Family Room Overview

The Family Room tab is used to track the number of people who visit your family rooms and the services they use. When a new visitor comes in, you fill in a brief registration card and then check in the family. When a family leaves the room, you check them out.

Each registration card represents a family, identified by the name of the patient. Registration cards are maintained, so you don't need to fill in new cards for new or repeat visitors to the same patient..

There are two options for setting up the Family Room tab. Which you select depends on how you wish to count visitors to your family rooms.

Option 1 - When a  family group visits the room, you check them in and out as a group. If you wish, you can record the names of the individuals in the group, but you don't have to. You can simply indicate a count of how many are in the group. This is the simplest way to set up Family Room. When it counts the number of visits, it counts the entire family as one visit, even if some people in the group come and go.

Option 2 - When a family group visits the room, each person is checked in and out individually. They are all tied to the same registration card, but when visits are counted, each person counts as a separate visit. In this option you will need to add at least the first and last name of each visitor.

You select your preferred option on the Client Defaults tab of the Admin tab, described below.

If you have purchased the Family Room iPad App, you can have families check themselves in and out using an iPad.

Periodically you can run reports to show the utilization of each family room. You can track any number of family rooms.

Note that the Family Room tab is not intended for overnight stays. Use the Guest module for that purpose.

If you are not familiar with ExceedFurther, you should read the section on using lists for an explanation for how the lists of families and visits can be customized.

The Family Room tab includes the following sub tabs:

1. Registration Cards - where you view a list of registration cards, add new ones, and make changes to existing ones.
2. Room Visits - where you check families in and out.
3. Dashboard - where you view the current status of each room.
4. Reports - where you can run several reports showing utilization of rooms.
5. Quick Lists - where you can view lists of patients, visitors, addresses, phones and emails. You can export or print these lists.
6. Admin - where you set up your locations and rooms.

Getting Started with Family Rooms

To use the Family Room functions, you need to do the following:

1. Open the Family Room Admin tab.
2. Define your locations and Family Rooms by entering a code and description for each one.
3. Decide if you want to track how families heard about the Family Rooms. If so, you need to define a list of responses to the "Referred by" field. These are added on the Admin tab.
4. Define codes to track the relationship between the visitor and the patient.
5. Define up to 10 services that room visitors can use.
6. For reporting purposes, enter the shifts and volunteer data requested.
7. If you have a document listing policies for family room visitors, you can upload a copy to be displayed when a visitor registers. Use the "Add Policy Document" menu choice on the Admin tab.
8. Select which option, explained above, that you wish to use for checking families in and out. Set this option on the Client Defaults tab. For Option 1, do not check the box labeled "Separate Check In For Each Visitor". For Option 2, check the box.
9. Use the Family Room Setup Menu to customize the instructions you wish to appear on the iPad.
10. You can add up to 5 custom single selection fields and 5 custom multi selection fields to the registration card. These are drop down lists for the family to select from when they are filling out the registration card. You define these on the Family Room Admin tab.
11. Once you have defined your custom drop down lists, you can arrange and rename the fields for both the registration card and for the check-in form. Use the Customize Page Layout tab of the ExceedFurther Admin tab that you open from the Hello drop down menu.
    1. You are now ready to record information about each visitor.

Recording Family Room Visits

1. When a visitor family comes in, look up their patient name in the list on the Registration Card tab. If they are not there, add a new Registration Card.
2. If you wish to gather additional information about each visitor or you are using Option 2 to track each individual visitor, add visitors to the card.
3. Check the family in.
   1. If you are using Option 1, you can simply indicate the number of family members in the group. Of you are using Option 2, select each individual who is checking in.
   2. You can also use the Room Visits tab to add Registration Cards, add visitor names, and check families in.
      1. NOTE: steps 2-4 can be performed by the family visitors themselves by using the iPad App.
4. Use the Room Visits tab to view the families currently checked into the room.
5. If additional family members come, check in the new visitors.
   1. If you are using Option 1, edit the visit on the Room Visits tab to increase the number of visitors. You can easily do this by clinking on the Visitor Count link in the list of visitors currently in the room.
   2. If you are using Option 2, on the Room Visits tab, select one of the family members in the list and click on Add Visitors. You can select the names of the arriving visitors if they are on the list, or you can add new names.
6. If family members leave, but some continue to stay, if you are using Option 1, you should not reduce the number since you'll want to count everyone who was there at some point. The Visitor Count for a visit should represent the maximum number of visitors who came during that visit.
   1. If you are using Option 2, on the Room Visits tab select the person who is leaving and click on Check Out.
7. When the whole family leaves, check them out using the Room Visits tab.
   1. Visitors can also check themselves out using the iPad App.
8. Periodically run reports or use the Dashboard to see how the rooms are being used.
9.  If you wish to send everyone an email or letter, use the Quick Lists tab to d