Question: How can an admin user customize alerts on the NextGen® Emergency Department Status Board?
Answer: By adding color-coded alerts to your user’s status board, a system administrator will be able to customize the board. This allows users to more easily identify specific needs in patients and focus their care.
When an alert is selected for a patient in the Registrar module, a color-coded bar appears in the first column on the Status Board. If multiple alerts are selected, multiple color bars will appear in this column. After a color bar appears, a user can move the mouse over the color bar to see the alert in hover-over text. Although only registrars can select an alert, all users can view the alert on the Status Board.
To assign colors to alerts, follow the steps as outlined below:
- Log in to NextGen Emergency Department Solution. The user ID that you use must have access privileges to the ADMIN module.
- Select ADMIN from the Available Module list.
- Expand the Status Board Settings.
- Click Alerts. A list of existing alerts appears. By default, no colors will have been assigned to them.
- For each list value:
- Click on the list value.
- Click on the color you want to assign to the alert. You should avoid selecting colors that are close to other colors that have already been selected for other alerts or special needs.
- Click Update.
- After assigning colors to all of the alerts, exit the ADMIN module.
After selecting the List Value, a user is able to select the color they would like to appear for the alert.
Note: The alert called Patient Alert is only a placeholder. It does not appear on the status board, so there is no reason to assign a color to it.
After a color has been assigned to an alert, when a registrar selects that alert under a patient’s data, a color bar will appear on the status board for the patient. By hovering over the color bar, a textual representation of the alert is presented.
A blue alert bar is presented for this patient. By using the mouse to hover over the alert, a textual box is presented. In this example, the light blue alert informs the user this is a “VIP” patient.
Alerts that are selected by a registrar are part of a patient’s permanent record and will appear on the status board automatically upon subsequent encounters. Special Needs alerts, which are charted in the NURSE or MD module, are tied to a specific encounter. Special Needs alerts from a prior encounter appear on the status board only if the prior encounter has been imported through the patient’s chart in the NURSE or MD module and the facility settings are configured to import the special alerts with the history. (Admin > Facility Settings > History import)