> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Record triage and route a patient

> Take a patient's vital signs at triage and send them to the right department's consultation queue.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Enterprise" roles="Doctors, nurses and the owner can record; everyone else can view" note="No care area needed — Triage is always in the Enterprise sidebar" />

Triage is where a patient's vital signs are recorded and where they are routed to the department that will see them. Saving a triage record is what puts a patient into a consultation queue, so nothing downstream happens until this is done.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Outpatient', 'Triage', 'Triage List']} />

<TaskHeader before="A registered patient who has paid for a consultation, unless your hospital runs in Free Clinic Mode" time="2 minutes" after="A triage record with vitals, and the patient waiting in the chosen department's consultation queue" />

## Before you start

**Triage** has no care-area switch. It is always in the sidebar on the Enterprise plan, because every hospital sees patients.

The patient must exist, and — unless Free Clinic Mode is on — must have paid for a consultation. Your departments and sub-units must also be set up, or there is nowhere to route anyone; see [Departments](/hospital/get-started/departments).

## What you're looking at

**Triage List** opens on a greeting and the line "Here's a list of all the patients for today!". The toolbar carries a search box — **Search for patient** — plus **New Patient**, **New Triage**, **Refresh** and **View Columns**.

The list is a rolling **48-hour window**, newest first. Anything older lives on [Triage history](/hospital/outpatient/triage-history), which is the whole reason that page exists. When the window is empty you get "No recent triage data available for this clinic."

| Column             | Shows                                                                      |
| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Patient ID**     | The hospital number, with a badge reading **New Patient** or **Follow up** |
| **Patient Name**   | Who was triaged                                                            |
| **Status**         | **In Progress** in red, otherwise the recorded status                      |
| **Blood Pressure** | The reading in mmHg, red above 140 systolic                                |
| **Pulse Rate**     | Beats per minute, red above 100                                            |

Select a row, or its **⋯** menu, for **View Triage** and — for those who may record — **Update Triage**.

The form itself is headed **New Triage**, **Update Triage** or **View Triage**, subtitled "Patient vital signs assessment", and holds three cards: **Patient Information**, **Department Assignment** and **Vital Signs**.

<Note>
  **The patient picker only lists patients with a valid consultation payment.** This is the single most common reason a patient you can see at the front desk does not appear at triage. An empty picker reads **No patients with valid payments** — "This clinic requires consultation payment. Only patients who have paid for a consultation will appear here." and, in amber, "Please process payment at the payments desk first."

  Take the payment first — see [Payments](/hospital/revenue/payments) — and the patient appears. Hospitals with **Free Clinic Mode** switched on under [Billing settings](/hospital/settings/billing) have no such restriction; their picker simply says "Start typing to search patients...".
</Note>

## Record the triage

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open a new triage record">
    On **Triage List**, select **New Triage**. If the patient is not registered yet, select **New Patient** from the same toolbar first.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the patient">
    Search the picker in **Patient Information**. The panel then lists the patient's **Paid Departments:** with how long each payment has left — `2 days remaining`, `18h left`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Assign the department and sub-unit">
    In **Department Assignment**, tick the departments and, under **Sub-Units / Specialties**, the sub-units that should see this patient. The panel confirms what will happen: "Patient will appear in this department's consultation queue", or "multiple consultation queues" if you tick more than one. **Clear** resets both lists.

    A department the patient has not paid for is disabled and carries a **Not Paid** badge. If they have paid for exactly one, it is ticked for you.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Enter the vital signs">
    Fill in **Vital Signs**. Nothing is mandatory — record what you took. Each field shows its normal range underneath.

    | Field                             | Example                | Normal       |
    | --------------------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------ |
    | **Blood Pressure (mmHg)**         | `e.g. 120/80`          | 90-140/60-90 |
    | **Pulse Rate (bpm)**              | `e.g. 75`              | 60-100       |
    | **Temperature (°C)**              | `e.g. 37.0`            | 35-37.5      |
    | **Respiratory Rate (bpm)**        | `e.g. 16`              | 12-20        |
    | **Oxygen Saturation (%)**         | `e.g. 98`              | 95-100       |
    | **Weight (kg)** · **Height (cm)** | `e.g. 70` · `e.g. 170` | —            |
    | **Fasting Blood Sugar (mg/dL)**   | `e.g. 90`              | 70-100       |
    | **Random Blood Sugar (mg/dL)**    | `e.g. 140`             | 70-140       |

    **Body Mass Index (BMI)** appears on its own as soon as both weight and height are in, with an **Underweight**, **Normal**, **Overweight** or **Obese** badge beside it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    Select **Save Triage**, or press Ctrl+S (⌘+S on a Mac). You will see "Triage record created successfully". Escape closes the form without saving.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Abnormal readings

A value outside the normal range turns its field red and pins an **Abnormal** chip to the corner. This is a flag for the clinician, not a block — an abnormal reading never stops you saving, because the reading you took is the reading you record.

## Who can do this

| Action                                 | Who by default                                     | Governed by                                        |
| -------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| Open **Triage List** and view a record | Any clinical role the Outpatient group is shown to | Role Navigation                                    |
| Create a triage record                 | Doctors, nurses and the owner                      | Role — this is a fixed rule, not a permission slug |
| Update the vitals on a record          | Doctors, nurses and the owner                      | Role                                               |
| Change the department after saving     | Nobody                                             | Not possible — see the FAQ                         |
| Register a patient from the toolbar    | Roles with access to patient records               | Role Navigation on **Patients**                    |

Everyone else opens the form read-only, with no save button and no error to explain it — a blocked save answers "Only doctors and nurses can modify triage records". If **New Patient** is greyed out, the tooltip says "Your role does not have access to patient records. Ask your clinic administrator."

Two behaviours worth knowing. Permission enforcement across the product is **opt-in per person** — someone never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**. And hiding a module from a role in [Role Navigation](/hospital/settings/role-navigation) is a convenience, not a security boundary: a denied action is recorded in the audit log, an allowed one is not.

## Check it worked

* The new record is at the top of **Triage List** with today's time against it.
* Open [Consultation](/hospital/outpatient/consultation), choose that department, and the patient is in the queue.
* The **Patient ID** badge reads **Follow up** rather than **New Patient** the next time they are triaged.

<AuditNote action="Opening or saving a triage record" />

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The patient is not in the picker">
    Almost always the consultation payment. If the empty state mentions valid payments, the patient must pay at the payments desk first. If they are genuinely new, register them with **New Patient**.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The fields are read-only and there is no save button">
    Only doctors, nurses and the owner may record triage. Everyone else gets the read-only view. Ask an owner or manager to check your role — see [Roles](/platform/team/roles).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A department is greyed out with a 'Not Paid' badge">
    The patient has paid for a consultation in a different department. Either route them where they paid, or take the extra payment at the desk and reopen the form.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="An older record has disappeared from the list">
    The list is a rolling 48-hour window. Everything older is on [Triage history](/hospital/outpatient/triage-history).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I sent the patient to the wrong department">
    Departments cannot be changed after saving — the form says "Departments cannot be changed after creation", because a queue entry has already been created elsewhere. Record a new triage for the correct department, and ask that department to close the wrong entry.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="My save failed and the form emptied">
    Triage has no offline capture. If the connection dropped you will have seen "You're offline" and the save fails with "Failed to save triage record". Reconnect and re-enter the vitals — nothing was kept.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Can one patient go to more than one department?">
    Yes. Tick several departments or sub-units and the patient joins each of their consultation queues. The panel changes to read "multiple consultation queues" so you know what you are about to do.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is the BMI stored on the record?">
    No. It is worked out on screen from the weight and height you enter, so it is always consistent with them. The two measurements are what is kept.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does an abnormal reading alert anybody?">
    No. It colours the field and shows an **Abnormal** chip for the person in front of the screen. Escalation is a clinical decision, not an automatic one.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What does 'Free Clinic Mode' change?">
    It removes the payment requirement from the picker, so every registered patient can be triaged. It is under [Billing settings](/hospital/settings/billing) — "Enable this if your clinic provides free services. All charges will be disabled."
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I update the vitals later?">
    Yes — open the record and select **Update Triage**. Only the nine vital signs are editable; the routing is fixed at creation.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="triage" />