Documentation/Bed Management
Module guide · Clinical
Bed Management
One unit at a time: which beds are open, dirty, or blocked, how full the unit is, and what's holding up a discharge. This module is the operational companion to Admissions, focused on the physical beds themselves.
What this module is for
Every screen except Analytics is scoped to one unit at a time, pick a unit first and nothing else loads until you do. Analytics alone rolls the whole hospital up together.
Who uses it
Charge nurses, nurse managers and bed coordinators run the bed board and census. Housekeeping tasks can be created and worked by any staff with module access, not just designated housekeeping roles. Case managers and social workers track discharge barriers. Directors and quality staff use analytics.
Where to find it
Open Bed Management from the sidebar. Six screens: a dashboard, bed board, census, housekeeping, discharge barriers, and analytics.
- 1
Pick a unit
Every screen (except Analytics) requires selecting a unit before any data shows.
- 2
Track beds
The bed board shows every bed's live status; housekeeping turns dirty beds back to available.
- 3
Log census
A manual snapshot of occupancy, distinct from the live bed board, used for trend tracking.
- 4
Clear barriers
Anything blocking a ready patient from actually leaving gets logged and resolved here.
Dashboard
A single unit's snapshot: bed counts, the latest census, and quick links into the other five screens.
Stat tiles
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total Beds / Occupied / Available | Bed counts for the selected unit. |
| Dirty | Beds needing cleaning. |
| Out of Service | Beds not usable. |
| Census % | Percent of beds occupied. |
| Active Barriers | Unresolved discharge barriers in the unit. |
A "Latest Census Snapshot" panel shows when it was recorded, occupancy, and pending admissions/discharges. A "Beds" grid at the bottom shows every bed as a small colored card by status. Quick-link cards jump to Analytics, Bed Board, Census, Housekeeping, and Discharge Barriers.
Bed board
Every bed in the unit as a card, with its live status, occupant, and a one-click way to update or register a bed.
Each card shows room number or bed ID, bed type, an isolation icon if precautions apply, and — if occupied — the patient's name and expected discharge date.
"Update Bed" / "New Bed Status Snapshot" form
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Bed ID* | Locked once a bed exists, it can't be changed after creation. |
| Room Number | |
| Bed Type | Free text, e.g. "ICU", "Standard", "Bariatric". |
| Status* | Available, Occupied, Dirty, Cleaning, Out of Service, or Reserved. Defaults Available. |
| Occupying Patient | Only shown when Status is Occupied. Editing without picking a new patient keeps the current one. |
| Expected Discharge Date | Only shown when Status is Occupied. |
| Isolation Precautions | Free text, e.g. "Contact", "Droplet", "Airborne". |
Creating and updating use the same form
Available — ready for a new patient
Occupied — a patient is in the bed
Dirty / Cleaning — needs, or is undergoing, cleaning
Out of Service — not usable
Reserved — held for a specific patient or purpose
Census
A manually recorded, point-in-time snapshot of how full the unit is, kept separate from the live bed board so occupancy can be tracked as a trend over time.
The "Latest Census" panel shows an occupancy badge and progress bar, color-coded green under 75%, amber 75–89%, red 90% and above, plus totals for beds, occupied, available, dirty, out of service, pending admissions, and pending discharges. A "Census Trend" line chart and a "Census History" list appear once two or more snapshots exist.
"Record Census" form
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Total Beds / Occupied / Available / Dirty / Out of Service | All optional number fields. |
| Census % | |
| Pending Admissions / Pending Discharges | Forward-looking counts of patients expected to arrive or leave soon. |
Housekeeping
Requests, tracks, and closes out bed-cleaning tasks for the selected unit, plus a personal queue of tasks assigned to you.
Three lists: Pending Tasks and In Progress for the selected unit, and My Tasks, which always shows tasks assigned to you regardless of the unit filter. Tasks are sorted STAT first, then Urgent, then Routine.
"New Housekeeping Task" form
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Bed* | Scoped to the selected unit. |
| Task Type | Terminal Clean, Discharge Clean, Routine Clean, or Isolation Clean. Defaults Routine Clean. |
| Priority | STAT, Urgent, or Routine. Defaults Routine. |
| Assign To | Optional, any staff member can be assigned, not only housekeeping-specific roles. |
Start moves a Pending task to In Progress; Complete (from In Progress) opens a form for optional Completion Notes and marks the task done. A task can only move forward, Pending → In Progress → Completed.
Pending — requested, not started
In Progress — cleaning underway
Completed — finished
Discharge barriers
Anything documented as blocking a medically-ready patient from actually leaving the hospital, tracked per patient until resolved.
"Report Discharge Barrier" form
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Patient* | |
| Barrier Type | Awaiting SNF Bed, Awaiting Insurance Auth, Awaiting Family Decision, Awaiting Transport, Awaiting Equipment, Social Work Evaluation, Pending Test Results, Physician Order Pending, or Other. Defaults Awaiting SNF Bed. |
| Description |
The unit filter also narrows the "Active Barriers" list. A separate Lookup Barriers by Patient search shows a patient's full barrier history, resolved and active, regardless of unit. Resolve closes an active barrier and can't be undone from this screen. The header's "Active (all units)" counter is hospital-wide.
SNF = Skilled Nursing Facility
Analytics
The one hospital-wide screen in this module, occupancy, patient flow, discharge-barrier bottlenecks and housekeeping performance over a chosen window.
Controls
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Time range | 7d, 14d, 30d, or 90d. Defaults 30d. |
| Live toggle | When on, data silently refreshes every 30 seconds, useful for a dashboard left open on a monitor. |
Occupancy & flow
Bed Occupancy by Unit (stacked bar), Occupation Flow (admissions vs. discharges per day), and Census Trend (occupancy % over time, from recorded snapshots).
Bottlenecks
Active Discharge Barriers by type, and Housekeeping Activity by task type, plus Avg. Response (request → started) and Avg. Turnaround (request → completed) times.
Good practices
Record census regularly, not just when asked
Use My Tasks to work your own queue
Resolving a barrier is one-way