Creating Patient Location and Patient Status information
Appearance in the User Interface
The Patient Location field allows a user to select, track and communicate the physical location for a patient
- Examples of Patient Locations are: Waiting Room, Check In, Exam Room 1, Lab
- Organizations can name the patient locations however they wish and create as many as they need
- Organizations must associate their locations to Sites so that each Site sees only locations at that site. If a location is not linked to a site it will not appear in the dropdown
- Conceptual name: Patient Location
- UI name: Pat Loc
- Dictionary name: Site Location (not Patient Location)
- SSMT category: Site Location
The Patient Status field identifies the various statuses of a patient office visit.
- Examples of 'Status' are: Arrived, No Show, Cancelled, Bumped, Departed
- Organizations can name the patient locations however they wish and create as many as they need but they cannot edit or make inactive the status 'Departed' because it is used by the system
- Organizations must associate their statuses to Sites. If a status is not linked to a site it will not appear in the dropdown
- Conceptual name: Patient Location
- UI name: Pat Loc
- Dictionary name: Site Location (not Patient Location)
- SSMT category: Site Location
Let’s get started
Log in to TouchWorks as an administrative user
Click on TW Admin
Click on Dictionaries
Click on the Dictionary drop down Menu and chose SITE LOCATION if you want to work with the 'Pat Loc' drop down or ENCOUNTER STATUS if you want to work with the 'Status' drop down.
! Do not select the 'Patient Location' dictionary. This is used by the registration & scheduling interface to track inpatient location
Click ADD and a new line will be created for you to add your entry.
Things you should know before continuing
The CODE field is only 10 spaces long, so abbreviations may be needed.
The NAME field is open ended and should be used to assign the full and proper name of the location.
The MNEMONIC field must match the CODE field exactly. For example if the Code name is Pieds 5 the Mnemonic field must be Pieds 5.
Saving - Do Not hit SAVE until you are certain of your input, spelling etc… Once you hit SAVE, you can not remove the location. You can INACTIVATE it so that it doesn’t show up in the Patient Location drop down, but you cannot delete it.
Okay, now go ahead and add your new Code, Name and Mnemonic.
Double check your new entries for spelling and accuracy.
Click SAVE.
Link the information to your site
Now you need to link your new Location information to your Clinic, Practice or Health care Organization. This is vital when you work for an organization that has more than one practice or clinic in it. For example: If I worked in the Children's Speciality Clinic at St. Josephs Hospital and the Patient Location information I just loaded only applied to the Children's Specialty Clinic, I would want to link my newly loaded Patient Location information to the Children's Specialty Clinic only.
If the information I loaded applied to more than one site, I would assign the newly loaded information to those sites as well.
Bottom line: Whoever I assign the information to will have it in their Patient Location drop down Menu.
AVAILABLE SITES
Cardiology
Nephrology
Children's Specialty Clinic
Urology
Otolaryngology
ASSIGNED SITES
Children's Specialty Clinic
While still in the Dictionary, Site Location Window Click the SITE button. Click on the AVAILABLE SITE you want to add this patient location to Click ADD to move it over to the ASSIGNED SITE.
Click OK and you’ll be brought back to the Dictionary, Site Location page.
That’s it – you’re done.
Test it!
Test it by logging in as a user and looking at the Patient Location drop down menu. You should see your new entry(s).
New Entries not showing?
If your new entries didn’t appear in the Patient Location drop down menu, it may be that the Preference setting needs to be turned on.
Log in to TouchWorks as an administrative user
Click on TW Setup
Click on Preferences
Scroll down to Patient Tracking – Use Patient Site Location.
If for any reason you want to remove a location from the drop down menu, you must inactivate it, it cannot be deleted. This Inactive box works as a toggle switch so if you want to add the location back to the drop down menu at any time simply follow the below directions and put a check mark in the Inactive box.
Log in to TouchWorks as an administrative user
Click on TW Setup
Click on Dictionaries
Click on the Dictionary drop down Menu and chose SITE LOCATION.
Scroll down to the Patient Location you wish to remove and Check the INACTIVE box. Click Save
To put it back into your Patient Location drop down menu, remove the Check from the INACTIVE box. Click Save.
