Group Therapy Encounter (Edit and Sign) Issue

AZS · June 30, 2025, 3:48pm

Situation
After enabling the Group Therapy feature, when I create an encounter, I am not able to edit or sign the encounter details. I have checked all the ACL permissions, and it appears that the Administrator group has full access to the Group Therapy feature. I need to add that I can edit and sign the attendance notes.

Any help and guidance will be appreciated.

OpenEMR Version
7.0.3 (4)

Browser:
Chrome

Operating System
MacOS

Search
Group Therapy Edit and Sign Issue

Logs
The Error Log when I click on the Edit button:

[Mon Jun 30 13:12:48.961941 2025] [php:warn] [pid 694588] [client 68.5.84.67:59028] PHP Warning: Undefined variable $therapyGroupCategories in /var/www/html/interface/forms/newGroupEncounter/common.php on line 280, referer: /interface/patient_file/encounter/encounter_top.php?set_encounter=37
[Mon Jun 30 13:12:48.961998 2025] [php:error] [pid 694588] [client 68.5.84.67:59028] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: in_array(): Argument #2 ($haystack) must be of type array, null given in /var/www/html/interface/forms/newGroupEncounter/common.php:280\nStack trace:\n#0 /var/www/html/interface/forms/newGroupEncounter/common.php(280): in_array()\n#1 /var/www/html/interface/forms/newGroupEncounter/view.php(26): require_once(‘…’)\n#2 /var/www/html/interface/patient_file/encounter/view_form.php(50): require_once(‘…’)\n#3 {main}\n thrown in /var/www/html/interface/forms/newGroupEncounter/common.php on line 280, referer: /interface/patient_file/encounter/encounter_top.php?set_encounter=37

Error Log when I try the eSign:

[Mon Jun 30 13:15:17.831811 2025] [php:warn] [pid 560810] [client 68.5.84.67:59065] PHP Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /var/www/html/interface/patient_file/encounter/forms.php on line 333, referer: /interface/patient_file/encounter/encounter_top.php?set_encounter=37
[Mon Jun 30 13:15:17.846993 2025] [php:warn] [pid 560810] [client 68.5.84.67:59065] PHP Warning: Undefined array key “squad” in /var/www/html/interface/patient_file/encounter/forms.php on line 620, referer: /interface/patient_file/encounter/encounter_top.php?set_encounter=37
[Mon Jun 30 13:15:17.976484 2025] [php:warn] [pid 560810] [client 68.5.84.67:59065] PHP Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /var/www/html/interface/therapy_groups/therapy_groups_models/users_model.php on line 61, referer: /interface/patient_file/encounter/encounter_top.php?set_encounter=37
[Mon Jun 30 13:15:17.976510 2025] [php:warn] [pid 560810] [client 68.5.84.67:59065] PHP Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /var/www/html/interface/therapy_groups/therapy_groups_models/users_model.php on line 61, referer: /interface/patient_file/encounter/encounter_top.php?set_encounter=37
[Mon Jun 30 13:15:44.502290 2025] [php:notice] [pid 694588] [client 68.5.84.67:59074] ERROR: OpenEMR SQL Escaping ERROR of the following string: form_newGroupEncounter, referer: /interface/patient_file/encounter/forms.php
root@openemr-creatorsoft-demo:/var/log/apache2#

htuck · June 30, 2025, 6:02pm

Hello @AZS welcome to the OpenEMR community!

As far as getting going on the Groups module, you don’t mention that you’ve read the wiki documentation found here:
https://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/HOWTO_Setup_and_Use_OpenEMR_Groups_Module

I cannot tell precisely what your situation is, but per the docs, ‘The default active user permissions for Groups are not sufficient to fully use the group module.’

And then see how creating a group encounter is dependent on having a group properly and fully configured.

Check out the docs and come back here with any questions you may still have!
Best- Harley

AZS · June 30, 2025, 7:19pm

Thank you for the response. I followed the documentation to the T. I even enabled Group Therapy on the demo site (https://demo.openemr.io/openemr) with the same result. I also tried it by creating a new group and giving it all Group permissions, with the same results.

Essentially, I am not able to Edit or Sign the group details. Additionally, when I go to the patient’s dashboard and open the Group encounter, I don’t see the group notes or attendance records.

You can try the Group function in the demo site that I have enabled.

AZS · June 30, 2025, 7:34pm

AZS · June 30, 2025, 8:27pm

I updated the logs at the beginning of the post.

AZS · July 1, 2025, 7:05pm

Hi Harley,

Do you have any suggestions on how to resolve this issue? I posted the logs if that helps.

Thanks

htuck · July 2, 2025, 5:44pm

Hi @AZS
I’m not a dev and my php- guessing skills are not good enough for the logs to help me. Maybe some other reader can parse the logs?

The demo resets daily so your settings will have been deleted by now.
Also, just now tried the demos and they’re down so will try later.
Best- HT

AZS · July 2, 2025, 6:43pm

Appreciate all your help. The demo environment seems to be up now.

https://demo.openemr.io/openemr

I have configured the Group Therapy, and I would appreciate it if you could give it a try. In the event that this is a bug, how do we typically report it to the development team to get it fixed?

htuck · July 2, 2025, 11:27pm

@AZS
Looking at the group config it looks right but per
https://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/HOWTO_Setup_and_Use_OpenEMR_Groups_Module
step 3 3. Update user group ACL

I don’t see which user group you updated the group ACLs for.
The admin ACL has them of course, but none of the groups of the other users you’ve assigned as counselors do.

ernie stent - accountant
billy smith - admin
fred stone - clinician

Then the question is, which user were you logged in as when you tried to sign the encounter?

Logged in as the admin I was able to e-sign the encounter summary (arrow), because the admin has the ACLs set right.

Re: opening the encounter summary, in the attendee’s encounter hx, in the visit summary click the ‘edit’ link (oval) up there next to the e-sign link to open the visit details.

Best- Harley

juggernautsei · July 4, 2025, 5:57pm

@AZS this is a technical oversight. I have fixed this in the past and made repo for it but it never got into the code base. It is not you. There are a lot of features and functions in the group feature that are incomplete or don’t work. I could work with you to get them to work like they should but that is going to be and expanse. Look me up on the professional support page. If you want to engage. Send and email to support@ehrcommunityhelpdesk.com

AZS · July 7, 2025, 8:32pm

Hi Sherwin, I just sent you an email with my contact information. Please give me a call when you have a chance.

roland · July 8, 2025, 7:19pm

I would be interested in this too, Because of the limitiations I am not using this feature yet, mainly because the group encounters do not show up in the individual patients’ encounter list. This would be VERY useful for veterinary use too (I am already using openEMR for vets since a few years…still on 5.0* though for various compatibilty reasons…

AZS · July 9, 2025, 12:27am

I have extensive experience with backend and version upgrades, should you be interested in speaking with me.