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2 | 2 | sidebar_position: 4 |
3 | 3 | --- |
4 | 4 |
|
5 | | -# Location |
| 5 | +# Locations |
6 | 6 |
|
7 | | -A **location** is a physical place inside a facility where care happens or resources sit — a building, a wing, a ward, a room, or a single bed. Locations form a nested tree that mirrors the real geography of your facility, so the platform can answer questions like "which bed is this patient in?" and "who is allowed into this ward?". |
| 7 | +## Definition |
8 | 8 |
|
9 | | -## What it represents |
| 9 | +A **[location](https://build.fhir.org/location.html)** in Care is a physical place inside a facility. A location can be a building, a ward, a room, or a bed. Locations sit inside one another and form a hierarchy. For example, a building contains wards, a ward contains rooms, and a room contains beds. |
10 | 10 |
|
11 | | -In Care's FHIR-aligned model, a location maps to the **Location** resource. Each location records: |
| 11 | +## Key Attributes |
12 | 12 |
|
13 | | -- **What kind of place it is** — a name, a description, and a physical form such as ward, room, or bed |
14 | | -- **Where it sits in the tree** — its parent and children, since every place can nest inside a larger one and hold smaller ones, with no fixed limit on depth |
15 | | -- **Whether it is usable** — and, for beds and rooms, a finer operational state (occupied, unoccupied, housekeeping, contaminated, isolated, closed) |
16 | | -- **Who is in it** — the encounter, if any, currently occupying the place (most meaningful for a bed) |
17 | | -- **Who may work there** — the organizations granted access to this part of the facility |
| 13 | +| Components | What it captures | |
| 14 | +| --- | --- | |
| 15 | +| Name | The name of the location. You must enter a name. | |
| 16 | +| Description | A description of the location. This is optional. | |
| 17 | +| Location Form | The type of place that the location represents. You must choose a Location Form when you create the location. You cannot change it later. | |
| 18 | +| Status | The state of the location. You must choose a status. | |
| 19 | +| Operational Status | The current use of the location. You must choose an operational status. | |
| 20 | +| Parent location | The location that this location sits under in the hierarchy. You set the parent location when you create the location. | |
| 21 | +| Order among siblings | The position of the location among the locations under the same parent location. | |
| 22 | +| Organizations | The facility departments that you link to the location. | |
| 23 | +| Availability | Whether the location is Available or Reserved. | |
| 24 | +| Current Encounter | The encounter of the patient who uses this location now. | |
18 | 25 |
|
19 | | -A location is a *place*, not a *department* or a *team*. A ward as a physical space is a location; the unit of staff and responsibility that runs it is an [organization](../access-governance/organization.mdx). The two are linked, but they are different primitives — you nest places inside places, and you grant an organization access to a place. |
| 26 | +### Location Form |
20 | 27 |
|
21 | | -## Classification |
| 28 | +The Location Form tells Care what type of place the location is. Choose one of these forms: |
22 | 29 |
|
23 | | -Two attributes describe what a location *is*, and they are fixed when it is created. |
| 30 | +- Site |
| 31 | +- Building |
| 32 | +- Wing |
| 33 | +- Ward |
| 34 | +- Level |
| 35 | +- Corridor |
| 36 | +- Room |
| 37 | +- Bed |
| 38 | +- Vehicle |
| 39 | +- House |
| 40 | +- Cabinet |
| 41 | +- Road |
| 42 | +- Area |
| 43 | +- Jurisdiction |
| 44 | +- Virtual |
24 | 45 |
|
25 | | -- **Mode** separates a *kind* of place from a concrete *instance* of one. A `kind` is a class of location — "a ward", "a building" — and can contain children. An `instance` is one specific place — "Bed 12", "Room 4" — and is a leaf: instances cannot have children. |
26 | | -- **Form** is the physical type, drawn from a standard FHIR list: site, building, wing, ward, level, corridor, room, bed, vehicle, house, and more. This is what lets a deployment model the difference between a wing and the beds inside it. |
| 46 | +### Parent location and hierarchy |
27 | 47 |
|
28 | | -Beds are not a separate concept in Care — a bed is simply a location whose form is `bed` and whose mode is `instance`. The whole facility map, from building down to bed, is one uniform tree. |
| 48 | +A location with no parent location is a top-level location for the facility. Only some Location Forms can hold child locations. A Ward can hold child locations. A Bed cannot hold child locations. |
29 | 49 |
|
30 | | -## Lifecycle |
| 50 | +Note: You must choose a parent location before you create a Bed. |
31 | 51 |
|
32 | | -A location's own status is deliberately simple — it describes whether the place exists and is usable, not whether someone is in it. |
| 52 | +Note: Your deployment sets the limit for the depth of the hierarchy. Your deployment also sets the limit for the total number of locations in one facility. |
33 | 53 |
|
34 | | -```text |
35 | | -active → inactive |
36 | | - (unknown) |
37 | | -``` |
| 54 | +You can change the order of the locations under the same parent location. See [Reorder locations](../../flows/facility/location/reorder-locations.mdx). |
38 | 55 |
|
39 | | -- **active** — the location is live and can be used for encounters and assignments |
40 | | -- **inactive** — retired from routine use but kept for history; it does not disappear |
41 | | -- **unknown** — status has not been determined |
| 56 | +### Organizations |
42 | 57 |
|
43 | | -Separately, beds and rooms carry an **operational status** that changes far more often: occupied, unoccupied, housekeeping, contaminated, isolated, or closed. This is the day-to-day signal a bed-management board reads, and it is distinct from the location simply being `active`. |
| 58 | +Organizations are the facility departments that you link to the location. The linked departments control which members can access the location. See [Manage a location's organizations](../../flows/facility/location/manage-location-organizations.mdx). |
44 | 59 |
|
45 | | -## How it connects |
| 60 | +### Availability |
46 | 61 |
|
47 | | -Locations are the spatial backbone that other primitives attach to. |
| 62 | +Care sets the availability of the location. The location is Reserved when a patient is assigned to it. In all other cases the location is Available. You cannot set the availability yourself. |
48 | 63 |
|
49 | | -- **Encounters** occupy locations over time. When a patient is admitted to a bed, a record captures *which* place, *when* occupancy began, and *whether* it is planned, active, reserved, or completed. From these records the platform derives a location's current encounter and whether it is free or reserved — which is how a bed knows it is taken. |
50 | | -- **Organizations** are granted access to locations. Giving a [facility organization](../access-governance/facility-organization.mdx) access to a ward lets every user under that organization work in the ward and its descendants, through the role they hold. Access flows *downward*: grant it at the building and it reaches every room and bed inside. |
51 | | -- **Facility** owns the whole tree. Every location belongs to exactly one [facility](../facility/facility.mdx), and the root of its tree sits at the facility level. |
| 64 | +## Status |
52 | 65 |
|
53 | | -One important consequence of the tree: access and other inherited properties cascade to descendants asynchronously. When you change who can reach a ward, the rooms and beds beneath it settle a moment later rather than instantly — expect it to be eventually consistent, not immediate. |
| 66 | +| Status | Description | |
| 67 | +| --- | --- | |
| 68 | +| Active | The facility uses the location. | |
| 69 | +| Inactive | The facility does not use the location. | |
| 70 | +| Unknown | The state of the location is not known. | |
54 | 71 |
|
55 | | -## Permissions |
| 72 | +## Operational Status |
56 | 73 |
|
57 | | -Access to locations is governed by facility-level permissions. Viewing the location tree is open to most clinical roles; changing the tree or its access grants is reserved for administrators and senior staff. |
| 74 | +| Operational Status | Description | |
| 75 | +| --- | --- | |
| 76 | +| Closed | The location is closed for use. | |
| 77 | +| Housekeeping | Housekeeping staff prepare the location. | |
| 78 | +| Occupied | A patient uses the location. | |
| 79 | +| Unoccupied | No patient uses the location. | |
| 80 | +| Isolated | The location is under isolation. | |
| 81 | +| Contaminated | The location is contaminated. | |
58 | 82 |
|
59 | | -| Permission | Description | System Roles | |
60 | | -| --- | --- | --- | |
61 | | -| `can_write_facility_locations` | Create, edit, or delete a location, and add or remove an organization's access to one (add a ward, room, or bed; change status; grant org access) | Facility Admin, Admin, Staff | |
62 | | -| `can_create_facility_organization` | Create a root location (one with no parent) at the top of the facility tree | Facility Admin | |
63 | | -| `can_list_facility_locations` | View a facility's locations, the location tree, and which organizations have access to a location | Admin, Doctor, Facility Admin, Administrator, Nurse, Staff, Pharmacist | |
64 | | -| `can_manage_facility_organization` | Grant or change an organization's access to a location | Facility Admin, Administrator | |
65 | | -| `can_write_encounter` | Assign or move an encounter (a patient) to a location, such as placing them in a bed | Admin, Doctor, Nurse, Facility Admin | |
| 83 | +## Permissions |
66 | 84 |
|
67 | | -Roles are granted through facility and organization memberships, and because location access follows the tree, a permission held at a parent location cascades down to everything nested beneath it. |
| 85 | +| Permission | What it allows | |
| 86 | +| --- | --- | |
| 87 | +| Can List Facility Locations | View locations. | |
| 88 | +| Can Create/Update Facility Locations | Create, edit, reorder, and delete locations. | |
68 | 89 |
|
69 | | -## Related |
| 90 | +Note: To manage the organizations of a location, you also need permission to manage the facility department that you link or unlink. |
70 | 91 |
|
71 | | -- Reference: [Location (technical)](../../references/facility/location.mdx) |
72 | | -- Concept: [Facility](../facility/facility.mdx) |
73 | | -- Concept: [Facility organization](../access-governance/facility-organization.mdx) |
74 | | -- Concept: [Encounter](../clinical/encounter.mdx) |
75 | | - |
76 | | -## FHIR reference |
| 92 | +## Related |
77 | 93 |
|
78 | | -Care's location aligns with the FHIR [Location](https://build.fhir.org/location.html) resource, including its mode (`kind` / `instance`), physical-form codes, and operational-status codes for beds and rooms. |
| 94 | +- Flow: [Create a location](../../flows/facility/location/create-location.mdx) |
| 95 | +- Flow: [View locations](../../flows/facility/location/view-locations.mdx) |
| 96 | +- Flow: [Edit a location](../../flows/facility/location/edit-location.mdx) |
| 97 | +- Flow: [Reorder locations](../../flows/facility/location/reorder-locations.mdx) |
| 98 | +- Flow: [Delete a location](../../flows/facility/location/delete-location.mdx) |
| 99 | +- Flow: [Manage a location's organizations](../../flows/facility/location/manage-location-organizations.mdx) |
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