About patient classes

Every patient in Nervecentre is in a patient class. A patient can only be in one patient class at a time. A patient’s location determines their patient class. When you move a patient between locations, Nervecentre automatically updates their patient class.

The table below lists all patient classes.

Patient class name

Description

Accident and Emergency

The patient is admitted to ED.

Inpatient (Emergency)

The patient is admitted to hospital as an unplanned admission, for example, after attending ED.

Assessment

The patient is admitted to an area for initial assessment or planned review, but not admitted overnight.

For example, a same day emergency care patient (SDEC) is admitted to an area to be assessed. This patient has the patient class 'Assessment'.

Inpatient

The patient is admitted as part of a planned admission, for example, for a surgical procedure.

Mortuary

The patient is deceased and has been admitted to the mortuary. Clinicians in the mortuary can view the patient’s record.

Read more about the mortuary

Outpatient

 The patient is in an outpatient clinic.

Virtual Ward

The patient is sent home and admitted into a virtual ward. The patient is not physically in the hospital but clinicians in the hospital can observe the patient in the virtual ward.

Read more about virtual wards

Ward Attender

The patient is admitted as a ward attender. The patient is staying in an inpatient ward during the day. The patient is not staying overnight.

Patient class affects what you can do and see when viewing a patient's record in Nervecentre. What you see depends on your organisation.

Listed below are things that patient class can affect.

  • You might do some activities in Nervecentre and other activities in a external system depending on the patient class

    For example, you might edit an inpatient's demographics in Nervecentre. You might edit an outpatient's demographics in an external PAS. The PAS sends a message to Nervecentre and Nervecentre shows you this information.

  • When a patient moves to a different patient class, clinical notes and EWS might transfer.

    For example, you admit a patient from ED as an inpatient. If the ED visit and inpatient visit happen within 24 hours of each other, the patient’s clinical notes and EWS are transferred to the inpatient visit.

  • When you view a patient’s record on a mobile, if the patient is in a certain patient class, you might have the transfer option called 'Simple Discharge'.

    For example, ward attenders might not need a discharge process, so your organisation might give you the option ‘Simple Discharge’.

  • When you view a patient’s record on a mobile, if the patient is in a certain patient class, an alert might appear if the patient has been in that patient class for a specific length of time.

    For example, if a patient is in the patient class ‘Ward Attender’, your organisation might want an alert to appear if the patient has been a ward attender for 24 hours.

  • Patient cohorts can include a patient class. Patient cohorts can affect the options you have available when viewing a patient’s record.

    For example, you might have a patient cohort 'Adult ED' for patients over 18 with the patient class 'Accident and Emergency'. Nervecentre might add a Manchester Triage assessment to patients in this patient cohort.

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