Department Management

Departments partition your laboratory into logical sections such as Embryology, Andrology, and General Lab. They control how equipment is organized, how QC workflows are filtered, and what data individual staff members see.

Access: Directors (lab_admin) and Network QA Managers (org_admin) only.

What Departments Control

Departments affect several areas of the system:

Equipment scoping — Each piece of equipment can be assigned to a department. When staff select a department in the sidebar, they see only that department's equipment.
QC workflow filtering — The Morning QC Check and End-of-Day Check filter to show only equipment in the selected department.
Dashboard filtering — Summary statistics and status panels reflect only the selected department's data.
User access — Staff can be assigned to specific departments, limiting which equipment they see in their daily workflow.
Change log entries — Changes can be tagged with a department for more precise tracking.
Corrective actions — CAPAs can be associated with a department.

Accessing Department Management

Go to Admin Panel from the sidebar, then select Departments. You will see a list of all departments configured for the current laboratory.

Viewing Departments

The department list shows:

Name — The department display name
Display Order — The numeric order departments appear in dropdown menus
Status — Active or inactive
Number of assigned equipment — How many equipment items belong to this department

Creating a Department

Click Add Department.
Fill in the form:
- Department Name — A clear, recognizable name (e.g., "Embryology", "Andrology", "General Lab", "Genetics")
- Display Order — A number controlling where this department appears in dropdowns. Lower numbers appear first (e.g., 0 for Embryology, 1 for Andrology, 2 for General Lab).
- Active — Checked by default for new departments
Click Save.

Seeding Default Departments

If you are setting up a new lab, use the Seed Defaults button to quickly populate standard IVF departments. Default departments typically include:

Embryology
Andrology
General Lab

You can add, rename, or remove any seeded department after creation.

Editing a Department

Click Edit on a department row.
Modify the name, display order, or active status.
Click Save.

Renaming a department updates it everywhere in the system — equipment, users, and historical records all reflect the new name immediately.

Reordering Departments

You can control the order departments appear in dropdown menus two ways:

Drag-and-Drop

Click Reorder to enter reorder mode.
Drag departments up or down.
Click Save Order.

Manual Display Order

Edit each department and update the Display Order field directly.

The display order affects the sidebar department selector, equipment assignment forms, and all filter dropdowns throughout the system.

Deactivating a Department

If a department is no longer needed:

Edit the department.
Uncheck Active.
Save.

Deactivated departments:

Are removed from dropdown menus and selectors
Preserve all associated historical data
Can be reactivated later if needed

Before deactivating, ensure no equipment or users are still actively assigned to the department. First reassign them, then deactivate.

Assigning Users to Departments

User-department assignments are managed from the User Management page, not here:

Go to Admin Panel > Users.
Open the user's detail view.
Add or remove department assignments.

See the User Management guide for details.

Department-Filtered Views

When a staff member selects a department in the sidebar, these views are filtered:

Dashboard — Stats, QC status panels, and pending tasks show only that department's equipment
Morning QC Check — Only equipment assigned to the selected department (or with no department assignment) appears
End-of-Day Check — Same filtering as Morning QC Check
Maintenance — Shows only tasks for equipment in the selected department
Equipment Verifications — Same as maintenance

Directors and Network QA Managers can select All Departments to see an unfiltered view of all data.

The department selector is hidden on administration pages, since admin views operate across all departments.

How Equipment Inherits Department Scope

When creating equipment, you can assign it to a department or leave it unassigned:

Department-assigned equipment — Visible only when that department (or "All Departments") is selected
Unassigned equipment — Visible in all department views. Useful for shared equipment (e.g., a gas analyzer that serves the whole lab)

Best Practices

Keep it simple — Most IVF labs need only 2–3 departments. Do not over-partition unless there is a genuine operational benefit.
Use meaningful names — Names should be immediately recognizable to all staff.
Set display order intentionally — Put the most commonly used department first. This makes it the default for most dropdown interactions.
Handle shared equipment carefully — For equipment used by multiple departments, leave it unassigned so it appears in all views, or assign it to the primary department that manages it.
Coordinate with user assignments — When creating departments, plan which users will be assigned to each.
Review after organizational changes — If your lab reorganizes, update department assignments for both equipment and users.