Questions About Setting Up Staff Assignment

These questions deal with setting up Vocera Staff Assignment.

How can I change the number of staff member columns for each bed or role?

By default, Vocera Staff Assignment displays 4 staff member columns, but the application supports up to 8. To change the number of staff member columns, edit the value of the columnCount property in the app.config file. To change the column names, edit the value of the columnNames property. See Modifying the Vocera Staff Assignment Configuration File.

Does Vocera Staff Assignment support using encrypted access using SSL?

Yes. Like the Administration Console and the User Console, Staff Assignment supports using encrypted access to the server. You can optionally enable SSL access in Vocera web clients during installation of the Vocera Voice Server. At any time after installation of the Vocera Voice Server, you can enable or disable SSL access as described in the Vocera Voice Server Administration Console Guide.

Can users who have a Vocera ID but do not have a Vocera password log into Vocera Staff Assignment?

Yes, if you create an application password that users can use to log in. See Setting Up Vocera Staff Assignment Authentication. Otherwise, your Vocera users must have a password to log into Vocera Staff Assignment. You cannot log into Vocera Staff Assignment using a blank password.

To use Vocera Staff Assignment Premier features, users must log into Vocera Staff Assignment with their Vocera user ID and password.

How can I allow people without Vocera user accounts to use Vocera Staff Assignment?

In the Setup tab, click Security to create an application password. See Setting Up Vocera Staff Assignment Authentication.

I changed the Vocera administrator password and now Vocera Staff Assignment users cannot log in. Why?

The Vocera Staff Assignment application requires a Vocera administrator login to connect to the Vocera server. When you set up Vocera Staff Assignment authentication, the Vocera administrator username and password are encrypted and saved to a certificate that is used for Vocera Staff Assignment authentication. If the Vocera administrator changes the administrator username or password, Vocera Staff Assignment users without administrator privileges will be unable to log in until a new Vocera Staff Assignment certificate is saved. See Resetting the Administrator or Application Passwords.

How can I remove staff assignments from beds automatically when a shift change occurs?

In the VoceraAdministration Console, configure the group to automatically remove users from membership in the group when they log out. Edit the group to open the Edit Group dialog box, and then click the Member tab. Make sure the Remove Users On Logout box is checked. When users log out at the end of their shifts, they will be logged out from all bed groups with temporary membership (that is, groups that have the Remove Users On Logout box checked).

You can assign staff members to beds and roles. What is a role?

A role is a Vocera dynamic group that contains staff members who perform a specific role or task during a hospital shift. For example, Charge Nurse could be defined as a role-based group in Vocera. If your Vocera system has role-based groups, users can use Vocera Staff Assignment to assign staff members to roles as well as beds.

When you define bed/room groups or role-based groups, can you put them inside department groups?

Yes. Bed/room groups and role-based groups do not affect the department grammars, so you can safely put them within departments.

When you clear the Vocera Staff Assignment database, what information is lost?

All staff assignments are stored on the Vocera Voice Server; clearing the Vocera Staff Assignment database does not affect those assignments. However, units are not stored in the Vocera database, so they are lost if you clear the Vocera Staff Assignment database.

You should not need to clear the Vocera Staff Assignment database unless you have created temporary units to test the application and when testing is finished you want to start over fresh. It takes only a few minutes to create new units, assign available staff to the units, and assign beds to the units.

When you clear the Vocera Staff Assignment database, the following information is lost and must be recreated.

How do you back up and restore Vocera Staff Assignment application data?

The Vocera Staff Assignment application data, certificate file, and configuration properties are saved along with the Vocera Voice Server data during a scheduled or manual backup. To restore the Vocera Staff Assignment application data, certificate file, and configuration properties, use the VoceraAdministration Console to restore data from a backup file.

Under what situations does Vocera Staff Assignment send an email alert to the Vocera system administrator?

Vocera Staff Assignment uses the Vocera Voice Server email alert feature to automatically send alert messages to the Vocera system administrator whenever the application changes a department or subdepartment group to an ordinary group. For details, see Sending Email Alerts.

Where can I see the number of Vocera Staff Assignment Premier licenses currently in use?

On the Setup tab, click User Sessions. See About Vocera Staff Assignment User Sessions.