Version 7 - Workflow Customization: How do I manage patients that have arrived and are waiting in their cars?
BlueNote Communicator Lights can be adjusted to create precise alerts for team members when patients have arrived but are not yet allowed to come into the building. By using a separate timer for each patient that arrives in the parking lot, all staff can know exactly how long each patient has been waiting and can then limit the number of patients in check-in and check-out. Here is a typical office workflow suggestion:
- Instruct the patient to call or text your office when they arrive. The person answering the text or the call will then internally communicate this to the rest of the staff by turning on a corresponding light regarding the patient’s arrival.
- The patient will be told to expect a phone call or text when it’s their turn to come in. The active light will keep track of the exact amount of time that a patient is waiting outside.
- Once a room is cleaned and ready, anyone from the back office can let the front office know that they are ready for the patient, by clicking back into the same active Light and updating it with the corresponding information. If the patient is to be seated by a front office team member, the patient can be called to come in from their vehicle and the front office person will seat the patient immediately.
4. If the patient is to be seated by someone in the back office, the front office person will call the patient to come inside, then they will signal the clinical team once the patient is in the reception area and screening has been completed.
5. The Light will be turned off once the patient is seated. This allows the Light to be used for the next patient that is on the schedule, but not yet in a room.
Each patient may have their own timer in the virtual waiting room. To view, choose the far left sorting button. This displays the time arrived, the time in car, and the time it takes to screen each patient.
How do I create this customization in BlueNote Lights?
In System Wide Changes, you may add Lights, modify your existing Lights, and even create variables within Lights to accommodate the workflow needed. Here’s how to add these Arrival BlueNotes to an existing Light and also to a new Light.
1. Access System Wide Changes by choosing Menu > Preferences > Options > Advanced > System Wide Changes. Type in “configure.”
2. Once you're in BlueNote Communicator Lights Configuration, choose the “BlueNotes” tab on the left-hand side. Then tab to an empty BlueNote tab (the "5" in this example). Click into each empty BlueNote and type the variables needed to describe the various stages that an arrival will need. Add colors and tones if you’d like.
3. Relabel the tab of BlueNotes as “Arrivals.”
4. You are now going to go to the Light Panels Tab. Click to edit each of the Lights that are designated for patient arrivals. In each Light editor, change the Immediate button to Prompted (or type a colon at the end of the Light label), then select the Arrival tab inside of the Light. Save when finished with each Light.
5. When finished, finalize the changes by Publishing the configuration changes out to all computers. Tab down to Publish on the left-hand side and type in the word “Publish” when prompted.
6. With the Publishing complete, the modified Lights are now available to use.
I’m new to BlueNote Lights. Can I start with a template that already contains these alerts?
Yes - there is an Online Example that gives you a very similar workflow as part of your starting point in which to begin your customization. In System Wide Changes, go to the “Examples” tab, then in the blank, copy or type in the code below:
t005
and click Get Example. From there you can make all of the modifications needed and Publish as shown in the previous step.