Configuring Patient Assign Settings

Note: Your Staff Manager configuration may not include this optional application. To add this application to your configuration, contact your Clinical Consultant or Client Advocate.

Complete the following steps to configure Patient Assign settings:

1. From the Configure menu, select Patient Assign > Settings. This opens the Patient Assign Settings page.
2. Select a profile from the Profile menu.
3. Select a skill or skills from the Select all Global Skills that can be used to represent a Charge Nurse for this Profile box. To select multiple skills, CTRL+click them.
4. Select whether to Allow 2 or more employees with the same skill and role combination to be assigned to a patient at the same time.
   • Selecting the check box means two or more employees with the same skill and role can be assigned to the same patient as the primary caregiver at the same time. For example, an ICU profile might need to assign two RNs as primary caregivers to give direct care to the same patient at the same time.
   • Deselecting the check box means users can only assign one primary caregiver with a specific skill or role to a patient at a time. For example, a MedSurg profile might clear the check box because assigning two RNs as primary caregivers to the same patient at the same time is unusual for that profile and should trigger a warning. If there is an Other patient event recorded for a patient and the Caregiver/Patient Ratio defined for the event is 2:1 or 3:1, Assignment Manager allows two or more employees to be assigned to the patient regardless of whether you selected this check box.

5. Select a Display Priority In Note Column option.
   • Select Patient Note to see patient notes in the Patient Assignment page Note column.
   • Select Diagnosis to see the patient's diagnosis in the Note column. To see diagnoses, however, your organization must have a Registration Import configured to send diagnosis data to Assignment Manager. If you select the Diagnosis option and that data is unavailable, the Note column remains blank unless you also select Display other option if selection is unavailable, as described in step 6.
6. Select a Display other option if selection is unavailable option.
   • Selecting the check box means that if your Display Priority choice is unavailable, the page displays the other option instead. For example, if you selected Patient Notes, but the patient has no note, Assignment Manager displays the diagnosis instead.
   • Deselecting the check box means that if your selection is unavailable, the Note column remains blank.
7. Select a Role Menu Display Option.
   1. Select Show all skill and role combinations to display all roles defined for all skills in the Role list of the Caregiver table on the Assign Patient view of the Patient Assign page. This option allows any caregiver, regardless of their skill, to be assigned to any defined role and % skill hours.
   2. Select Show roles for the caregiver plus all required skill and role combinations to display all roles defined for the skill of the caregiver and any role marked as required on the Caregiver Role Assignment page.
      • When you select this option, you can then select the option Show all skill and role combinations when there are no Demand care hours. You should select this option to show all roles defined for all skills for any caregiver with a skill that is not configured for Demand. For example, if Demand hours are configured only for RNs and PCAs, but LPNs frequently float to the unit, selecting this option lets users to assign any defined role and % skill hours to the LPN.
8. Select a Shift Category from the menu. Assignment Manager uses your selected shift category partition set when making assignments for each profile. The Shift Category that displays on the patient assignment page is the shift category in effect on your selected date. This selection sets the shift category that is used in Patient Assign and Department Assign for the profile. The same shift category must be used in each feature; changes made here change the shift category configured for the profile in Department Assign. The application warns you of this when you select a Shift Category with the following alert message: This profile is configured for Patient Assign and Department Assign. This selection sets the shift category for both features; a change here affects both features. Changes to the selected shift category take effect on the first date in the future that has no saved assignments. For example, if you save assignments for tomorrow and then change the shift category, the shift category displays in the shift category list in Patient Assignments the day after tomorrow. In order to use the new shift category tomorrow, you should first remove tomorrow's assignments; the new shift category is then available in the list and can be used to make assignments.
9. Select the Display Alerts box if Assignment Manager should display alerts as described in Patient Assign Alert Messages. Deselect the box if Assignment Manager should not display patient assign alerts.
10. Select a Display Caregiver Availability as option. This setting affects the Caregiver table of the Assign Caregiver window, the Summary by Caregiver View, and the Summary by Caregiver Printable View.
    1. Percent Assigned: Shows the caregiver's availability calculated as Hours Assigned divided by Hours Available.
    2. Hours Unassigned: Shows the caregiver's availability calculated as Hours Available minus Hours Assigned.
11. Enter the number of Hours that are used in the past to determine continuity of care. The value must be a number from 0 to 168. This option is part of the Assign for Continuity feature in Patient Assign. If you enter 48, Assignment Manager assigns those caregivers, by role, who were assigned to the patient within the last 48 hours. If more than one caregiver in the same role was assigned to the patient within the time limit, Assignment Manager selects the caregiver who cared for the patient most recently. For example, assume RNs John and Jane are available. They both cared for the same patient in the role Direct Care during the last 48 hours, but John was assigned 24 hours ago, while Jane was assigned only 12 hours ago. Assignment Manager would then give the patient to Jane when assigning for continuity. In addition, if your facility is configured for iBus with Device Services, the assign for continuity also assigns caregivers based the primary and secondary alert positions.
12. Click Save.

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