Emergency Access (Break Glass)

Emergency Access — also called Break Glass — grants temporary elevated permissions when you need immediate access to clinical data in an urgent situation. All activity during an emergency session is logged for compliance.

Who Can Use It

Only users whose administrator has enabled the Emergency Access permission. If you don’t see the option in your profile menu, contact your administrator.

How to Activate

1. Click your profile avatar in the top-right corner
2. Select Emergency Access
3. Enter a justification explaining why access is needed (minimum 10 characters)
4. Click Activate

A red banner appears across the top of the screen with a countdown timer. The session lasts 4 hours.

What Changes

During an emergency session, you temporarily gain the ability to:

• View all studies, patients, worklist items, and reports
• Download studies
• Create and edit reports
• View orders

These permissions are added on top of your normal role — your existing permissions remain unchanged.

Ending a Session

You can end the session early by clicking End Session on the red banner. Otherwise, it expires automatically after 4 hours.

Once the session ends, your permissions revert to their normal level immediately.

Caution

Every activation, the justification you provide, and all actions taken during the session are recorded in the audit trail. Use Emergency Access only when clinically necessary.