Introduction
The Location field in CAREFUL tracks the physical location of a patient within your healthcare facility. This helps staff quickly find patients who may have moved between wards, departments, or treatment areas during their care journey.
Understanding Location vs Custom Fields
CAREFUL provides two ways to track where patients are:
The Built-in Location Field
The Location field is designed to record a patient's current physical location in space — their ward, department, or treatment area. For example:
- "Emergency Department"
- "Radiology - CT Suite"
- "Acute Medical Unit"
- "Recovery Room"
This field appears:
- As a clickable tag in the patient's profile header
- In the Location column of patient lists
- In the Profile tab under "Current Location"
Custom Organisational Fields for Resources
Although you can use the Location field to record bed numbers, we recommend creating a custom organisational field for tracking assigned resources like beds or rooms. This approach gives you more flexibility:
- Location field: "Acute Medical Unit" (where the patient is)
- Custom "Bed" field: "Bed 7" (which specific bed they're assigned to)
Administrators can configure custom patient fields by clicking the kebab menu (⋮) on the My Organization page and selecting "Edit Organization Patient Fields". See How to Edit Organisation Patient Fields for detailed instructions.
How to Update a Patient's Location
Before You Start
- You must have access to the patient (share at least one team)
- You must be logged in as an organisational user (Administrator, Team Owner, or Clinical User)
Steps
- Navigate to the patient's profile by clicking their name in any patient list
- Select the Profile tab if not already active
- Locate the Current Location field in the patient information section
- Click the pencil icon next to "Current Location"
- In the dialog box that appears, enter the new location in the New location field (up to 500 characters)
- Click Save
The location updates immediately and appears in the patient's audit log, showing who made the change and when.
Tips
- Use concise location names: Short, clear location names work best in lists and mobile views (e.g., "AMU" rather than "Acute Medical Unit, Level 2, West Wing")
- Establish naming conventions: Agree on standard location names across your organisation to ensure consistency
- Location is optional: You can leave the location field blank if the patient's whereabouts are unknown or not applicable
- Track patient movements: Use the patient's Log tab to see a complete history of location changes
- RFID integration: CAREFUL's API supports automated location updates using RFID transmitters or other tracking systems. Contact your system administrator for details.