nhiis hl7 onboarding user guide

New Hampshire Immunization Information System (NHIIS)

NHIIS HL7 Onboarding

User Guide

NH Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health Services: Immunization Section

July 2021


Contents Change Log .................................................................................................................................................... 3

Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

First Time Users............................................................................................................................................. 5

Register ..................................................................................................................................................... 5

Email Notifications .................................................................................................................................... 6

First Time Login ......................................................................................................................................... 7

Reset Password ............................................................................................................................................. 8

Add Facility .................................................................................................................................................... 8

Edit Facility .................................................................................................................................................... 9

Complete Onboarding Tasks ....................................................................................................................... 10

Resources .................................................................................................................................................... 16

Appendix A: Onboarding Process Flow ....................................................................................................... 17


Change Log The following table captures the progression of this document over time.

Version Date Description Author

1.0 05/05/2021 Created the document Alok Patra

2.0 07/09/2021 Updated steps for Conformance testing HLN


Overview The Onboarding module allows facilities to submit and validate test HL7 messages before being

promoted to an active test HL7 facility in the registry. Refer to Appendix A for a process flow diagram of

the HL7 Onboarding process.

In this document, we will be covering the “Registration” step of the entire HL7 onboarding process. This

step can be completed by either Provider or EMR vendor or both.


First Time Users

Register Each onboarding user is required to register in order to receive a username and password to access the

onboarding portal. On the login page, next to First Time Here? Click the Register button. In the Contact

section, enter your contact information.

Onboarding Portal URL is included in the NHIIS-QA Registration Confirmation Email.

● First Name. Enter your first name. This is a required field.

● Middle Name. Enter your middle name or middle initial.

● Last Name. Enter your last name. This is a required field.

● Phone. You must enter a phone number in the format 999-999-9999. This is a required field.

● Email. Enter your email address where you would like to receive confirmation of your

registration, as well as your username and password once your account has been established.

This is a required field.

● Fax. Enter your fax number in the format 999-999-9999.

● Role. Select your role (i.e., Physicians, Office IT staff or EMR Staff, etc.). This is a required field.

In the Organization section, enter your organization information.

● Organization Name. Enter your parent organization name. This is a required field.

● Type. Select the type of organization you represent (i.e., Hospitals, Pharmacy, Public Health

departments, etc.). This is a required field.

● Address Line 1. Enter your organization’s street address. This is a required field.

● Address Line 2. If applicable, enter the unit or suite number of your organization’s address.

● City. Enter the city name where your organization is located. This is a required field.

● State. Select the state where your organization is located from the list. This is a required field.

● Zip. Enter your organization’s 5-digit zip code. 9-digit zip codes are also accepted. This is a

required field.

● County. Enter the county name. This is not a required field.

● VFC PIN#/School DOE#. Enter the VFC PIN if you have. This is not a required field.

● Number of Clinic Sites in Organization. Enter the number of offices/facilities associated with

your organization that will be reporting through the interface with NHIIS.

● Facilities Represented. Enter the names of the offices/facilities (i.e., clinic locations, hospitals,

etc.) on whose behalf you will be working. Please note, you must list all of the provider locations

that will be testing with NHIIS. Please follow the instructions below to list the clinics:

o For Pharmacy: Pharmacy Name #Store Name #City Name

▪ Example: Galaxy Pharmacy #1234 #Concord

o For Hospitals:

▪ If you are already registered and using NHIIS

● Clinics Name (Exactly as it appears in NHIIS) – VFC PIN (if known)

o Example: Galaxy Family Medicine, XXXX

▪ If you are not registered and/or using NHIIS

● Clinics Name in details


Next, review and accept all documents in the Documents section. For each document, click the Review

button to open the PDF document in a new window. Save and/or print the PDF for your records. Close

the PDF window, return to the registration screen and click the Accept button. The message Accepted

with a green checkmark appears. Repeat these steps for all documents.

Before submitting your registration, complete the task in the Validation section by clicking and holding

your mouse to move the slider until you see a green checkmark. Then, click the Submit Registration

button. You are returned to the login screen where the following message appears: “Your registration is

pending approval. You have completed the first step of the registration process. You should be receiving

an email with instructions to finish registration.”

Email Notifications Once the NHIIS staff has created your user account and granted access to the portal, you will receive

three email notifications.

The first email notification, Onboarding Account Created, is sent once your account has been created.

This email contains your username. Existing registry users (users who already have access to the QA

environment) may be associated to their existing account and will not receive this notification.

Sample Onboarding Account Created Email:

The second email notification, Onboarding Account Password, is sent once your account has been

created. This email contains your initial password. Existing registry users (users who already have access

to the QA environment) may be associated to their existing account and will not receive this notification.

Sample Onboarding Accounting Password Email:


The third email notification, Onboarding Access Granted, is sent once you have been granted access to

the onboarding portal. Click the link provided to login with your username and password.

Sample Onboarding Access Granted Email:

First Time Login Click the Login link in the Onboarding Access Granted email message. The HL7 Onboarding Login screen

displays. Your username is automatically populated in the Username field. Enter your initial password,

found in the Onboarding Account Created email message, in the Password field. Click the Login button.

New users will see the Change Password screen. Enter your initial password in the Existing Password

field. Enter a new password in the New Password field and re-enter your new password in the Confirm

New Password field. Be sure to follow the password rules displayed at the bottom of the screen when

creating your new password.

Next, you must answer at least five (5) security questions. Should you forget your password and need to

reset it, these questions will be used to confirm your identity. Enter your answer to each question in the

corresponding Answer fields. Click the Update button to save your new password and security question

answers.


Reset Password To reset a forgotten password, click the Forgot Password? link on the login screen and follow these

steps:

1. Enter your username. Click the Next button to proceed to the question-and-answer screen.

2. Enter the correct answer for each of the row(s) displayed. Click Next to proceed to the Password

Reset screen (assuming your answers are correct). You only have a limited number of attempts

to answer the questions correctly. Otherwise, your account will be locked, and you will need to

contact the NHIIS Helpdesk for assistance.

3. Enter a new password (following the guidelines displayed on the screen). Click Next to save your

new password.

You are returned to the main login screen. You can now login with your username and new password.

Add Facility The first step in the onboarding process is the creation of mock facilities which will be used in the

submission of test messages. These should conform as much as possible to the actual facilities that will

be interfacing with NHIIS. Please note if you have multiple clinics under your organization, you must

test for each clinic location separately.

Once you have logged into the onboarding portal, the Onboarding->Home-> Onboarding Facilities

Search screen displays. Click the Add Facility button to create a new HL7 facility. Provide the exact clinic

name that you want to test for and include as much information as possible about the location and EHR

software in use. If you are provider/clinic staff, please get in touch with your EHR vendor to get your EHR

software details.

A unique facility code will be created to use as the sending facility code in test messages. You may

specify whether the facility should have Query privileges, Update privileges, or both. Appropriate test

cases will be generated based on the privileges requested.

● Name. Provide the name for the facility. This is a required field.

● Able to Query. Check this box if the facility will have query privileges.

● Able to Update. Check this box if the facility will have update privileges.

mailto:[email protected]


● Status. The facility status defaults to “Active” and should not be changed.

● Address 1. Enter the facility street address. This is a required field.

● Address 2. If applicable, enter the unit or suite number of the facility.

● City. Enter the city name. This is a required field.

● State. Select the state from the list. This is a required field.

● Zip Code. Enter the 5-digit or 9-digit zip code of the facility. This is a required field.

● EHR Product. Enter the name of the vendor of the EMR/EHR software in use at this facility.

Click the Create button to save the new facility. The Onboarding Facilities Task List screen displays

where you can view the Query and/or Update tasks for the new facility.

Edit Facility After creating a facility, it is possible to make changes to the facility address and/or software in use.

Once you have logged into the onboarding portal, the Onboarding Facilities Search screen displays. Click

the Edit button corresponding to the facility you wish to update.

On the Onboarding Facilities Edit screen, the following fields may be changed:

● Name. Provide a friendly name for the facility. This is a required field.

● Status. The facility status defaults to “Active” and should not be changed.

● Address 1. Enter the facility street address. This is a required field.

● Address 2. If applicable, enter the unit or suite number of the facility.

● City. Enter the city name. This is a required field.

● State. Select the state from the list. This is a required field.

● Zip Code. Enter the 5-digit or 9-digit zip code of the facility. This is a required field.

● EHR Product. Enter the name of the vendor of the EMR/EHR software in use at this facility.

On the Onboarding Facilities Edit screen, the following fields are read-only and cannot be changed:

● Code. The unique HL7 facility code assigned to the facility. This code should be used as the

sending facility code in test messages.

● Tasks in Progress. The number of onboarding tasks (query, update, or both) in progress for this

facility. These are tasks that are not yet complete.

● Tasks Complete. The number of onboarding tasks (query, update, or both) completed for this

facility.

To save your changes, click the Update button. To return to the previous screen without saving your

changes, click the Cancel button. Click the View Tasks button to navigate to the Onboarding Facilities

Task List screen for this facility. This screen displays the Query and/or Update tasks for the facility.


Complete Onboarding Tasks After creating all facilities that will be testing with NHIIS, complete the onboarding tasks for each facility.

Click the View Tasks button on the Onboarding Facilities Search screen to view the onboarding tasks for

a facility.


Onboarding tasks are grouped into task lists: Query and Update. Click a task list to view the tasks, or

cases, contained within.

Click the View Case button to view the task details and to submit HL7 test messages.


Read the Objective of the current task under the Review Case tab .

No specific action is required on this page other than reading the text.

Click on the “Next” button to advance to the View Data tab.

In order to complete the current task, you will need to create an HL7 message using the data under the

View Data tab. When building the message, be sure to use the Current Facility Code provided at the top

of the page as the sending facility. The View Data tab presents a list of the data elements that must be

included in the HL7 message.

No specific actions are required on this page. This is simply meant to be a readable format of the

required HL7 elements for the task.


Click on the “Next” button to advance to the Submit Test tab.

Work with your EHR vendor to develop the HL7 message. Paste the message in the Message box on the

Submit Test tab and click on Submit HL7 Message to execute the test.

After submitting the HL7 message, you will receive feedback about the quality of the test message on

the Review tab.


If the HL7 test message was error free, you will receive an ‘AA’ acknowledgement message.

If the HL7 test message had errors, you will receive an ‘AE’, ‘AR’, or ‘AF’ acknowledgement message with

additional instructions on how to resolve the errors.


Click on the Analyze button to review the details of the error and the recommended fixes.

Once the errors have been resolved in the message, the corrected HL7 message can be resubmitted

under the Submit Test tab.

Once a successful test message has been submitted, you will receive the following message: “This HL7

message will successfully complete Update Case” followed by the case # currently being viewed. After

completing a task, you will see the task greyed out on the task list with a corresponding check mark. This

indicates that the task has been successfully completed, and you will no longer be able to access that

particular test.


Once all tasks in a group have been completed, the task group bar (Query or Update) will also be greyed

out. Once all tasks are completed, an email notification is sent to the NHIIS staff informing them that all

testing has been completed for the selected facility, and the facility is ready for the next phase of the

onboarding process.

Resources To access the Resources screen, click Onboarding menu item. Then click the Resources sub-menu item.

The links on the Resources screen contain valuable information and documentation about HL7.


Appendix A: Onboarding Process Flow