Entering Data for Multiple Patients
If you have taken vitals for a group of patients in one ward or unit, this procedure will help you enter the vitals for all the patients in one session. The location and date/time settings remain the same throughout the session, so you can quickly enter the same vitals information for each patient in the list. If your workstation is running CCOW, you will need to break the clinical link before following this procedure.
If you need to enter many different dates and times for each patient, it may be easier to enter one patient at a time.
When more than one patient has been selected in the main Vitals window, a Patient List box is displayed in the top left pane of the Enter Vitals window. A bold black arrow indicates which patient is active – as soon as you have finished entering vitals for the active patient, you can click a different patient name to quickly switch between patients.
To enter vitals for multiple patients:
  1. In the main Vitals window, select two or more patients, then click the Input Vitals for the Selected Patients button below the patient list. The Hospital Location Selector opens. Note: if the patients are already associated with a hospital location, you will skip to step 3.
  2. Click one of the following three tabs to select a location:
The Appointments tab lists all appointments for this patient for the last year. Click an appointment to select that clinic location.
The Admissions tab lists all existing admissions for this patient. Click an admission to select that hospital location.
The Name tab allows you to search for all available hospital locations. Enter the first few letters of the location name to open a list of locations, then click one to select it.
The Enter Vitals window opens, displaying all selected patients in the Patient List box. A black arrow appears next to the active patient’s name.
  1. The active patient’s Name, SSN, and DOB are displayed in the navigation bar, along with the selected Hospital Location and current Date/Time. To use a different location, date/time, or template for this set of vitals:
Click the Read Monitor button to retrieve vital sign readings from a vital sign monitor (VSM) connected to the workstation.
Click the Date/Time button to select a different date or different time.
Click the Hospital Location button to select a different location.
Click the Exp. View button to display or hide the Templates panel. To select a template, click any template name in the list. If no template has been selected, the default System template will be used.
You can also display or hide the latest vitals on file for the selected patient by clicking the Latest V. button. The vitals data will be shown at the bottom of the Enter Vitals window.
  1. Type a value for each vital sign or measurement, then press Enter to move to the next field. If you would like to select a different qualifier for a vital sign, click the down-arrow button to display a list of its qualifiers.
  2. To enter a non-numeric value for a particular vital sign or measurement, use one of these options.
  3. Click Save. A check mark appears next to the patient’s name in the Patient List, indicating that you are finished with that patient. (If you do not want to save the vitals you entered for the active patient, click Cancel.)
  4. Click the next name in the Patient List. A black arrow appears next to the patient’s name, indicating that this is now the active patient.
  5. Repeat steps 3-6 until all patients have been processed. After all patient data has been saved, the Enter Vitals window closes.