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.

01

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. 1

    Pick a unit

    Every screen (except Analytics) requires selecting a unit before any data shows.

  2. 2

    Track beds

    The bed board shows every bed's live status; housekeeping turns dirty beds back to available.

  3. 3

    Log census

    A manual snapshot of occupancy, distinct from the live bed board, used for trend tracking.

  4. 4

    Clear barriers

    Anything blocking a ready patient from actually leaving gets logged and resolved here.

02

Dashboard

A single unit's snapshot: bed counts, the latest census, and quick links into the other five screens.

Stat tiles

FieldWhat it means
Total Beds / Occupied / AvailableBed counts for the selected unit.
DirtyBeds needing cleaning.
Out of ServiceBeds not usable.
Census %Percent of beds occupied.
Active BarriersUnresolved 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.

03

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

FieldWhat it means
Bed ID*Locked once a bed exists, it can't be changed after creation.
Room Number
Bed TypeFree text, e.g. "ICU", "Standard", "Bariatric".
Status*Available, Occupied, Dirty, Cleaning, Out of Service, or Reserved. Defaults Available.
Occupying PatientOnly shown when Status is Occupied. Editing without picking a new patient keeps the current one.
Expected Discharge DateOnly shown when Status is Occupied.
Isolation PrecautionsFree text, e.g. "Contact", "Droplet", "Airborne".

Creating and updating use the same form

Registering a \"new\" bed is really just its first status snapshot, there's no separate create step, saving this form always records the bed's current status.

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

04

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

FieldWhat it means
Total Beds / Occupied / Available / Dirty / Out of ServiceAll optional number fields.
Census %
Pending Admissions / Pending DischargesForward-looking counts of patients expected to arrive or leave soon.
05

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

FieldWhat it means
Bed*Scoped to the selected unit.
Task TypeTerminal Clean, Discharge Clean, Routine Clean, or Isolation Clean. Defaults Routine Clean.
PrioritySTAT, Urgent, or Routine. Defaults Routine.
Assign ToOptional, 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

06

Discharge barriers

Anything documented as blocking a medically-ready patient from actually leaving the hospital, tracked per patient until resolved.

"Report Discharge Barrier" form

FieldWhat it means
Patient*
Barrier TypeAwaiting 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

The most common barrier type, waiting for a bed to open up at a nursing facility the patient is being discharged to.
07

Analytics

The one hospital-wide screen in this module, occupancy, patient flow, discharge-barrier bottlenecks and housekeeping performance over a chosen window.

Controls

FieldWhat it means
Time range7d, 14d, 30d, or 90d. Defaults 30d.
Live toggleWhen 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.

08

Good practices

Record census regularly, not just when asked

The trend chart is only as useful as the snapshots behind it, occasional entries make the history gappy.

Use My Tasks to work your own queue

It stays scoped to you no matter which unit is selected in the filter, no need to hunt through the whole unit's list.

Resolving a barrier is one-way

There's no un-resolve button on this screen, double-check before clicking Resolve.