Certification Groups

The RALS™ SYSTEM has the ability to segregate data in the system by certification groups. Enabling this feature will change how certifications are used throughout the RALS™ SYSTEM. Many parts of the system have certification groups associated with them, allowing for a user to have multiple certifications for the same device but with different groups. This allows users to use devices at locations that they have access to with the same certification group instead of all of them by default. In addition, locations may choose to inherit their institution’s certification group allowing changes them to cascade through all of the institutions children locations.

Enabling Support for Certification Groups

Support for certification groups is not enabled by default on new or upgraded systems, and it can only be enabled by RALS™ SYSTEM customer support.

When certification groups support is enabled, a single certification group with an ID of ‘Default’ will exist which is designated as the health system default. The certifications that already exist within the RALS™ SYSTEM will be associated with the Default certification group. As new certifications are added into the RALS™ SYSTEM, they can be set to new certification groups that can be added by any user with the Certification Groups Manage permission.

Once certification group support has been enabled:

• It can not be disabled
• Reports can no longer be generated nor viewed
  
• Operators:
  • When certification groups are initially enabled, operators will only have access to the Health System Default Certification Group. Certification groups need to be assigned to the operators to grant them certification group access mentioned below. Additonally, whenever a user creates a certification group, they will be given access to the newly-created certification group.
    
  • While certification groups are enabled, operators are limited to interacting with data and devices within their certification group access.
• Certifications:
  • When certification groups are initially enabled, certifications will be assigned to the default certification group. New certifications will need to be added to match the new certification group schema.
  • While certification groups are enabled, operators can have multiple certifications per device type with different certification groups. This will limit operators to only be able to use bidirectional devices at institutions with matching certification groups. If an operator tries to use unidirectional devices at institutions with mismatching certification groups, the results will be flagged.
• Recertification Sets:
  • When certification groups are initially enabled, recertification sets will change from having an assigned instituion to an assigned certification group. All existing recertification sets will have all location and instituion assigments removed, and will need to be assigned a certification group before they can be executed or edited.
  • While certification groups are enabled, operators are limited to interacting with recertification sets and records within their certification group access.
• Institutions:
  • When certification groups are initially enabled, institutions will only have access to the Health System Default Certification Group. Certification groups need to be assigned to the institutions to allow locations to inherit certification groups from their respective instituition.
  • While certification groups are enabled, institutions will allow locations to inherit certification groups from their respective institution.
• Locations:
  • When certification groups are initially enabled, locations will only be assigned to the Health System Default Certification Group. Locations need to be updated to match your certification group schema to operators to access devices at the location.
  • While certification groups are enabled, the location’s certification group will be used to limit results from devices as mentioned above in Certifications.
• eQuizzes:
  • When certification groups are initially enabled, all quizzes with a device type other than None (General) will be assigned to the default certification group. Quiz’s certification groups will need to be updated to allow quizzes to be assigned via Certification Expiration Date to applicable operators.
  • While certification groups are enabled, when quizzes are assigned via Certification Expiration Date, the certification group of both the certification and quiz must match in addition to device types.
• Results:
  • When certification groups are initially enabled, all results will be assigned to the default certification group.
  • While certification groups are enabled, results will be assigned to a certification group based on the result’s location. The certification group value will not be updated when re-evaluating a result. Results from operators without a certification in the same certification group as the result will be flagged as the operator is uncertified, even if they have a certification for the same device type in another certification group.

Certification Group Access

Several resources in the RALS™ SYSTEM are associated with a certification group. Users can only access data within certification groups to which they have certification group access.

Note: Role determines what data a user can access; certification group access determines where a user can access it.

Certification group access is granted as follows:

• Health System Default Certification Group: Each operator has access to the Health System Default Group
• Access All Certification Groups: Provides access to all data in the RALS™ SYSTEM, regardless of certification group; defined per operator
• Assigned Certification Groups: Provides access to additional certification groups; defined per operator
  • Note: Whenever a user creates a certification group, they will be given access to the newly-created certification group

Note: Users can only grant access to certification groups that they already have access to themselves.

Certification Groups Inheritance

Institutions and locations in the RALS™ SYSTEM are able to be configured to inherit certification groups from other parts of the system. Inheriting in this context means that the institutions and locations can be configured to copy the certification group from other parts of the system. When updating values that are inherited, the institutions and locations that are configured to inherit will automatically update to the new value.

There are three groups that can impact inheritence throughout the system; certification groups, institutions, and locations.

• Within certification groups, there can be one certification group designated as the Health System Default.
  • The Health System Default is the only certification group that can be inherited by the Instituions as explained later.
  • One certification group can be designated as the Health System Default by updating the Health System Default field to “Yes”. Note: this will make the previous Health System Default certification group no longer the Health System Default.
• All institutions can inherit the Health System Default certification group. This can be configured by selecting “Health System Group” for your certification group.
• All locations can inherit the assigned institution’s certification group. This can be configured by selecting “Institution Group” for your certification group.
  • Locations can inherit the Health System Default if they are inheriting the instition’s certification group and the institution is inheriting the Health System Default.

Below is a graph showing where certification groups can be inherited and how to configure it: