Understand and configure study statuses

This article explains how study statuses track a radiology study through OmegaAI, how transition rules control manual status changes, and how to add a custom study status at your managing organization. It also covers how order statuses are derived from study statuses and how a status is assigned when a study is received.

Key concepts

What a study status is

A study status represents the lifecycle of a radiology study in OmegaAI.

• It shows the study's progress, from the initial request to final reporting and archiving.
• Each status is associated with specific workflow steps and transition rules. These keep radiology workflows running smoothly.
• The Study Status feature enforces predefined progression rules, transition values, and workflow mappings.
• Handling study statuses correctly prevents workflow disruptions and keeps changes traceable through audit logs.
• Administrators can customize statuses within defined constraints, while staying compliant with radiology workflow best practices.
• Study statuses are managed at the managing organization. Every organization under it uses the same list of statuses.

What a workflow step is

A workflow step defines a stage in the radiology process that corresponds to specific study statuses.

• Workflow steps categorize a study's progress.
• They track the study from request to completion.

How study statuses map to workflow steps

Study statuses are mapped to workflow steps. This keeps statuses consistent and compliant with radiology workflows, and makes sure each study follows a predefined sequence of statuses.

• Each study status is associated with one or more workflow steps.
• When a study progresses to a new workflow step, its status updates accordingly.
• Transition rules (minimum and maximum values) define the allowed movement between statuses. This prevents unintended workflow disruptions.

How transition rules work

Every study status has three numbers:

Value	What it does
Status Value	Sets the status's position in the workflow sequence.
Transition Min	The lowest status value a user can manually move a study to from this status.
Transition Max	The highest status value a user can manually move a study to from this status.

When a user changes a study's status manually, OmegaAI checks the change against the current status's Transition Min and Transition Max values.

Important: Transition rules apply only to manual status changes on the Worklist and Study Information pages. They don't apply to automated updates, such as changes made by Workflow Automation (WFA), Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) ingestion, or appointment sync. These can set any status.

Note: A study status can be marked inactive even if it's mapped to a workflow step.

For how to change a study's status from the Worklist, see Update the study status.

Default study statuses

The following table lists the predefined study statuses, what each one means, and its default values.

Note: Status values and transition ranges are configurable. Your managing organization may have changed them, so your list can differ from the defaults shown here.

Study status	Description	Status Value	Transition Min	Transition Max
REQUESTED	The study has been requested through Blume or an external source.	15	30	85
ORDERED	The study has been ordered, but no study date or time has been set yet.	20	30	70
SCHEDULED	The study has been scheduled, so it has a set date and time.	30	40	85
CONFIRMED	The study has been confirmed with the patient.	50	70	105
ARRIVED	The patient has arrived at the clinic for the study.	70	80	120
CANCELLED	The study has been canceled.	80	0	0
NO SHOW	The patient didn't arrive for their appointment.	85	0	0
READY FOR SCAN	The patient has completed check-in and is ready for the technologist.	90	100	105
STARTED	The technologist has started the exam.	100	105	120
EXAM COMPLETED	The study was completed. This status can be used after COMPLETED as a triggering status.	105	110	130
EXAM DISCONTINUED	The exam may have begun but had to be discontinued for some reason (for example, the patient was claustrophobic).	110	0	0
INPROGRESS	Images from the study are actively being received in the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).	115	120	160
COMPLETED	All images have been received in the PACS (no images are still pending).	120	130	170
IMPORT	The study is being imported, manually or automatically, into the PACS from an external source (for example, DICOM files, images, or folders).	125	0	0
HOLD	The study is awaiting a task (for example, priors requested or additional images).	130	140	160
REJECTED	The study has been rejected for some reason (for example, low-quality images).	140	0	0
VERIFIED	A technologist or other user has validated the study, and it's ready for the interpreting physician (MD) to read.	160	170	200
TO BE AMENDED	The study has a final report but needs an addendum.	170	180	200
DICTATED	Used in a transcriptionist workflow. The reading physician has recorded their findings.	180	190	200
TRANSCRIBED	Used in a transcriptionist workflow. The transcriptionist has typed the report, and it's ready for the reading physician to sign.	190	200	210
SIGNED	The study has a signed final report.	200	210	210
PRIOR	Indicates a prior study by outside comparison.	210	0	0
UNUSED	The study was created or received but isn't actively linked to a patient record, workflow, or reporting process.	1000	0	0
QA/QC	The study is under quality assurance or quality control (QA/QC) review before it's made available for clinical use.	1100	0	0

Add a new study status

Study statuses are defined once, at the managing organization. If the default statuses don't cover a step in your workflow, you can add a custom status on the Study Statuses page in the managing organization's settings.

Note: Child organizations inherit study statuses from the managing organization. When you add or change a status at the managing organization, the change applies to all of its child organizations. The Study Statuses menu isn't shown in a child organization's settings.

Before you begin

• Make sure you can access the managing organization's settings. You can't add study statuses from a child organization.
• Make sure you have the Study Status Configuration permission in your role's user access control (UAC) settings. See User Access Control, Roles, and Privileges.
• Choose a Status Value for the new status. Use the Default study statuses table to pick a value that falls between the statuses that come before and after it in your workflow.

Study Statuses page columns

The Study Statuses page lists every status configured for the managing organization.

Column	Description
Active	Shows whether the status is active. A green dot marks an active status.
Transition Min	The lowest status value a user can manually move a study to from this status.
Transition Max	The highest status value a user can manually move a study to from this status.
Status Value	The number that sets the status's position in the workflow sequence.
Status	The status name as it appears across OmegaAI, shown with its icon and color.

Add the status

1. In the left navigation pane, select Organization.

   The Organizations page opens.

2. In the Managing Organizations panel, select your managing organization.

   The organization's information appears in the right panel.

3. In the right panel, select Details.

   The organization's settings open.

4. In the settings menu, select Study Statuses.

   

5. Next to the Study Statuses title, select + (Add New Study Status).

   The page switches to edit mode, and a blank row is added at the top of the table.

6. In the new row, complete the fields:

   

   Field	What to enter	Default
   Active	Leave the toggle on to make the status available to users.	On
   Transition Min	The lowest status value users can manually move a study to from this status.	Blank
   Transition Max	The highest status value users can manually move a study to from this status.	Blank
   Status Value	A number that isn't already used by another status.	Blank
   Icon	The icon shown next to the status name. Select the list to choose a different icon.	Clock icon
   Color	The color of the status. Select the list to choose from the available colors.	Black
   Status	The status name, for example WET READ.	Blank

7. Select Save.

   To discard the new status instead, select Cancel.

Tip: A study can only be moved manually into the new status if the new status's value is within the Transition Min and Transition Max range of the study's current status. For example, say you add a status with a value of 95, between READY FOR SCAN (90) and STARTED (100). Users can't move a study from READY FOR SCAN into the new status until you change the Transition Min of READY FOR SCAN from 100 to 95 or lower.

Expected result

The new status appears in the Study Statuses table, with the icon and color you chose.

How order status is derived

You don't set an order's status by hand. OmegaAI derives it from the statuses of the studies on that order, and evaluates it again every time one of those studies is updated.

When the active studies on the order are…	The order becomes
All SIGNED	completed
All HOLD	on-hold
All CANCELLED	revoked
Any study reaches PATIENT ARRIVED	A draft order becomes active

If work is still outstanding, the order stays as it is. For example, if one study is signed and another is still in progress, the order status doesn't change.

Note: The same order status can look different depending on where you view it. The Order panel on the Visit / Order / Study page shows it in uppercase (ON-HOLD). The Worklist column shows it as stored (on-hold). Both refer to the same status.

Studies that don't hold an order open

CANCELLED and PRIOR studies aren't counted:

• Canceled studies: Canceling a study isn't the same as deleting it. The study stays on the order, but it isn't outstanding work. An order with one signed study and one canceled study still reaches completed.
• Prior studies: PRIOR comes after SIGNED in the workflow. It's where a signed study moves to. A study at PRIOR doesn't hold its order open.

Workflow step names must match exactly

OmegaAI applies the order status rules by workflow step name, for each organization. It never uses the study status value or transition range, because those are configurable and differ between sites.

OmegaAI looks for these five workflow step names:

• SIGNED
• CANCELLED
• HOLD
• PATIENT ARRIVED
• PRIOR

Important: The study status ARRIVED (value 70) corresponds to the workflow step named PATIENT ARRIVED. A workflow step named only ARRIVED isn't matched.

Important: If an organization has no SIGNED workflow step, its orders never reach completed.

Other order status behavior

• A finished order reopens if its work resumes. If you move a study on a completed or on-hold order back to an in-progress status, the order returns to active. Updating a study to SIGNED or CANCELLED doesn't reopen the order.
• Existing orders aren't updated retroactively. If all of an order's studies were signed before this behavior was introduced, the order keeps its current status until one of its studies is updated again.
• Taking an order off hold doesn't move its studies back. The studies stay at HOLD, and you update them one at a time. See Update the study status.
• Final orders stop receiving coverage changes. Once an order reaches a final status (completed, revoked, or entered-in-error), later changes to patient-level coverage no longer flow down to that order. Coverage already recorded on the order doesn't change.

How a study's status is assigned when it's received

Study status stamping is how OmegaAI decides a study's status when the study is received through DICOM Ingestion, OmegaAI Link, or Manual Import. The system evaluates several inputs to determine the correct status.

Order of preference

Several mechanisms can assign or change a study's status. To keep the result consistent and predictable, OmegaAI applies them in a strict order of preference. A higher number has a stronger priority (for example, 5 overrides 4).

Priority	Source or mechanism	Description
1 (lowest)	DICOM metadata	The default study status, derived from the incoming DICOM tags.
2	Receive Status As	An explicit status provided when the study is ingested through a device.
3	Always Overwrite Study Status	A global or station-level setting that overrides incoming statuses.
4	Auto-Prior	Automatically marks studies as PRIOR, based on configurable age thresholds.
5 (highest)	Workflow Automation scripting	Custom rules or scripts applied during ingestion. These override all other statuses.

Example scenarios

Scenario	Final study status (what you see)	Why
DICOM metadata says SCHEDULED. No other settings are applied.	SCHEDULED	The default status comes from the incoming DICOM metadata (priority 1).
DICOM metadata says SCHEDULED. Receive Status As is CONFIRMED at import.	CONFIRMED	Receive Status As overrides DICOM metadata (priority 2).
Always Overwrite Study Status is COMPLETED. Receive Status As is CONFIRMED.	COMPLETED	The station setting overrides Receive Status As (priority 3).
Always Overwrite Study Status is COMPLETED. The study is older than the Auto-Prior threshold (for example, 45 days).	PRIOR	Auto-Prior overrides Always Overwrite (priority 4).
The study is older than the Auto-Prior threshold. A Workflow Automation scripting rule says "If Modality=CT then status=VERIFIED".	VERIFIED	Scripting overrides Auto-Prior (priority 5).

Key points about status stamping

• If nothing else is configured, the incoming DICOM status (such as SCHEDULED or STARTED) stays.
• Receive Status As overrides the DICOM-supplied status (for example, SCHEDULED → CONFIRMED).
• Always Overwrite overrides both, but Auto-Prior still overrides it.
• Auto-Prior always stamps PRIOR when a study is older than the threshold, even if the station default is something else.
• Workflow Automation scripting can set any status (such as VERIFIED, TO BE AMENDED, REJECTED, or HOLD), and it always overrides.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	What to do
Orders aren't completing as expected.	The organization's workflow steps don't match the names OmegaAI looks for. For example, there's no SIGNED step.	Check the organization's workflow steps first. See Workflow step names must match exactly.
A draft order doesn't become active when the patient arrives.	The workflow step is named ARRIVED instead of PATIENT ARRIVED.	Make sure the workflow step is named PATIENT ARRIVED.
An order whose studies are all signed still isn't completed.	The studies were signed before order status derivation was introduced. Existing orders aren't updated retroactively.	Update one of the order's studies. The order status is evaluated again.
The Study Statuses menu isn't in the organization's settings.	You opened a child organization. Study statuses are managed only at the managing organization.	Go back to the Organizations page, select the managing organization, and then select Details.
Users can't manually move a study into a new custom status.	The new status's value is outside the Transition Min–Transition Max range of the study's current status.	Adjust the transition range of the preceding status. See the tip in Add the status.

Related articles

• Using the Worklist Screen
• User Access Control, Roles, and Privileges
• Understanding Organizational Hierarchy
• Adding Devices & Modalities (DICOM Stations)
• Auto-Prior Configuration
• Workflow Automation Introduction
• Workflow Scripting
• Logs