Question:
Why are fields in the patient records locked? And how do I unlock them so they can be updated?
NOTE: This topic is written for the eNICQ 6 user and provides a walk through of the basic operations and options for the Electronic Data Interface.
Answer:
The Electronic Data Interface (EDI) is used to import data into eNICQ 6 from your Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Not all VON member centers use the import feature.
When a record is imported via EDI, it starts out with any imported field getting a lock icon (upper icon shows locked state). If the user doesn’t like the value that was imported, they can unlock it by toggling the lock icon (lower icon image shows unlocked state.) This is called “overriding” the imported data.
An override applies only to a single field for a single record. The end user essentially gets to say “this data item for this baby I will only handle through direct data entry.” Any future imports will not overwrite an “unlocked” field, allowing the manual edits to persist forward through multiple updates.
This differs from the field selection checkboxes under Advanced->External Data Interface. In that location, the user checks/unchecks fields eligible for import for the entire (currently selected) center. An “unlock” override trumps the selections made under Advanced->External Data Interface but only for the record it applies to.