The board
Stays are grouped by where they have got to: waiting for a bed, on the ward, discharged, and withdrawn. Each row shows the patient, their bed, when they were admitted and how long they have been in.
WorkspaceAvailable
Ward
See who is on the ward, which bed they are in, and how long they have been here. Admit a patient, move them between beds, and record a discharge.
What you can do here
Waiting for a bed
A stay can be recorded before a bed is free. Those patients stay visible on the board as needing placing, because somebody has to place them.
One patient to a bed
If two people allocate the same bed at the same moment, one of them is told the bed has gone. That is the system working: it will never quietly put two patients in one bed.
A freed bed is not ready yet
When a patient leaves, the bed moves to cleaning rather than straight to available. A board that offers a bed the moment somebody leaves it is a board nobody trusts.
Withdrawing is not discharging
Withdrawing a stay says the admission never happened, and is for a record made in error. A discharge says the stay ended. Keeping them apart stops a patient who was never in a bed appearing in the bed-day figures.
A bed that is not set up yet
If the bed you need is not in the list, somebody who manages departments and beds can choose Add bed at the foot of it. The bed's form opens above the admission with what you typed as its name, and everything already entered in the admission stays as it was. Save it and you come back with the new bed chosen; cancel and nothing changes. A ward the bed needs can be added the same way from inside the bed's form.
Follow these steps
Admit a patient
- Select Admit a patient.
- Choose the patient and what kind of stay it is. Nothing is chosen for you.
- Choose a bed that is available or reserved, or choose No bed yet and place them later. A reserved bed is marked as held; check it is held for this patient.
- Record why they are being admitted.
Place or move a patient
- Select Place on a patient waiting for a bed, or Move on one already in one.
- Choose the bed. Only beds that are available or reserved are listed, and two beds with the same name show which ward each is on.
- Record why they are moving.
- The old bed is freed and the new one taken together, so the patient is never in both or neither.
Record a discharge
- Select Discharge.
- Choose how the stay ended. Nothing is chosen for you, and each answer says what it means.
- Add a note for the record if it helps.
- The bed is freed and goes to cleaning.
Helpful habits
- Place a patient as soon as a bed is free rather than holding one informally. A bed held in somebody's head is a bed the board cannot offer.
- Record the reason for a move. In a week nobody will remember why the patient was moved, and the next person reading the stay will want to know.
- Use Withdraw only for a stay that should never have been recorded. If the patient was really here, discharge them instead, even if the stay was short.
- Mark a bed out of service from the locations screen rather than leaving it occupied by nobody, so the board shows why it cannot be used.
Tips
- A patient can only have one open stay at a time. Transfer or discharge the existing one before admitting them again.
- If somebody else changes a stay while you have it open, your change is refused and the current details are shown. Review them rather than repeating the change.
- Only doctors, nurses and care coordinators can admit, move or discharge. Administrators can read the board.
- An admission records where a patient is and who is answerable for them. It does not order, prescribe, schedule or notify anything.
- A restricted chart hides its stays too. If you cannot see a patient you expect, their chart may be restricted.
- Add bed appears only for people who manage departments and beds. Everybody else sees the beds that exist and can ask an administrator to add one.