Locations - Sections

Introduction

Locations can have different uses and interpretations within iPassport. They can be used to refer to a physical location where a printed document or a reagent is kept and they can also be used to help classify records. For example, Locations can be used as Sections in controlled documents to further specify their destination (e.g., a microbiology department might have sections like ‘anaerobic bacteriology’ and ‘parasitology’).

To define their purpose and scope, Locations are associated with OUs and Tags. It’s necessary to assign appropriate OU(s) and Tags to make them available for selection within any given record.

On enterprise accounts, a location also belongs to a Facility, which must be chosen when the location is created; a location cannot exist without one. Facility acts as a third scoping dimension alongside OUs and Tags, and search results only include locations in the facilities the user is allowed to view. On accounts which are not enterprise accounts the Facility field is not displayed and only OUs and Tags apply.

Permissions

The following permissions are available to manage users’ level of access in the Locations area:

There is only one system role which holds these permissions - Administration Editor. However, these permissions are for managing the locations, not for using them. The ability to use locations within records depends on the user’s level of access to the record in question.

Viewing Locations

Locations are found under the Administration menu.

Clicking the Administration > Locations menu item opens the Search Locations tab.

The following search tools are available:

• There is a Search field where a location’s name, code or address can be entered (even partially) and matching records will be listed below.
• On enterprise accounts there is also a Facility field which narrows results to a single facility. Results are always limited to the facilities the user is allowed to view, and the results table carries an extra Facility column. Neither is shown on accounts which are not enterprise accounts.
• The OU field allows selecting an organisational unit from the dropdown list; it will narrow results to locations associated with the selected OU and leaving it blank will produce a list of all locations.
• The Tag field allows identifying which locations have one of the following tags:
  • ‘Blank’ - locations with any or no tags
  • General
    
  • Incident Report
    
  • Meeting Room
    
  • Print
    
  • Storage
• Inactive locations can be viewed by clicking the field marked, Active/Inactive and toggling the selection.
• Locations can also be sorted by one of the following options under, Order Results By:
  • Name (A-Z) - long name
    
  • Name (Z-A) - long name
    
  • Code (A-Z)
    
  • Code (Z-A)
    
  • Short Name (A-Z)
    
  • Short Name (Z-A)
    
  • Main Contact (Surname A-Z)
    
  • Main Contact (Surname Z-A)

As with other items in iPassport, locations have a “Short Name” and a “Long Name”. The long name allows for a more detailed description, whereas the short name is preferable when used in codes or indices and for quick reference.

Creating Locations

When created in the Administration module, locations are generic. The next section explains how they can be assigned different uses within iPassport. They are normally created in the dedicated Locations area but they can also be created on the fly when raising an incident report, in which case some tags are assigned automatically — see Creating Locations within Incident Reports below.

To create a Location in the Administration module:

1. Go to Administration > Locations > New Location (the [+] sign next to menu items provides a shortcut to their record creation page)
2. On enterprise accounts, choose the facility from the Select Facility dropdown; this is the first field on the form and is required. It is not shown on accounts which are not enterprise accounts
3. Enter a Short Name for the location; this must be unique within the account
4. Enter a Long Name for the location; unlike the Short Name, the Long Name does not have to be unique, so two locations in the same account can share one
5. A Code can be entered for additional identification; this is a free text field
6. A Main Contact can be added too; a search-as-you-type field produces a dropdown list of matching names from which the contact must be picked by clicking their name
7. Address details can be entered in the fields provided, if appropriate (Address, Town/City, County, State/Province and Work Country), together with the separate Telephone, Fax, Email Address and Website fields
8. A Description can be entered in the free text field available
9. The OUs & Tags section is described below; both selectors appear on the create form, so OUs and Tags can be set while the location is being created, as well as edited afterwards
10. Click Create Location to finish
    
    

Creating Locations within Incident Reports

When creating or editing an incident report form, the field, Incident Location has a plus (+) sign which opens the Create New Location pop-up window. This helps complete the report quickly and easily during potentially hurried moments when an incident occurs.

A location created from this pop-up is given two tags automatically, and neither is shown to the user: the Incident Report tag, so that the location can be selected as an incident location, and the Print tag, which also makes it immediately available as a location for controlled prints of documents. If the Print use is not wanted, open the location afterwards and remove that tag from the OUs & Tags section. Locations created through Administration > Locations > New Location are not affected: they carry only the tags which were ticked on the create form.

Assigning Uses to Locations (OUs & Tags)

Once a Location is created, if the user has the permission, “Locations:Edit Locations”, then edit (pencil) icons will be available to edit any of the fields on the page.

A location record has seven tabs: General, Staff, Notes, Tasks, Attachments, Links and Changelog. The Changelog tab is only shown to users who hold the “Locations:View History” permission, so it will not be present for everyone.

The bottom section of the General tab, marked OUs & Tags, allows defining where and how a location can be used.

OUs

The location will only be visible in the OUs which are added in this page. The exception to this is when printing records which don’t have an OU like, Meetings, Training Courses or Checklists. In these cases, all locations are made available as print locations.

To add OUs:

1. Click the edit (pencil) icon under Organisational Units to reveal a selection filter
2. Tick the checkbox of selected OUs (there is no restriction on the number of OUs which can be selected)
3. Click Save

Location Tags

The use which can be given to a location is generally defined by its tag(s). Some uses don’t require a tag. Multiple tags can be added to one location so it can be used for different purposes. Only the tags supplied with iPassport can be used; location tags cannot be created or modified.

To assign Tags to a location:

1. Click the edit (pencil) icon under Tags to reveal a selection filter
2. Tick the checkbox of selected tags (there is no restriction on the combination of tags which can be selected)
3. Click Save

The tags available provide the following uses for locations:

• General
  • as a Usage Location for Equipment
  • as a Section for Controlled Documents
• Incident Report
  • as an Incident Location in Incident Reports
• Meeting Room
  • as a Location for Meetings
• Print
  • as a Location for controlled prints of Documents
• Storage
  • as a Storage Location for Equipment, Reagents and Materials
  • as a Location of use for Reagents and Materials

The following uses don’t require a tag:

• as a Work Location in Staff Profiles
• as a Location of Internal and External Audits
• as a Location of a Non-Compliance

Using Sections in Document Index Generation

The Short Name of Locations (referred to as, Sections in this instance) can be used as part of a controlled document index generation recipe.

As an example, an SOP is created for the OU, Blood Sciences (short name, BS ) and specifically, for a location named Lab Room 03 (short name, L03 ). A recipe which references the SOP’s OU (%ou) and Section (%section) and has a sequential number (%id) could look like, “%ou-%section-%id” = “BS-L03-56”.

This is done in the Index Generation page of individual OUs under Administration > Settings > Organisational Unit Preferences. Full details are found in the Index Generation section of the Organisational Unit Preferences user guide.

Inactivating Locations

Locations can’t be deleted but they can be made inactive so they stop appearing in listings. If already in use, a location will not be removed from the records which make reference to it.

To inactivate a location, open it, select the Action, Set as Inactive and click Go.

As described above, inactive locations can be viewed by selecting the option from the Active/Inactive filter in the Search Locations tab.