Quizzes
Patient and Provider Locator
Navigating through a clinic with various rooms, multiple providers, and numerous patients requires an efficient system to keep track of everyone’s location to maintain smooth operational flows. The Patient & Provider Locator functionality in emrXL plays an important role in ensuring precise and swift coordination among healthcare providers and managing patient care seamlessly.
What is the Patient & Provider Locator?
This feature in the emrXL allows you to instantly pinpoint the location of both providers and patients within the clinic. Having the capability to immediately identify, for instance, that “Doctor Nalwoga is in Exam Room 5, attending to patient P-17: Leseli Dudley,” empowers you with instant visibility, enabling enhanced communication and coordination among the clinic’s staff.
Ensuring Accurate Location with Confirmation
Accuracy in location tracking is imperative for this tool to be effective. Depending on the technological setup at your clinic, the system uses a combination of computer identification settings and your confirmation of the identified location.
Upon logging into emrXL, you may encounter a prompt asking you to confirm your present room or location. To support user convenience, emrXL will highlight the most recent rooms you have used, mitigating the need to search or type in your current location. By clicking on the room you’re presently occupying, you enable the locator to accurately display your whereabouts to others in the clinic.
Utilizing the Locator: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Navigate to the Room Directory: Begin by clicking on the emrXL logo, located in the upper-left corner of your interface, to access the main menu. Within the main menu, you’ll select the “Room Directory” option.
- Viewing Room Occupancy and Activities: Upon accessing the Room Directory, a new window opens, providing a comprehensive list of rooms, along with the providers and, when applicable, the patients they are attending to. Rooms that are not occupied are displayed in dark grey, providing a clear, visual cue to availability.
- Details on Patient When a provider is engaged with a patient, this tool lists the patient’s information.
Real-World Application Example:
Many clinics have examination rooms, procedure rooms, and offices that may be shared my multiple providers. Any one provider may occupy any room on any given day. It is often difficult to know if Dr. Nalwoga is in exam room 3, 4, or 5 today. Using the locator allows clinical and support staff to immediately locate Dr. Nalwoga.
Imagine a clinical scenario where a nurse needs to direct a patient, Mrs. Katana, to Dr. Nalwoga for her appointment. The nurse accesses the Room Directory and sees that Dr. Nalwoga is currently in Exam Room 5 with a patient. The nurse can then direct Mrs. Katana to the current room where Dr. Nalwoga is located. Later, if Dr. Nalwoga wants to provide Mrs. Katana with the results of her rapid test, she can see that Mrs. Katana is currently located in one of the Social Worker’s offices. She can then call the exact office to coordinate the results with the social worker.
The Patient & Provider Locator is a useful tool in preserving a well-organized and collaborative healthcare environment. This functionality ensures transparency and maximizes efficiency in patient-care processes, especially when there is a need to coordinate care with other providers. The ability to swiftly locate both patients and providers within the clinic ensures streamlined operations, removing unnecessary delays and enhancing the overall healthcare delivery experience within your facility.
