> ## 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.

# Care areas (hospitals)

> State which departments your hospital actually runs, and remove the navigation, settings and reports for the ones it does not.

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="Owner, Manager" />

A care area is a statement about your building: **which departments this hospital runs**. The screen says so itself — "These control what appears in navigation." A hospital with no operating theatre should not have a Theatre group in its sidebar, a Theatre tab in its settings, or a Theatre report nobody will ever open.

<Path steps={['Settings', 'Facility']} />

<TaskHeader before="Enterprise plan, and owner or manager access" time="2 minutes" after="Navigation, settings and reports that match the departments you actually run" />

## Switch an area on or off

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Facility">
    The **Facility** card lists your areas under two headings: **Clinical units** and **Operational units**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Toggle the area">
    Turning one on gives **Area enabled** — "It now appears in navigation." Turning one off gives **Area hidden** — "It no longer appears in navigation. Existing records stay accessible by direct link."
  </Step>

  <Step title="Tell your staff">
    The change applies to everyone in the workspace, not just you. Somebody who had a page bookmarked will find it gone from their sidebar.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## The areas, and their defaults

| Area                  | Covers                                                      | Default |
| --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------- |
| **In-patient care**   | Ward admissions, discharges and bed management              | On      |
| **In-house pharmacy** | Dispensing, prescriptions and the pharmacy station          | On      |
| **Surgical theatre**  | Theatre scheduling and perioperative records                | **Off** |
| **Diagnostics**       | Laboratory and radiology ordering, stations and reports     | On      |
| **Front desk**        | Check-in board, appointments, registration and contacts     | On      |
| **Records**           | The records officer's queues, documents and patient records | On      |
| **Insurance**         | Claims, pre-authorisation and the insurance dashboard       | On      |
| **Inventory**         | Stock, purchase orders and consumables                      | On      |

Theatre is the only one that starts off, because most sites that sign up do not operate. If you have a theatre, switch it on before you try to book a case.

## Turning one off removes three things at once

This is the part worth knowing before you flip a switch. A care area is not just a menu — it is the department, and the department's navigation group, settings tab and analytics report go together.

A hospital that switches off **Surgical theatre** loses the Theatre group from the sidebar, the Theatre tab from Settings, **and** the Theatre report from analytics. All three, at once, for everyone.

| Switch off            | And these disappear                                                                   |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **In-patient care**   | Ward Admissions, Ward Discharges, Nursing Station — and the Nursing and Wards reports |
| **Surgical theatre**  | The whole Theatre group, the Theatre settings tab, and the Theatre report             |
| **In-house pharmacy** | The Pharmacy group and the Pharmacy report                                            |
| **Front desk**        | Front Desk, Appointments, Patients and Contacts                                       |
| **Records**           | Records, Documents and Patient Records                                                |
| **Diagnostics**       | Laboratory and Radiology                                                              |
| **Insurance**         | Insurance Dashboard, Pre-Authorization and Claims                                     |
| **Inventory**         | Inventory — but **not** the Store                                                     |

<Note>
  **Inventory and the Store are different surfaces.** The **Inventory** area covers stock, purchase orders and consumables; the Store is a revenue surface with its own gating and stays where it is. The screen makes the same point: "Stock, purchase orders and consumables. The Store is separate."
</Note>

## What is always there

Some parts of the hospital have no care-area switch, because every hospital on the enterprise plan runs them: **triage**, **consultation**, **clinical notes** and **telehealth**. If one of those is missing for a person, it is their role or their permissions, not a care area — work down [Who can see and do what](/start/roles-and-access).

**Settings** and the audit log also stay reachable whatever you switch off.

## Nothing is deleted

<Warning>
  Switching an area off **hides it from everyone in this hospital immediately** — including staff who are mid-shift in that department. It does not delete anything: "existing records stay reachable by direct link", and switching the area back on restores its navigation, settings and reports exactly as they were. Do not use this to end a shift, and do not switch off In-patient care while there are patients on a ward.
</Warning>

## Check it worked

* The sidebar no longer lists the group you switched off — refresh if it is still there.
* The matching tab has gone from **Settings**.
* The matching report has gone from your analytics. See [Analytics](/practice/insights/analytics).
* An area you switched **on** appears for your staff too, not only for you.

## If something goes wrong

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="I cannot find Facility in Settings">
    Care areas are on the enterprise plan of the Clinic & Hospital edition only. A solo or team plan has a single flat navigation with no departments to switch. See [Plans and what they include](/platform/plans/overview).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I switched an area on and my staff still cannot see it">
    Care areas are one gate of several. Check their role can open the pages ([Roles](/platform/team/roles)), and that role-based navigation is not excluding the section for them.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A group is missing and Facility says the area is on">
    Then it is the plan, the role or role-based navigation rather than the care area. Compare against an owner's sidebar — an owner is never restricted by role navigation, so if the owner sees it, the difference is per-role.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I turned off Front desk and lost my patient list">
    **Front desk** carries registration and contacts as well as the check-in board. Switch it back on; nothing was lost.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Theatre acts are missing from someone's permissions">
    The Theatre permission group only appears while the **Surgical theatre** area is on. Switch it on, then set the permissions — see [Permissions](/platform/team/permissions).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

<Columns cols={2}>
  <Card title="Set up your hospital" icon="https://mintcdn.com/clinikehr/gjlpJWWKqjyYNRzM/images/icons/hospital-user.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=gjlpJWWKqjyYNRzM&q=85&s=f1ac7389bcc32fb7a9b37a7675cf1a99" href="/clinic/get-started/hospital-setup" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/hospital-user.svg">
    The wider enterprise setup, of which care areas are one step.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Roles" icon="https://mintcdn.com/clinikehr/gjlpJWWKqjyYNRzM/images/icons/id-badge.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=gjlpJWWKqjyYNRzM&q=85&s=2dc1805faf2b5a2b2b82afe565af5247" href="/platform/team/roles" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/id-badge.svg">
    Role-based navigation, the other control over what appears in the sidebar.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Permissions" icon="https://mintcdn.com/clinikehr/nLyvBRumcl1Yk8z3/images/icons/sliders.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=nLyvBRumcl1Yk8z3&q=85&s=beb6145918f561fc91f4eaa0aa591390" href="/platform/team/permissions" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/sliders.svg">
    What people may do inside the departments you run.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Settings" icon="https://mintcdn.com/clinikehr/gjlpJWWKqjyYNRzM/images/icons/gear.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=gjlpJWWKqjyYNRzM&q=85&s=81abd40f3fe37a310a36d69a9406a93a" href="/platform/settings/overview" width="24" height="24" data-path="images/icons/gear.svg">
    Everything else on the settings rail.
  </Card>
</Columns>

<StillStuck topic="a department that will not appear" />