Initial Setup

Complete the initial configuration after installing PATH DRC EMR.

Overview

After installation, you need to complete several configuration steps before the system is ready for use:

  1. Change the default admin password
  2. Configure the admin user as a provider
  3. Create user accounts for staff
  4. Verify metadata loaded correctly
  5. Configure backups

Step 1: Change Default Password

Critical Security Step: Change the default admin password immediately!

  1. Log in with default credentials:
    • Username: admin
    • Password: Admin123
  2. Navigate to your user settings
  3. Change to a strong, unique password
  4. Log out and log back in to verify

Step 2: Configure Admin User as Provider

By default, only the admin user account is created. However, the admin user is not immediately available to test all clinical features because it lacks a provider account.

To enable full functionality for the admin user:

  1. Log in as admin (admin / Admin123)
  2. Click on App Menu (top-right hamburger menu)
  3. Click System Administration
  4. Go to Manage Users
  5. Search for “admin” and click on the result
  6. Check the box Create a Provider account for this user
  7. Scroll down and click Save User

Any user who needs to record clinical encounters (visits, observations, orders) must have a provider account.

Step 3: Create User Accounts

Create accounts for clinical and administrative staff based on their roles.

Creating a Role-Based Account

For example, to create a doctor account:

  1. Click App Menu → System Administration
  2. Go to Manage Users
  3. Click Add User
  4. Under Create a new person, click Next
  5. Enter required details:
    • Given Name: First name
    • Family Name: Last name
    • Gender: Select appropriate option
    • Username: Login name (lowercase, no spaces)
    • Password: Initial password (user should change on first login)
  6. Check Create a Provider account for this user (required for clinical functions)
  7. Under Roles, select the appropriate organizational role:
    • Organizational: Doctor - For physicians
    • Organizational: Nurse - For nursing staff
    • Organizational: Registration Clerk - For front desk staff
  8. Click Save User

Common Roles

Role Description Typical Users
Organizational: Doctor Full clinical privileges for physicians Doctors, clinical officers
Organizational: Nurse Clinical privileges for nursing care Nurses, nursing assistants
Organizational: Registration Clerk Patient registration only Front desk staff
System Developer Full system access IT administrators only

Assign only the minimum roles needed. Avoid giving System Developer to non-technical users as it grants full system access.

Step 4: Customize Role Privileges

If the existing roles don’t meet your needs, you can modify them:

  1. Click App Menu → System Administration
  2. Click Manage Roles under the Users section
  3. Click on the role you want to modify (e.g., Organizational: Doctor)
  4. Check or uncheck privileges as needed
  5. Click Save Role

To persist role changes across all deployments, update the configuration file at roles_core-demo.csv in the content package repository.

Step 5: Verify Metadata Loading

Confirm that metadata has loaded correctly:

Check Locations

  1. Go to System Administration → Manage Locations
  2. Verify location hierarchy is present

Check Concepts

  1. Go to System Administration → Manage Concept
  2. Search for common concepts (e.g., “weight”, “temperature”)
  3. Verify concepts exist and have appropriate attributes

Test Patient Registration

  1. Navigate to the OpenMRS 3.0 interface: http://your-server/openmrs/spa
  2. Go to Register Patient
  3. Fill in test patient details
  4. Verify the registration completes successfully

Step 6: Configure Backup

Set up automated backups by configuring the backup service in your .env file:

# Backup repository location
RESTIC_REPOSITORY=/restic_data

# Backup encryption password (use a strong password!)
RESTIC_PASSWORD=your-strong-backup-password

# Backup schedule (cron format) - daily at 2 AM
RESTIC_CRON_SCHEDULE=0 2 * * *

# Retention policy
RESTIC_KEEP_DAILY=7
RESTIC_KEEP_WEEKLY=4
RESTIC_KEEP_MONTHLY=12
RESTIC_KEEP_YEARLY=3

After updating .env, restart the backup service:

docker compose restart backup

Verify backup is configured:

docker compose logs backup

See Backup & Restore for detailed configuration.

Post-Setup Checklist

  • Default admin password changed
  • Admin user configured as provider
  • Staff user accounts created with appropriate roles
  • Provider accounts created for clinical users
  • Location hierarchy verified
  • Concepts loaded correctly
  • Test patient registration successful
  • Backup configured and tested
  • Instance name set (if applicable)

Verifying the System

Check System Status 

# All services should show "Up" or "Up (healthy)"
docker compose ps

# Check for errors in logs
docker compose logs --since 1h | grep -i error

Health Check Endpoints 

# Check backend is responding
curl http://localhost/openmrs/ws/rest/v1/session

# Check health endpoint
curl http://localhost/openmrs/health/started

Monitoring Script

You can use this script to wait for the system to be fully ready:

while [[ "$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://localhost/openmrs/login.htm)" != "200" ]]; do
    echo "Waiting for OpenMRS to start..."
    sleep 10
done
echo "OpenMRS is ready!"

Next Steps