When a user is opening a patient's chart to which they do not have access, if they have the "Emergency Access" function in the EMR Manager, they are prompted with the "You are not authorized to view this chart." dialoge box. At this point, the user can simply click the "Emergency Access" button to gain entry to the chart. (Screenshot attached)

We know that the action is therefore audited in the EMR that the user opened the chart. However, we feel that it would be nice to require this "Purpose" field to be completed prior to continuing (i.e., "Patient came in for a critical issue and primary provider is not available"). Understanding that this option would not be necessary or desired in all practices, an option in the EMR Manager to require/not require this field would be preferable.

Also, when making this field required, it would need to ensure that a user doesn't simply just type a letter (like the letter "A") to bypass the field. A minimum character count should be determined and put into place to ensure that a reason is indeed entered properly into the area. This minimum count could be hard-coded into the application or be an option to complete within the EMR Manager on a per-practice basis.