Carers can record observations using the Carer Companion App. This article will describe how to view & understand observations once they’ve been submitted.

Observations are not mandatory and are completely optional. We will be adding the facility to require certain observation categories for clients in the coming weeks.

We’ll refer to the different types of information recorded with an observation as properties. The properties listed below can be recorded for every category.

Similar to Task Completion Statuses, an Observation Status allows you to specify whether the observation was completed normally, it was refused, or there was another reason that prevented it from being recorded.

This is the time that the observation was recorded. By default this will be set to the current time, but it can be adjusted in the event that records are being completed after a delay.

The timestamp must be between the start & finish time of the visit

Carers have the opportunity to leave additional comments that give more context about the observation. There’s no restriction on how much text can be entered.

Some statuses may require that a comment is left, for example when a status is Refused you would be expected to write the reason it was rejected.

An observation category refers to the type of observation being recorded. It could be anything from fluid intake to injuries.

There are 6 categories available to start with, but we’re planning to add many more in the coming weeks. Currently the following are available:

Each category-specific piece of information that is recorded for an observation is referred to as a data point. For example: quantity/volume for fluid observations; diastolic/systolic readings for blood pressure; urine colour & volume for catheter observations.

The name of the fluid (e.g., water or orange juice) can be recorded, as well as the volume consumed in millilitres.

Presets are provided for Cup (250ml) and Pint (568ml)

The only required property of a meal observation is the name of the meal that was had. This can be as detailed as you want. E.g., “Breakfast” or “Eggs Florentine w/ a side of asparagus”.

If you wish, carers can also record individual meal components, along with their nutritional values. To make this easier, we’ve integrated the Open Food Facts database so that carers can simply scan the barcode of the item to pull in the nutritional information for the serving size.

Readings can be submitted in either mmol/L or mg/dL.

Carers can optionally record Food Intake, which is an indication as to when the reading was taken in relation to a meal.

Systolic and diastolic numbers are required for a Blood Pressure observation. The app will reject any readings where diastolic is less than the systolic.

Output colour and volume are recorded for catheter observations.

Urine colour is specific using a rating of levels 1 to 8, where Level 1 is the most translucent.

Add urine colour chart graphic @Declan Norton

Specified in millilitres.

Facilitates regular observations of a pre-recorded injury. Carers can log the current state and progression.

Injuries must be recorded against a client’s record first, carers cannot submit new injuries through the app.

Read more about logging injuries within a client’s record

The current state of the injury; is it still looking bad? Dropdown list of Red/Amber/Green

How the carer thinks the injury is progressing. Is it looking better, or getting worse? Dropdown list of Red/Amber/Green

You can observe and track the type and size of a client's bowel movements within a visit. You are able to log whether a pad has been changed as well.

Use the Bristol stool chart to measure the shape and consistency of a client's bowel movements.

Log the size of the bowel movement.

A history of a client’s observations can be found in the Observations tab of their record. This is presented as a table, showing a summarised overview of a category’s observation on a day-by-day basis.

Each observation category is listed down the left-hand side, along with each data point that is relevant to the category. For example, Blood Pressure and Blood Glucose have a single data point and therefore one row beneath the heading; however Apnea Monitor observations can contain Alarm events, Hypopnea Index, and Oxygen Desaturation Index.

Each data point summary is shown inside a coloured ‘bubble’. Summaries may be a simple average, the maximum value, or calculated using a different method entirely. The colour of the bubble represents the perceived severity of the readings.

The number of observations recorded for a given category on a given day are shown in a grey circle in the same row of the observation category name.

Only categories where an observation has been recorded for a client will be shown.

Certain observations allow trends to be calculated, so that you can get an at-a-glance indication of how a client’s readings are trending since the last reading was taken.

For example, this could help you identify a slow but steady increase in a client’s Blood Pressure; or a decrease in their fluid intake.

Not all observation categories support trend analysis, only ones where a sensible numerical value can be extracted.

Any time that a carer raises a concern against an observation, it will be highlighted on the Overviews tab as a red :gpp_maybe: icon. Clicking the shield will open a new page listing any concerns that have been raised.

Clicking a bubble will reveal more information about the readings for that given day; including who recorded the observations, how the summary was calculated, and the predicted severity level.

Click the heading for an observation category on the left-hand side of the table to load a list view showing all observations that have been recorded in that category for the client.