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Standard Orders Workflow Guide

  • Updated

Background
     SO Categories & SO Type IDs 
     SO Request Form
     SO Shared Mailbox
Workflow
     Step 1: Intake
     Step 2: Setup
     Step 3: Fulfillment
     Step 4: Post Successful Completion
     Cancellation/Rejection
Reference File(s)

 

Background

A Standard Order (SO) is an approved type of work that is repeatable, requires none to minimal analysis, is low risk and simple enough that any analyst can follow instructions to deploy (special exception for ones that are Sys Admin/Technical Resource specific).

NOTE: Unless it has high impact/urgency and is approved by EMR team lead/manager, do not deploy on the last business day of the week (i.e. Fridays or Thursdays if the Friday is a stat). Because of this, if a SO Category 1 is received on a Tuesday for example, the person assigned SO duty should try their best to have it deployed by Thursday.

SO Categories & SO Type IDs

For more information on this, please see SO Categories and SO Type IDs Definitions and Lists

SO Request Form

All sanctioned user requested SOs have a fillable Request Form (PDF format) available on the Community Systems website, under User Requests > Standard Orders. The exception are a few SOs that are purposely not published online as to not advertise them to all users (targeted requesters/situations allowed only).

Each form has been specifically tailored to capture critical information required to fulfill the request. For information on how to create or edit these PDFs, see the Standard Order Request Form Editor Guide article.

SO Shared Mailbox

Throughout the workflow, there will be references to assign yourself and moving emails to specific subfolders within this shared mailbox.

EMRStandardOrders@vch.ca (SO email) should be available for all Profile EMR team members. For more information on access and setup, see the Mailbox EMRSstandardOrders@vch.ca Setup Guide article.

Workflow

For a clearer, downloadable version of this flowchart, see the Reference File(s) section.

Profile EMR SO Workflow.png

Step 1: Intake

  1. RECEIVE THE REQUEST: SOs should be sent to the SO shared mailbox. If users send their request through other sources (phone call, service desk ticket, emailed to individual or EMRHelp@vch.ca), forward the request to the SO email.

  2. EVALUATE THE REQUEST: The SO Analyst on duty monitors and reviews the requests emailed to the SO email's mailbox. If the request is determined to be not an SO, respond:

    • On behalf of the SO email,
    • Sent to the request with EMRHelp@vch.ca with the SO email in the CC,
    • And explain that this is considered a Change Request, asking Clinical Informatics to submit a ticket for this in JIRA for Intake review. 

    After this, move the original email and the response to the 02 Canceled/Rejected folder,

  3. REVIEW THE REQUEST SPECIFICATIONS: If the request is a valid SO, it can only be processed if the appropriate SO request form is completed correctly.

    • If the SO request form is missing, forward the link to the appropriate PDF, which should reside in the Community Systems website under User Requests > Standard Orders. When replying, ensure that it is sent on behalf of the SO email and that the SO email is CC'd.
    • If the request has the form attached but there are empty values for required fields, ask the requester to resend the PDF with all mandatory fields completed. When replying, ensure that it is sent on behalf of the SO email and that the SO email is CC'd.
    • If the SO request form is completed correctly, move the request forward. 

    In all cases above, set the category to your name (ref: how to see categories and add an assignee category), then move the original email and any responses to the 00 In Progress/Pending folder.

Mailbox-Category-Set.png
Mailbox-Category-Move.png

Step 2: Setup

Each SO request requires a JIRA ticket and a folder in the shared network drive to store relevant files. The SO Analyst creates both ticket and folder structure.

  1. CONFIRM WHO WILL FULFILL THE SO: Most requests should be completed by the SO analyst on duty however, some should be done by the EMR System Administrator (SA) or a technical resource (tech). The Zendesk article (found under the Standard Order Processes section) will specify who should fulfill the SO and provides the email template if it needs to be forwarded to an EMR SA or tech. In all cases, the SO analyst creates the JIRA and work item folder.
  2. CREATE THE JIRA
    mceclip0.png
    • Issue Type: Story
    • Title: <Start with the SO type ID, followed by the SO type, and then a brief description of the request.>
    • Description: Provide a very brief description and include the requester's name
    • Workstream: Standard Order
    • Assignee: Based on the SO's Zendesk article - SO Analyst themselves or leave blank if it's noted that a different role should fulfill this
    • Status: Analysis Active 
    • Confirm if requires CIS Involvement: Based if the Zendesk article outlines that this type requires approval from CIS (or Privacy), create a sub-task and assign it to them:
  3. CREATE THE WORK ITEM FOLDER 
    1. Navigate to \\vch.ca\departments\PCAC_EMR\01 - PCCEMR\Work Items\00 - All Items (JIRA)\01-Standard Orders\[GENERATE SO FOLDER]  and double click on “Generate SO Folder.vbs”

    2. Follow the prompts.  Once it's successfully generated, the following message will display:

      GenerateSOFolderConfirm.png

      And the folder will appear under \\vch.ca\departments\PCAC_EMR\01 - PCCEMR\Work Items\00 - All Items (JIRA)\01-Standard Orders

    3. Move the folder to the appropriate subfolder under \\vch\departments\PCAC_EMR\01 - PCCEMR\Work Items\00 - All Items (JIRA)\01-Standard Orders
    4. Save the original request email/form in this folder along with any other appropriate files.

Step 3: Fulfillment

Each sanctioned SO has an accompanying Zendesk article found in the Standard Order Processes section. Follow the instructions to fulfill the request. If there is any suspecting inaccuracies or confusion, gain clarity with others and/or raise it in an ATP meeting.

For SOs that require CIS approval, create a subtask for SO### Implementation for EMR-XXX, where SO### is the SO Type ID and EMR-XXX is the JIRA ID. Do not create this subtask earlier while waiting for CIS Approval; create it only once CIS has approved. If this is not followed, this will report inaccurate metrics for the monthly performance reports.

All SOs should be deployed to EMR VTM unless noted. This is so the training environments will get this update on next refresh. Note: there's no need to backup files from VTM; any backups made from prod is sufficient enough.

Step 4: Post Successful Completion

The person fulfilling the SO, whether it's the SO Analyst in rotation or the EMR SA/tech, completes the closing activities:

  • Sends the SO Completed email using the SO Completion.msg provided in the SO folder
  • Saves the sent Completed email to the folder by overwriting the template SO Completion.msg file
  • Notifies the requester that the request is complete, sent on behalf of the SO email, with the SO email CC'd
  • Saves out the sent notification email to the work item folder
  • Closes the JIRA ticket - add as a comment the body of the SO completion email
    • If an Implementation subtask was created for this, resolve this at the same time,
  • Moves any related emails in the SO mailbox to 01 Completed folder

Cancellation or Rejection

If the SO was rejected during the approval process or if there is justification to cancel the work, the SO Analyst completes these closing activities:

  • Notifies the requester that the request was cancelled/rejected, sent on behalf of the SO email, with the SO email CC'd
  • Saves out the sent notification email to the work item folder
  • Closes the JIRA ticket - update the resolution to Cancelled and provide reason in the Comments
  • Moves any related emails in the SO mailbox to 02 Canceled/Rejected folder

Reference File(s)

  • Profile EMR SO Workflow.pdf (Last updated: 31-Dec-2025) - High-level flowchart of the SO workflow
  • Profile EMR SO Workflow.vsdx (Last updated: 31-Dec-2025) - File for editing and updating the pdf and image version