Background
Per county feedback, CalMHSA requested the ability to lock inquiries to prevent edits. This has been developed and is in the March 2025 MSP build, which was deployed to production systems on Monday, May 19. CalMHSA has NOT turned this functionality on in all systems, as we wanted counties to be informed about all the details of this functionality before fully implementing it.
We had also heard from counties about issues regarding the pushing and pulling of information between the Inquiry Details screen and the Client Information screen. To address some of these concerns, we included a requirement in the above enhancement request that the Inquiry Details screen NOT push to the Client Information screen after the Inquiry had been locked. This means that if the inquiry is unlocked and changes are made, any client information related changes will NOT push back to the Client Information screen.
New Knowledge Base Articles
In response to this, we have created multiple new knowledge base (KB) articles about inquiries. There is now a section in the System Administration page for āInquiry Administrationā, which includes the following articles:
There are also now overview articles for the end user:
New Functionality
The development for this request has been completed. We have tested this functionality, and it works well. When an inquiry is saved, if the status is āCompleteā, then the inquiry will be locked down. There is now an āUnlockā icon that will unlock the inquiry. This icon is permissioned and will only be granted to sys admin and supervisor user roles at rollout.
When the inquiry is unlocked, the user can make edits to the inquiry, but any edits will not push back to the Client Information screen. This should prevent the issues reported by counties about inquiries deleting data from the Client Information screen. It is for this reason that we recommend that all counties utilize this new inquiry locking functionality.Ā
If a supervisor or system administrator is unlocking an inquiry for another user, they should set the status back to “In Progress”. If the status is “Complete”, whenever the inquiry is next saved, the inquiry will be relocked.Ā
Permissions needed for Unlocking an inquiry:
| Permission Type | Parent | Permission Item |
|---|---|---|
| Screen (New Mode) | Inquiry Details | ButtonUnLock |
| Screen (Update Mode) | Inquiry Details | ButtonUnLock |
The current user roles that have these permissions by default are:
- CalMHSA Sys Admin
- County Affiliate Sys Admin
- Medical Records/Quality Assurance
- Clinician Supervisor
Video showing locking:
Video showing unlocking and relocking:
There are six new columns that manage this locking functionality in the inquiries table. The first three determine if the inquiry is currently locked or not, and by whom and when. The next three document the first time the inquiry was locked and by whom and when. The first time an inquiry is locked, all 6 fields will be populated, and the “current lock” columns will match the “first lock” columns.Ā
If the inquiry is subsequently unlocked, the “current lock” columns will be updated to NULL values, whereas the “first lock” columns remain the same. This allows the system to determine if the client data should push to the Client Information screen or not.
Implementation
This was deployed in the March 2025 MSP but has not yet been turned on for all county systems.Ā To turn on this functionality, the configuration key “AllowLockAndUnlockFunctionalityOnInquiryScreen” must be set to “Yes”.
CalMHSA is wanting to turn this functionality on as a default configuration, as we feel this is vital to ensure the integrity of inquiry records and the data in the Client Information screen. Counties will be alerted in advance of CalMHSA turning this functionality on and will have the ability to turn this functionality off at any point in time. Counties may choose to turn this functionality on prior to CalMHSA setting this as the default configuration. CalMHSA’s default configuration change will not impact any county who has already turned on this functionality.
This functionality only works from the point of implementation forward. Any historical inquiries that are already marked “complete” will NOT be automatically locked when the configuration key is changed to “Yes”. This is because the locking functionality is related to the save function. This means that any county may turn on this locking functionality at any time, but historical records will not be impacted.Ā
To address historical records, we are offering counties the option to run a script to lock down inquiries that are already marked “complete”.Ā We have two script options for counties to choose from:
- Option 1: Lock down all inquiries that have status āCompleteā.
- This would enter data in all 6 new columns, both āfirst lockā and ācurrent lockā.
- From the front end, this would mean that any inquiries in āCompleteā status would be locked down and a user would need to unlock them to make edits.
- If any inquiry does not have a program associated with it, or there are other validations that would be required upon save, the inquiry will not be able to be unlocked from the frontend. This would require CalMHSAās assistance, which may come with a cost.
- Option 2: Set all inquiries that have status āCompleteā to have a āfirst lockā but not be set to ācurrent lockā.
- This would only enter data in the āfirst lockā columns and leave the ācurrent lockā columns NULL.
- From the front end, this would mean that that any inquiries in āCompleteā status would be available to edit, but saving any changes in these inquiries would not push information to the Client Information screen.
- It would also mean that saving any changes in these inquiries would re-evaluate for validations, such as requiring a program to be entered before the user can save.
Counties are not required to run a script to address historical records. CalMHSA will not charge counties for script during the implementation of this functionality. If a county chooses to not request a script during this implementation timeframe, then later requests a script be run, they may be charged at that point. The implementation timeframe has not been fully set, and counties will be provided at least a 2-week notification for any deadlines.Ā
Both of the above options relied on the status of inquiries to be “complete”. We have heard from some counties that it has not been part of their standard process to mark an inquiry complete, which means they have many inquiries that are still āIn Progressā but are months or even years old. Counties will be allowed to select an additional script to address this issue:
- Add-On Option:Ā Update old inquiries from “In Progress” to “Complete”
- All inquiries that have status āIn Progressā that have a start date earlier than a specified date would have their status changed to āCompleteā.Ā
- Counties would designate what date would be used to determine which “In Progress” inquiries would have their status changed to “Complete”.
- The date specified by the county would be associated with the Start Date of the inquiry, as many inquiries lack an End Date.
- This add-on script would be run before the lock down script to ensure that these newly completed inquiries would be included in the locking script.
We are asking that counties review this protocol with their staff and determine which script option will work best for their county. CalMHSA will hold another meeting in July to get additional feedback from counties and set the deadline for script requests and the date that CalMHSA will turn on this functionality by default.Ā
- Last Updated: June 5, 2025