Visits and observations

A household visit links a patient household, an assigned worker and a visit type. The Clinical Coordinator records the schedule and follows its state from scheduled through arrival, work in progress, review and completion. Actual start and end dates stay on the visit, giving the team a record of when care occurred as well as when it was planned.

The Licensed Clinician records observations against the visit. Each observation has a metric, numeric value, unit, observation date and recorded-by person. The visit reference makes the reading usable during review: the reviewer can see which encounter produced it and who entered it. The Business Overview page surfaces encounter intake and current operational state for the wider team.

• Visit ownership. The assigned worker and household stay on each visit, even when the household’s general assignment changes later.
• Encounter timing. Scheduled, started and ended dates distinguish planning from the actual care period.
• Measured evidence. Observations carry the metric, value, unit and attribution to the person who recorded them.

A visit can be cancelled, so teams should settle how they record a changed appointment and who contacts the household. When a visit proceeds, the coordinator and clinician should agree when to mark arrival and when the clinician begins work. Review belongs after the clinical entry is ready, rather than treating arrival as evidence of completed care.

Define the visit types your program uses and the point at which each status is recorded. Agree which observations are expected for each type of visit and the units staff should use. Name who checks a missing actual end date before the visit is completed. For work done offline or on paper, agree who transcribes the readings and how they retain the real recorded-by person.

Pilot with a visit for a known household. Check that the worker can locate it in My visits and the coordinator can locate it in Scheduled visits. Enter an observation and verify its linked visit and attribution before sending the encounter for review.

A coordinator schedules a visit for a household assigned to a clinician. On arrival, the visit is marked Arrived. When care begins it moves to in progress, and the clinician enters a measured observation with its unit and date. The clinician also records a note in the documentation module. The visit then waits at awaiting review while a Clinical Reviewer examines the evidence. After the reviewer has examined the evidence, the coordinator records completion and checks that the ended date reflects the actual encounter.

• Scheduled visits — See upcoming work with household, worker, visit type and planned date.
• My visits — Find visits assigned to the signed-in worker.
• Encounter review inbox — Surface visits waiting for clinical review.

Follow household visit to review and specimen handling.