📖 SmartCharge Guidebook

🚀 Quick Start (60 Seconds)

1. Settings Tab: Enter unit type, room range, # of nurses
2. Click "Build My Assignment Board" → All rooms appear in pool
3. Drag rooms to nurses OR click ✨ Optimize Remaining
4. Done! Fair assignments ready

⚙️ Tab 1: Settings

What It Does:

Sets up your floor configuration. This is where you tell SmartCharge about your unit.

Key Fields:

• Unit Type: Med-Surg, ICU, Oncology, etc. (determines acuity distribution)
• Room Range: Your unit's room numbers (e.g., 301-324)
• Occupied Beds: How many patients currently on unit
• Number of Nurses: How many nurses working this shift
• Expected Admissions: How many patients coming (creates admit slots)

Pro Tips:

• ✓ You can name nurses for easy identification
• ✓ Use "Clear Everything" to start completely fresh
• ✓ Settings save automatically - just refresh to continue

📋 Tab 2: Assignments

The Whiteboard:

Your visual assignment board. Rooms appear as colored pills based on acuity.

Acuity Colors:

How to Assign Rooms:

• Drag & Drop: Click a pill in "Unassigned Pool" and drag to a nurse row
• Auto-Assign: Click ✨ Optimize Remaining to let SmartCharge assign using the 5 rules
• Mix Both: Drag your "must-haves" (continuity of care), then optimize the rest

Actions:

• Left-click pill: Confirm or change acuity
• Right-click pill: Mark as open bed (patient discharged)
• Green "OPEN" pills: Click to restore when new patient arrives

Balance Score (Top Right):

Shows how fair your assignments are (0-100). Higher = more balanced workload across nurses.

• 90-100: ⭐ Perfect - Celebrate with confetti!
• 85-89: ✅ Excellent - Very fair
• 75-84: 👍 Good - Acceptable balance
• 60-74: ⚠️ Fair - Room for improvement
• <60: ❌ Unbalanced - Reassign to improve

⚖️ The 5 Universal Safety Rules

SmartCharge respects these rules when using ✨ Optimize Remaining:

1. 6-Patient Absolute Maximum: No nurse gets more than 6 patients (including admits)
2. 10-Room Maximum Spread: Nurse's rooms stay within 10-room range (e.g., 301-311 ✓, 301-315 ✗)
3. Tight Hallway Clustering: Patients assigned to same hallway first, adjacent only if needed
4. Admission Headroom: Reserves space for expected admits (won't assign 6 patients if 2 admits coming)
5. Workload Equity: Balances high/medium/low acuity across all nurses

💡 These rules ensure every assignment is safe and fair - no exceptions!

✅ Tab 3: Checklist

What It Does:

Refines acuity based on actual patient needs. Click boxes to rate difficulty: Easy (1), Moderate (2), Hard (3).

9 Care Categories:

• Mobility / Assist, Toileting Needs, Nutritional Support
• IV Access Complexity, Medication Frequency, Wound / Skin Care
• Monitoring Intensity, Safety Supervision, Scheduled Procedures

How Scoring Works:

• 0-14 points: Low acuity (green pill)
• 15-21 points: Medium acuity (yellow pill)
• 22+ points: High acuity (red pill)

✓ Checklist scores override assumed acuity and update workload/balance in real-time!

⏱ Tab 4: Time on Task

What It Does:

Customize how many minutes each task takes on your unit. Affects workload calculations.

Default Values:

Pre-filled with industry standards. Adjust if your unit is different (e.g., ICU wound care takes longer).

💡 Most users never touch this - defaults work great!

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

💬 Need Help?

Questions? Feedback? Email us at [email protected] - we respond within 24 hours!