Using the Light Bar

The light bar offers a real-time view of workflow performance outside the treatment card and the patient information window. If your office uses the charting module along with patient flow, a light bar is displayed to the right of the patient flow grid by default. You can configure the light bar to display in stand-alone mode, which enables you to detach the light bar and dock it on any side of the screen.

As of version 14, stand-alone mode is the default setting for the light bar.

Starting patient flow launches the light bar. In stand-alone mode, the light bar is displayed as a floating panel that can be resized and moved to any side of the workstation screen to fit your workflow needs.

To change the size and placement of the light bar, place your mouse on any edge of the light bar until the cursor changes to a double arrow. Click and drag the edge of the light bar to adjust the size. Repeat this action on all sides of the light bar as needed. The columns and rows adjust automatically to maintain optimal legibility. The light bar retains its last docked position the next time it is launched. For more information, see Light Bar Options.

Each block on the light bar represents a treatment chair. The name of the patient assigned to each chair, the appointment type, and the patient’s early or late status are displayed in each block.

Each chair on the light bar includes a dynamic clock icon, which tracks the amount of remaining chair time for an appointment.

Blue indicates the amount of appointment time already spent.
Green indicates time remaining to spend with the appointment.
Red indicates time in the chair beyond the scheduled appointment time.

The light bar chairs change colors depending on the action taken for each chair. Chairs are white when vacant and change to light blue when occupied.

Chairside assistants can call the doctors or move patients to different patient flow locations. The chair headings displayed in the light bar are color coded to match the colors assigned to your doctors. To assign colors, such as blue, green, pink, purple, or yellow, see Light Bar Options.

Each chair also displays a numerical identifier indicating the order of chairs the doctor should visit.

Doctors can see where they are needed next, who may be an emergency, and how long each patient has been waiting for a particular doctor. Time counters indicate if a patient is early (E 0:38) or late (L 0:25).

For more information, see Staff - Text-Based Display. The Staff - Photographic check-in window is similar.

You can access the light bar from the patient flow, charting, and point-of-care modules through the main patient flow window. Stand-alone mode is not available through the point-of-care module.