Care Types
Care Types are used to categorize and manage different types of patient care within the Patient Tracking Portal. They are configured to align with the hospital's ADT system and help streamline patient care processes. Healthcare administrators and staff use this feature to ensure accurate tracking and management of patient care types. It exists to facilitate the organization and monitoring of various care types within the hospital system. This feature is used during the setup and ongoing management of patient care processes.
Where you can find this feature: Patient Tracking Portal.
How Care Types Work
Functionality
Care Types are configured in the Patient Tracking Portal to match the hospital's ADT system. This includes entering ADT ID numbers, selecting update methods, setting the order of care types, and adding delay reasons.
Configuration Steps:
Add Care Types:
Click Add 5 to add blank rows for care type information.
Enter care type names in the Care Type Name column.
Enter ADT ID numbers in the ADT ID column.
Select Overwrite or Append in the Note Update Method column.
Click Save.
Set Order of Care Types:
Use arrows in the Sort Order column to arrange care types.
Select Enforce care type order if care types must be completed in a specific order.
Example: City Hospital requires that for stroke care progression, the Statin Treatment care type must be completed before the Carotid Stenosis Screening care type. The administrator at City Hospital selects Enforce care type order so that Carotid Stenosis Screening cannot be selected on the care type menu unless the Statin Treatment has been selected already. If an HL7 message that would update the patient's care types out of order is received, the message will not be processed and the care types will not be updated.
Configure Delay Reasons:
Click Delay Reasons to open the dialog box.
Select the care type and add delay reasons with ADT ID numbers.
Click Save and then Close.
Set Automatic Status Transitions:
Select Automatically Advance to Next Care Type When Complete if needed.
Select Start Care Type on Patient Admission if required.
Note: Choose the Start Care Type on Patient Admission option if your organization requires certain care types to be completed within a defined period of time for all newly admitted patients. The Ordered and/or In Progress status must be enabled under Care Progression Group Statuses or the care type will not change to the first available status automatically when the patient is admitted. If the Enforce Care Type Order check box is selected, then Start Care Type on Patient Admission can be enabled only for the first care type. If a patient is in Confirmed Discharge status and then the patient's status is changed to Inhouse, the status of a care type does not change automatically.
Set Warning or Alert Thresholds:
Enter minutes in Warning Threshold (Min) and Alert Threshold (Min).
Ensure Warning Threshold is lower than Alert Threshold.
Warning: Notifies subscribing users that action might be required soon. It is similar to a first notice that a care type has been in one status too long and care is not progressing as expected.
Alert: Suggests that action should be taken as soon as possible. It is similar to a final notice that a care type has been in one status too long and caregivers should act soon so that care can progress.
Configuration Limits: TeleTracking pre-defines that the threshold values be no less than 1 minute and no more than 999 minutes. However, your organization might have asked TeleTracking to change these parameters through the Maximum Value for Care Type Threshold or Minimum Value for Care Type Threshold Master Configuration settings (e.g., change the settings so that the value can be no less than 5 minutes and no more than 600 minutes).
Status Definitions:
Ordered: Care type ordered by a physician or qualified staff.
In Progress: Care type is being completed.
Completed: Care type has been finished.
Workflows
Changing Care Type Status or Delaying a Care Type:
Click in the care progression group column for the appropriate patient.
In the Set Care Progression Detail dialog box:
Change status by clicking the status icon (e.g., Ordered, In Progress, or Completed). Note that only care types that have already been ordered can be marked as In Progress or Completed.
Delay the care type by selecting a reason from the Delay Reason list (e.g., Equipment Unavailable). When the care type is no longer delayed, change the list to Select… Otherwise, the care type will still show as delayed on the list view and in reports. The care type will be shown as delayed on the list view until either the status is changed to Completed or Select… is chosen in the Delay Reason list. The care type will be shown as delayed in the Care Progression Work List Quick Report until Select… is chosen in the Delay Reason list, even if the care type status is Completed.
Enter additional information in the Notes box.
Click Save.
Viewing Latest Care Type Update:
In the Set Care Progression Detail dialog box, view the Last Updated and Updated by columns for the latest update details.
On the Set Care Progression Detail dialog box, to view the user who last selected a care type status, selected a delay reason, or entered notes about a care type, and then saved the change, see the Updated by column.