What is the real point of Observation?

[Endicott]

The Observation Room has always been somewhat of an annoyance to me. Patients seem to get put there for no apparent reason by the doctors on auto-mode, and when I control doctors there doesn't ever seem to be a need to send a patient to Observation, which is almost always blacked out as a non-option. What is the real point of Observation and how is it used when controlling your own doctors?

[ClumsyScarlett]

from my understanding the ai will send patients there if they cant figure out a diagnoses for the patient i do how ever have to agree with you it is a huge annoyance

[vonMoo]

Observation can be really useful. I used to also find it strange and slightly vexing, but it's now one of my favourite parts of a hospital.

When doctors working on auto mode dump patients into observation they're often being useful. Patients that go to observation are removed from the clinic queues in the emergency clinic and they aren't progressing towards being fed up with waiting. The latter point is especially important with patients that have mystery conditions and would end up being sent for lots of lab tests.

Also, when patients are sent on auto mode to observation they have immediate access to treatments like IV antibiotics, which can reduce the chance of them collapsing.


But it's when observation is used with a little bit of player controlled micromanagement that it works really well.

Many cases that go to observation can be entirely treated there. Under player control they can be prevented from going back to the clinic until that happens, and even sent home directly from observation. This includes plenty of non emergency cases, as well as the rather commonly referred emergency department contusion patients.

During events, it's useful to be able to send patients to observation to help manage extra load in the emergency clinic. There are so many cases that events generate that can be quickly diagnosed and treated in observation. It's generally a good place to park patients under manual control who have been waiting for too long because they've been sent for too many lab tests, or to send patients to when a clinic becomes too busy.

With some experience, you can spot patients who could be fully treated in observation that would normally go to the emergency clinic and then be sent to a specialist department clinic, and then to the ward or HDU, often via some lab tests or radiology. Those patients can be put under player control, sent to observation and treated, saving lots of effort from many staff members and reducing queues.


To make observation work well I'd suggest planning for about 6 beds initially and building to about 10-12. This gives some extra capacity for events or bad days. I think one doctor is fine for 6 beds even if observation is busy, but they should have a good diagnosis skill and the ability to do differential diagnosis. It's also best to have the observation doctor be dedicated to observation only, and the trauma centre doctors be dedicated to the trauma centre. The docs in TC need to be ready when a critical patient arrives, not doing a stool sample on some guy who may or may not have pork tapeworms; similarly, observation can be quite demanding in terms of workload so a dedicated doctor is very helpful. At some point, it's useful to have a second observation doctor, but only with more than six beds.

Perhaps the most important thing to do to make observation work well is to check the patients there every few hours, direct examinations and treatments and make good use of player control.

[LilMsMisses]

Originally posted by vonMoo:

Observation can be really useful. I used to also find it strange and slightly vexing, but it's now one of my favourite parts of a hospital.

When doctors working on auto mode dump patients into observation they're often being useful. Patients that go to observation are removed from the clinic queues in the emergency clinic and they aren't progressing towards being fed up with waiting. The latter point is especially important with patients that have mystery conditions and would end up being sent for lots of lab tests.

Also, when patients are sent on auto mode to observation they have immediate access to treatments like IV antibiotics, which can reduce the chance of them collapsing.


But it's when observation is used with a little bit of player controlled micromanagement that it works really well.

Many cases that go to observation can be entirely treated there. Under player control they can be prevented from going back to the clinic until that happens, and even sent home directly from observation. This includes plenty of non emergency cases, as well as the rather commonly referred emergency department contusion patients.

During events, it's useful to be able to send patients to observation to help manage extra load in the emergency clinic. There are so many cases that events generate that can be quickly diagnosed and treated in observation. It's generally a good place to park patients under manual control who have been waiting for too long because they've been sent for too many lab tests, or to send patients to when a clinic becomes too busy.

With some experience, you can spot patients who could be fully treated in observation that would normally go to the emergency clinic and then be sent to a specialist department clinic, and then to the ward or HDU, often via some lab tests or radiology. Those patients can be put under player control, sent to observation and treated, saving lots of effort from many staff members and reducing queues.


To make observation work well I'd suggest planning for about 6 beds initially and building to about 10-12. This gives some extra capacity for events or bad days. I think one doctor is fine for 6 beds even if observation is busy, but they should have a good diagnosis skill and the ability to do differential diagnosis. It's also best to have the observation doctor be dedicated to observation only, and the trauma centre doctors be dedicated to the trauma centre. The docs in TC need to be ready when a critical patient arrives, not doing a stool sample on some guy who may or may not have pork tapeworms; similarly, observation can be quite demanding in terms of workload so a dedicated doctor is very helpful. At some point, it's useful to have a second observation doctor, but only with more than six beds.

Perhaps the most important thing to do to make observation work well is to check the patients there every few hours, direct examinations and treatments and make good use of player control.

The BEST answer... I've come to rely heavily on it as well.

[Alphakuh]

I use observation for patients, who needs another treatment, they cant get like infusion. Or i use it when they need more than 1 or 2 labour examination. so it goes faster.

[IL PALLINO]

Originally posted by Endicott:

What is the real point of Observation and how is it used when controlling your own doctors?

For me personally, if a patient proves asymptomatic, I'll send them to observation when it comes time for more advanced diagnostic methods. For one, a patient won't have to sit outside a lab while their lab work is getting done, which means the patient can either be sent to TC for heart monitoring or to Radiology for some sort of scan while some sort of lab test is being carried out. (This is especially true in when playing the game in Specialist mode and there's no telling what sort of undetected symptom a patient might have that results in collapse.)

Observation also works well if a walk-up Emergency patient is diagnosed with one or more conditions that can cause collapse, and if the patient does collapse, then they won't have far to go to TC.