Overview
In CAREFUL, the Location field in a patient's profile records their current physical location within your healthcare facility. This helps your team quickly find patients as they move throughout their care journey.
What Location Represents
Location is designed to track a patient's physical position in space - where they are right now in the building. For example:
- "Radiology Department" - when a patient goes for imaging
- "Ward 3 Bay 2" - when assigned to a specific bay
- "Operating Theatre 4" - during surgical procedures
- "CT Scanner" - during diagnostic procedures
As patients move through your facility, their location can be updated to reflect their current whereabouts. This creates a real-time tracking system that helps staff locate patients quickly.
Location vs. Bed Assignment
While it's possible to use the Location field for bed numbers, we recommend using organizational fields instead for tracking bed or resource assignments.
Why? Location is best used for tracking physical movement through spaces, while bed assignment is more of a static resource allocation. Using organizational fields for bed assignment allows you to:
- Track bed occupancy separately from patient movement
- Maintain bed assignment even when patients temporarily leave the area
- Generate better reports on resource utilization
Your administrator can configure organizational fields specifically for bed tracking.
Automation with RFID
For facilities with RFID infrastructure, CAREFUL's API supports automated location updates. When a patient passes an RFID checkpoint, their location can be updated automatically without staff intervention. This creates a seamless tracking system throughout the patient journey.
How to Update Location
To learn how to manually update a patient's location, see:
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