This guide is aimed at all users of the system, regardless of role, e.g. administrator, reception clerk, technician, etc. It contains a comprehensive and up to date description of the entire system.
The article immediately after this one, <link>Overview of the User Interface</link>, covers the general principles, patterns and techniques employed by the user interface to make the system intuitive and easy to use. It also explains the overall structure of the user interface and how to find what you need. This is followed by <link>Log Into and Out of the System</link>, which covers all aspects of system access.
Beyond these introductory items, and starting with <link>Home</link>, the remaining articles in the top-level section of this guide mirror the structure of the main navigation menu (on the left-hand-side, enabled by a burger icon if you’re viewing the system on a phone). For instance, after <link>Home</link>, which describes the top-most option in the navigation menu, comes <link>Specimens</link>, then <link>Patients</link>, representing the second and third menu options on the navigation menu. For hierarchical menu items, such as Reports, articles detailing the nested options, e.g. Batches, Analytics, etc., can be found within the Reports section, as sub-sections. Note that all such options are detailed in this guide, including items for which you may not have configured menu permissions in your system (note different users may have different permissions).
For each non-expanding option in the main navigation menu, e.g. Specimens or Analytics (but not Reports, as this just exposes sub-options), if the associated functionality is too extensive for a single article, there is a set of nested articles and/or subsections in this guide, which are ordered according to the typical chronology of use. For instance, under Specimens, there are articles on creating/editing a specimen, adding/editing direct tests, adding/editing cultures, adding/editing culture tests and managing AST results, etc., in that order. This is the usual order of processing a specimen.
Where additional context is needed in order to understand the concepts involved in a particular part of the system before accessing the associated functionality, a leading article is included, with Understanding in the title (or Overview in some cases), followed by articles detailing how to use specific functions.
Where there are multiple ways to achieve the same outcome, included to suit different usage preferences, all options are described, giving the pros and cons of each approach where appropriate.
Screenshots are included where considered helpful, both to give context and to illustrate use of a capability in action at various stages.
Where appropriate, special notes are included (see example below), generally to alert the reader to pre-requisites or special considerations to be aware of when using a particular function.
Finally, you may find differences between the instructions and/or images featured in this guide and how things appear in your version of the system. There are a number of possible reasons for this:
- You do not have the same permissions enabled for the role with which you are accessing the system. As this guide includes all supported functionality, all permissions were enabled in the version used to produce it, which means that you may see menu options and actions that are not enabled for your role. This should only be a problem if the missing menu option or action is part of the capability that you are attempting to use. If it is, go straight to the sections on <link>Users</link> and <link>Roles</link> to see how to enable the relevant capability for the role that your user is associated with.
- You have a different version of the system. As the system evolves, new capabilities are added and, occasionally, the user interface is subject to minor reorganisations to improve usability. Consult the web-site (<insert link>) for the latest version of the system. If your system is out of date and you would like an upgrade, please request one at: <insert link>. Again, this should only be a problem if you are missing the capability that you are attempting to use.
- This guide is out of date! This should not happen, but if you spot any outdated images or text, please get in touch and it will be corrected.
- Your system has been customised. As a key benefit of the system is the extent to which it can be adapted for local use, it is highly likely that your system has been customised to some degree. This could include forms, direct tests, culture tests, workflows, report format or content, views, filters, filter presets, specific text items, etc. As this guide cannot be adapted to align with deployment specific configurations, it is based on the default configuration. If your system has been customised in a way that makes it difficult to follow this guide in places, it is incumbent on your organisation to provide a specialised alternative for its staff, at least for the sections most impacted.
The first article after this one, <link>Overview of the User Interface</link>, gives an important introduction to the user interface, describing the general look and feel, and some general patterns and techniques used to expedite both familiarisation and data entry.