Doctor assignments, room status, and doctor location
With the Patient Is In iPad app you can notify the doctor that a patient is ready to be treated. Also, the Patient is in iPad app allows the charge nurse to quickly view:
- Doctor availability
- Visualize the status of each doctor assignment
- Visualize the status of rooms
- Location of off-site doctors with live map
- Location of on-site doctors using iBeacon technology
- Start an audio or video FaceTime call with the doctor (without knowing the doctor’s FaceTime information)
- Receive an audio or video FaceTime call from the doctor (without the doctor knowing your FaceTime information)
- Schedule a Skype for Business conference call
Sending an assignment to the doctor
You send a notification to the doctor’s iPhone or Apple Watch containing
- The name of the room in which the patient is waiting
- Important notes about the patient such as if he has elevated vital signs
and the Patient Is In watch app will alert the doctor with
- A discrete vibration felt on the doctor’s wrist
- An optional, audible sound
If the doctor is wearing AirPods or other Bluetooth earphones connected to her iPhone, then she will hear a wireless announcement similar to “The charge nurse says that you have an assignment in Exam Room 2 with the note: elevated vitals, bleeding gums, teenage patient”.
In this video, we see how the charge nurse is able to quickly send a patient assignment to the doctor, visualizing doctor availability and see which doctor is onsite and connected to the real time peer-to-peer network or through iCloud, if the doctor is receiving patient assignments on her Apple Watch or iPhone, if the doctor is available for a FaceTime conference call, the status of assignments (accepted with an estimated time of arrival, decline, or completed), and the status of each room.
If the doctor is using her Apple Watch, then she will receive a patient assignment notification in the form of a popup notification accompanied by a discrete vibration felt on her wrist and an optional, audible sound. The doctor can then respond to the assignment as seen in the following video and screen shots:
Making FaceTime calls from the app
If the doctor needs clarification about an assignment from the charge nurse, she can instantly start a FaceTime audio call directly from the watch app as seen in the following screen shot:
And, if the doctor needs to coordinate with another doctor or nurse, she can quickly start a FaceTime audio call from the watch app as seen in the following screen shot:
Quick response directly from a notification
If the doctor is only using an iPhone, then she will receive a notification about the new assignment as seen in the following screen shots:
Making a Skype for Business conference call
If the doctor is sent a request to join a Skype for Business conference call, then a custom notification is displayed allowing the doctor to seamlessly join as seen in the following screen shot:
Likewise the doctor may start the Skype for Business call directly from the main iOS app as seen in the following video:
Locating an onsite doctor with iBeacon technology
In large hospitals, it is sometimes critical to locate a doctor who may be busy attending to another patient. The Patient is in app allows you to locate an onsite doctor. First tap the icon representing the doctor and then tap the magnifying glass icon as seen in the following video:
You will then be presented with a map view displaying the general location of the doctor as seen here:
The Patient is in app implements Apple’s iBeacon technology to automatically register each time a doctor’s iPhone passes near a charge nurse’s iPad running the app. In the above screen shot, a map pin shows that at 9:21 PM, the doctor was “Near Nurse Station 6”. And likewise, a few minutes after the doctor leaves the area of the iPad named “Nurse Station 6”, the map pin will be updated to show that the doctor has “Left Nurse Station 6”.
iBeacon uses Bluetooth, so for this feature to work both the iPad and the iPhone must enable Bluetooth.
If you are a fan of TV science fiction and specifically Star Trek, you may recognize this feature as a real world example of the Enterprise computer knowing the location of a crew member by passively tracking the location of the communicator badge as seen in following snippet from the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
iBeacon technology and your privacy
It is important to note that the Patient is in iPhone app is only able to report on the last time the iPhone was in the Bluetooth proximity of a charge nurse’s iPad which was at the time both running the app and had Bluetooth enabled. The Patient is in iPhone app is unable to determine its proximity to other iPhones.
Locating an offsite doctor
If the doctor allows, the charge nurse may see the doctor’s offsite location on a live map. This map will also display current traffic conditions and is similar to apps such as Uber, Lyft, and Glympse. This feature helps the charge nurse estimate the doctor’s time of arrival for emergency surgery and other time sensitive activities.
Offsite location data and your privacy
It is important to note that only the doctor can decide if her offsite location should be disclosed to the charge nurse. The doctor can at anytime enable or disable the setting “Update charge nurse” in the section “OFFSITE AND ONSITE LOCATION UPDATES” as seen in the following screen shot:
If this setting is enabled and due to the imprecise nature of mobile location technologies, the app may update the charge nurse with the doctor’s location up to 1 mile or more from the location of the charge nurse’s iPad. Consequently, if the doctor is using her personal iPhone and not a hospital issued device, the doctor may choose to manually disable this feature when leaving work.
This setting is disabled by default.
