Introduction

A disabled user is a member of your organization whose account has been temporarily deactivated by an administrator. Disabled users cannot log in or access CAREFUL, but their complete record—including all patient interactions, actions, and audit history—remains preserved in the system. This is essential for maintaining compliance with healthcare regulations that require comprehensive audit trails.

Why Disable Instead of Delete?

In healthcare settings, you cannot simply delete user accounts because:

Audit compliance: Healthcare regulations (such as HIPAA) require complete records of who performed what actions on patient data
Patient care history: All clinical notes, actions, and decisions must remain attributable to the staff member who made them
Data integrity: Team memberships, patient assignments, and historical handovers must be preserved
Reversibility: Staff members who leave temporarily (maternity leave, sabbatical) can be quickly re-enabled without recreating their entire account

Disabling a user immediately revokes their system access while preserving all historical data.

What Happens When a User is Disabled?

Immediate Effects

Access revoked: The user cannot log in to CAREFUL. If they attempt to sign in, they'll receive an error message
Sessions terminated: Any active sessions are ended immediately
Account marked: The user's row in the Members table displays an "Account Disabled" badge in the Role column
Menu changes: The three-dot menu for that user shows only "Enable user" instead of other management options

Data Preservation

All of the following remain intact when a user is disabled:

✅ User profile information (name, contact details, role, job title)
✅ Team memberships (they remain listed as team members)
✅ Patient assignments (patients they were responsible for)
✅ Historical actions (tasks they created or completed)
✅ Clinical notes and summaries they authored
✅ Handover history (sent and received)
✅ Referral history
✅ Complete audit trail of all activities
✅ Chat message history

What Doesn't Happen Automatically

When you disable a user, CAREFUL does not automatically:

Remove them from teams
Reassign their patients to other staff
Close or reassign their open actions
Clear their chat history
Remove their historical patient notes

This is intentional. As an administrator, you need to manually handle these responsibilities to ensure continuity of patient care.

Managing Disabled Users' Workload

Before or after disabling a user, you should:

Reassign active patients: Use the "Take all this users patients" (Force Handover) option from the team members page to transfer patient responsibility to another clinician
Handle open actions: Review any actions assigned to the disabled user and either complete them, reassign them to colleagues, or close them as appropriate
Consider team removal: If the user won't be returning, remove them from teams using the standard "Remove member from team" process
Communicate: Inform team members about the change so they know to expect patient and task reassignments

Viewing Disabled Users

By default, disabled users are hidden from the Members table to reduce clutter. To see disabled accounts:

Check the "Show Disabled Users" checkbox above the Members table in the Organization → Members view
Disabled users appear with an "Account Disabled" badge in the Role column

This filter is helpful when you need to:

Re-enable a user who is returning to work
Audit who has been disabled and when
Force handover patients from a previously disabled user

Re-enabling Disabled Users

Only Organization Administrators can re-enable a disabled user. When re-enabled:

The user regains immediate access to CAREFUL
They can log in using their existing credentials (no password reset needed)
All their team memberships are automatically restored
Their previous patient assignments and historical data remain visible
No confirmation dialog is required—the action happens instantly

For step-by-step instructions, see: How to Re-enable a Disabled User

Audit Trail

All disable and enable actions are recorded in the system audit log with:

Timestamp of the action
Which administrator performed the action
Which user was disabled or enabled

Access the audit log by navigating to Organisation → Audit tab. This provides a complete compliance trail for regulatory purposes.

Who Can Disable Users?

✅ Organization Administrators: Can disable any user in their organization (except themselves)
✅ System Users: Can disable any organization user (except themselves)
❌ Team Owners: Cannot disable users (even within their own teams)
❌ Staff Members: Cannot disable users

Important Restrictions

You cannot disable yourself: CAREFUL prevents administrators from locking themselves out
You cannot disable already-disabled users: The "Disable user" option disappears from the menu for users who are already disabled
You cannot disable non-organization users: System-level accounts cannot be disabled through the organization interface

How to Disable a User - Step-by-step instructions for disabling a user account
How to Re-enable a Disabled User - Restoring access for disabled accounts
How to Take All Users Patients (Force Handover) - Reassigning patients from disabled users
How to Remove a Member from a Team - Removing disabled users from team rosters

What is a Disabled User?