Coordination
The chart is the working surface
for the whole team.
Galen treats care as what it really is — a relay between the on-shift caregiver, the family member checking in from out of town, the agency coordinator running the roster, and the doctor doing rounds tomorrow morning. These pages explain how each of those people sees the chart.
The shared view
Every chart opens on this.
The first thing anyone with chart access sees is today's coverage. Nurses check the panel before walking in. Family checks the panel when they wake up. The chart panel is the “is the right person there?” answer in five seconds.
── Today · Mar 18
3 shifts✓ arrived 7:12 · Room 304 · GPS captured
Refilled meds; will be back Thursday.
01 · Shifts & check-ins
Plan the shift. Check in. Hand off.
A shift is one assignment of a caregiver to a patient. It can be planned ahead (“Sarah, 7am–3pm Monday”) or created on the spot when a caregiver walks in unannounced. Either way the shape is the same: a caregiver, a window, and a check-in that confirms attendance.
Check-in is one tap from the chart sidebar. The button optionally asks the browser for GPS coordinates so the audit log can show the caregiver was physically near the patient at the start of the shift. GPS is optional and silent on denial — the check-in still completes.
Check-out prompts the caregiver for a handoff note. That note appears at the top of the next shift's view so the incoming caregiver lands on context, not a blank screen.
Planned
Patient or coordinator schedules a shift in advance. Caregiver sees it on their dashboard.
Arrived
Caregiver hits 'Check in.' One tap, optional GPS, location auto-snapshotted from the chart.
Departed
Caregiver hits 'Check out,' types a handoff note. Time captured, audit logged.
02 · Patient location
Where the patient is — and where they were.
A patient's location isn't a single field on the chart — it's a list. The most recent entry is “where they are now”; the previous entries form a trail of moves with a reason and a recorder attached to each.
The point is for a caregiver returning to the chart after a few days to see that the patient moved from Room 304 to step-down on Tuesday, with the note “transferred for closer monitoring” from the nurse who made the move.
Recorded by
- The patient themselves (home-care).
- Any caregiver with write access.
- Auto-stamped on every shift check-in.
Used by
- The chart header (current location is always visible).
- The check-in prompt (pre-fills the location field).
- The audit log (every move recorded with a who and a why).
03 · Alerts & requests
Priority notes that don't scroll out of view.
Family and patients use alerts to communicate the things they want the doctor or nurses to see at the start of every visit. Things like “ask the doctor about the new headaches before the discharge meeting” or “she's been refusing breakfast for three days.” Caregivers post alerts too, especially during handoff.
Alerts have three severities — informational reminders, concerns to look at this visit, and urgent items that should page someone — and three states (open, addressed, dismissed). Open items pin to the top of the chart so nobody can scroll past them.
A reminder. No rush.
Should be looked at this visit.
Time-sensitive. Notifies subscribed contacts immediately.
04 · Agencies
A nursing company plans the shifts. The patient owns the chart.
Most home-care patients aren't cared for by a single freelance caregiver — they're served by an agency that rosters across clients. Galen has a first-class concept for that without becoming an HR system.
An agency registers as an organisation with a slug and a name. Coordinators within the org can be promoted from members. Employees are added by sending them an invite email (or by pasting their 9-digit user ID, if they already have an account).
For the patient's side, two routes exist. The patient can add the agency by typing the org's slug on their chart. Or the agency coordinator can request scheduling access by entering the chart unlock code, and the patient approves on their dashboard.
The firewall: scheduling access is not clinical access. Agency coordinators see the schedule and can plan shifts; they can't open a note, vitals chart, photo, or alert. Each caregiver still needs the patient to grant clinical access individually.
Two roles inside an org
Plans shifts, manages members, requests access from new patients. Doesn't get clinical access automatically.
Tracked in the org's roster so coordinators can find them. Adds clinical access per-chart from the patient, as always.
05 · Family notifications
The family stays in the loop on their channel of choice.
The patient maintains a list of notification contacts— the next-of-kin, a sibling out of state, a paid case manager. Contacts don't need docuity accounts. They're identified by email and/or phone.
Each contact picks their channels and their events. Check-ins always go standard text (“Sarah Adekunle checked in for Mrs. K at 7:12am”). Urgent items go via SMS as a tokenised secure link — tapping it prompts for the chart unlock code before showing anything.
No SMS fires on an unverified phone number. New contacts get a 6-digit OTP they must enter back into the chart owner's contact manager. Same for email — one-click verification link, no notifications until confirmed.
Five events, two channels
| Event | SMS | |
|---|---|---|
| Check-in | Full text | Full text |
| Check-out | With handoff | With handoff |
| Urgent alert | Full content | Secure link |
| Urgent note | Full bullets | Secure link |
| Missed check-in | Full text | Secure link |
| Daily digest | Inline | — |
06 · Firewalls
Coordination doesn't weaken the access model.
Every coordination feature respects the two-key access model. An agency coordinator who isn't individually a clinical caregiver cannot open a chart note even if their org has scheduling access. A notification contact receives the channel-appropriate teaser; the secure link still gates on the chart unlock code. A revoked caregiver loses both clinical access AND the ability to check in on shifts.
The full posture — encryption, credentials, step-up re-auth, audit logging — is on the security page.
Agency scheduling
Patient must approve. Org sees schedule, never clinical.
Notification contacts
Per-channel verification. Per-event opt-in. SMS reports gated by patient code.
Caregiver check-in
Only caregivers with write access on the chart can check in.
Audit trail
Every shift, location, alert, contact, and dispatch logged.
Ready when you are
Open a chart, or set up your agency.
Both flows take under five minutes. Caregivers sign up themselves; agencies invite their employees by email; patients add the orgs they trust.