File Open Error in a Service Program

We have a situation where a program calls a procedure in a service program.
This procedure does a usropn on a file for update.  The file was
exclusively allocated and caused the procedure to end abnormally.  The
error provided by the calling program was "error occurred in procedure x (C
S D F)".  In the job log we found the file was allocated.  The only choice
was to cancel in the middle of processing which was very bad in this
instance.  In the old RPG program calls another RPG program world, we would
insert a CL in the middle, which would then give the ability to retry the
failing call.

I'm looking for solutions on how anyone else has handled this situation.
Our initial thought was to check for an error and call a procedure to issue
a message to qsysopr to allow for a retry.  Then the service program could
retry the open after any file issues have been resolved.

Donnie Jobe
Retail Team Leader
O'Reilly Auto Parts