive and log incoming e-orders.
- Lab Technicians then work exclusively out of Workplan / Results Entry, where test-section restrictions already apply correctly.
This is a permission change only and it’s a hard restriction rather than something staff have to remember to do manually.
If you don’t have dedicated reception staff and technicians must accession their own orders, a lighter-weight option is to have them filter the Incoming Orders search by test/panel name for their unit before processing but note this relies on staff discipline rather than an actual access restriction, so it’s not a substitute for #1 where possible.
Worth flagging: this also looks like a genuine gap in the product Workplan enforces TestSection permissions correctly, but the Incoming Orders Dashboard doesn’t apply the same scoping even though the underlying permission data exists. Might be worth raising as an issue on the OpenELIS-Global-2 GitHub so it gets fixed at the source rather than every site needing this workaround.
Happy to help further if you share more about your reception setup.
CC: @Moses_Mutesasira @caseyi
Hello @Bhupesh_Gupta
Good catch. What you’re seeing is expected based on how the current Lab Unit–Role filtering is implemented in OpenELIS.
The Lab Unit–Role based filtering is currently applied to areas such as Results, Workplan, and Validation, which is why the Workplan/Results view correctly limits the technician to their assigned lab unit.
However, that filtering has not been applied to Incoming Electronic Orders Dashboard. As a result, users with the appropriate reception/results permissions can currently see incoming orders across all lab units.
This appears to be a gap in the current implementation rather than a configuration issue with your user permissions.
So, at the moment, there isn’t a configuration setting that will restrict the Incoming Electronic Orders pane by Lab Unit in the same way as the Results and Workplan views. The Incoming Orders functionality would need to be updated to apply the same Lab Unit–Role filtering.
Thanks for reporting this — it’s a good catch and highlights an inconsistency in how the Lab Unit restrictions are currently applied.
This will be fixed in the coming release
Thanks for considering this as an enhancement for the next release. Could you share any timelines you have in mind, so I can set the right expectations with customers?
We should have the release by the end of this week
Just tested it after upgrading to 3.2.3. The filter is working fine in “Incoming Orders” but no filtering applied in “Add Order > Clinical Orders > Dashboard”.
@Bhupesh_Gupta we should be able to raise this issue on github for a quick follow up !