Requiring Accountant Approval for Lab/Radiology Orders in OpenEMR

Day-to-Day Users
#1

Hi everyone,

I’m seeking advice on implementing a workflow in OpenEMR where lab and radiology orders require accountant approval before they are marked as paid. Ideally, the order would only be transmitted to the lab technician or radiologist (or relevant department) after the accountant confirms payment.

Here’s the process I envision:

Physician creates lab/radiology order in encounter form.
The system automatically routes the order to the accountant for approval (without requiring custom flags).
Once the accountant approves the payment, the order is automatically transmitted to the relevant department (lab technician, radiologist, etc.) for processing.
I’d prefer to achieve this without any custom code development. I explored authorization rules but am open to other suggestions or existing solutions. Are there any contributed modules that address this specific need for approval workflows in OpenEMR?

If custom development is necessary, could anyone provide guidance on the best approach or resources to get started?

Thanks in advance for your help!

1 Like
#2

Hello @Lumindra_Seraphine - welcome to the community; I hope you find the development assistance your question suggests that you will, indeed, need.

The capability that you envision of obtaining approval before work is done is certainly possible to create given OpenEMR’s internal design. However it does not exist at this time in the standard distribution codebase. Specifically, one may restrict users’ access to certain modules (such as the Procedures and the Billing modules) with custom ACL settings. But ‘routing’ an order and holding it until it is approved would require custom development.

Then again, the precise workflow you described may not be the most efficient or cost- effective way to accomplish what you want, but these issues would have to be worked out with the developer you contract with to do the work.

As far as resources are concerned, you can find coders here on the forum who are happy to help you. But I think a better place to look would be the OpenEMR informational wiki site, which has a page listing all the developers that are certified to work on OpenEMR:
https://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/Professional_Support

My company, MI-Squared, is one of the longest serving development outfits in the community. We have made numerous contributions to the OpenEMR codebase and are authoritative regular contributors to this forum. If you decide to look for professional support for this project I’d be happy to discuss details with you. Just drop me a line at the email at the top of my post.
Best- Harley