There are two different types of templates available in SmartFlow: Fixed Time and Non-Fixed Time. To get the best experience, please review the differences between them, and then set up required type in the General Settings of your SmartFlow web account.


Fixed Time Templates  

Allow you to have all treatments set at certain times of day on a patient's flowsheet:  


Such a template will always begin at the same time and thus the highlighting will be fixed regardless of the patients arrival time. So, if your clinic always does some certain procedures at the same time, like walking, measuring temperature or giving particular drugs, the best option for you is to create special templates in a Fixed time mode, so that all these parameters are highlighted at those times of day when they are carried out.       


Generally, Fixed time templates are ideal for general practice clinics (GP) or small clinics with regular work hours where they have more routine tasks and do not have patients who stay overnight or do not accept patients 24 hours.


NOTE: If your practice prefers to use Non-fixed time templates as the default template type, you are still able to take advantage of using Fixed time templates within the Boarding whiteboard. 


Non-Fixed Time Templates 

Still save the highlighting frequency (e.g measuring temperature every 4 hours), however, the start time can be selected for each particular patient separately. When a Non-fixed time template is first selected for a patient, it is possible to set the Treatments begin at time so that all the treatments can be aligned with the patient arrival time (e.g. 10 am as in example below):


Non-fixed time templates are better for large clinics that have emergencies or patients that cycle in and out of their hospital throughout 24 hours since treatments can be spaced out appropriately for that patient, specific to their admitting and condition.


NOTE: The fixed / non-fixed time options apply to the entire template, but not to a particular parameter, so each Non-fixed time template contains parameters that are not fixed in time.


These are some differences that may affect your workflow:

Feature / Function
Fixed Mode
Non-Fixed Mode
Add 24 Hours as Copy - makes a "photocopy" of the current treatment template
Yes,
treatment template will look the same
No,
the treatments may be shifted considering the active day
Add 24 Hours as Copy - respects parameter frequency from the active dayNo,
all treatments will be started again; frequency is completely ignored for saving/loading
Yes,
the frequency will be preserved
Add 24 Hours as Template saves "Start Time"
Yes  No,
it is possible to change beginning time for the template
Create Patient with 2+ flowsheets - parameters with the Once highlighting will be highlighted only for the first day
No,
the highlighting will appear for all days
Yes
Get treatments on a template at non-regular times of day (e.g.: 8a, 12p, 5p, etc.)
Yes  
No,
non-fixed highlighting is set entirely based on the frequency of the parameter


You may switch between Fixed and Non-Fixed time templates from your SmartFlow web account and set up a particular type as a default for your practice. For this, please go to the Settings from your manager's web account, choose General and toggle Fixed time templates to either YES or NO: 


We understand that sometimes it is extremely important to keep routine just for the boarders and have them on a regular schedule. So, if you are a large practice that has a boarding facility, you can have a whiteboard called Boarding which is always in a Fixed time mode and thus will remain fixed at all times regardless of the settings panel (find more details on how to use it HERE). 


Fixed and Non-fixed time templates are stored separately, so you will be able to access them only from the corresponding whiteboard. However, it is possible to convert templates from Fixed to Non-fixed and visa versa, please find the details HERE & HERE.


We hope you found this information useful!