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Pausing Monitoring

A pause temporarily suppresses observation, geofence, and 1:1 alerts for a single patient while they're under direct supervision — for example, when a nurse takes a patient on an escorted walk, when the patient is transported off-unit for a procedure, or during any other documented period where the unit's normal monitoring cadence doesn't apply.

Pauses are time-bounded and recorded in the audit log. Safety events — critical vitals, low battery — still fire during a pause.

When to Use a Pause​

Use a pause whenever the patient is under direct supervision and the normal monitoring schedule shouldn't generate alerts. Common reasons:

  • Escort — a staff member is supervising the patient off the unit (courtyard, dining hall, group room in another building)
  • Off-unit transport — patient is at imaging, ED, medical floor, or another department
  • Court appearance, attorney visit, family meeting — patient temporarily off-unit
  • Procedure at bedside — a provider is with the patient and the nursing observation cadence should pause

For escort specifically, check the Escort box when starting the pause so the banner clearly identifies what's happening. For all other reasons, leave the checkbox unchecked and use the Notes field to record context — the audit log preserves the note.

Starting a Pause​

  1. Open the patient's detail screen.
  2. Tap the ⋮ overflow menu in the header (top right of the patient card).
  3. Tap Pause monitoring.
  4. In the dialog:
    • Pick a Duration (15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours).
    • Check Escort if a staff member is escorting the patient.
    • Optionally add Notes describing the reason.
  5. Tap Start pause.

While a Pause Is Active​

The patient's Observe tab shows a pause banner at the top with:

  • The pause state — "Observations paused" (no reason) or "Escort active, observations paused"
  • Remaining time, e.g. "30 minutes remaining"
  • A +15m button to extend the pause
  • An End button to end the pause immediately

The patient sidebar and dashboard show a short badge — "Paused 23m" or "Escort 23m" — instead of the usual observation-due countdown.

Ending a Pause​

A pause ends one of two ways:

Manually, by tapping End in the banner.

Automatically, if the duration elapses without anyone tapping End. The system records the end and fires a critical pause_expired alert assigned to the staff member who started the pause. Acknowledge the alert in the usual way; if the patient is still off-unit, you may pause again.

Audit Trail​

Every state transition is recorded in the audit log. Surveyors and administrators can search the audit log by category Patient Pause.

Limits​

  • Maximum duration per pause: 4 hours. To pause for longer, end the current pause and start a new one when needed — or extend the active pause before it expires.
  • One active pause per patient.
  • Only the patient's facility staff can start, extend, or end a pause for that patient.