Quick Video Clip Training and Tutorial

The BlueNote Lights communication system is a grid of alert timers that is shared by all users. In the software this is called the Light Panel. The video below shows a Light Panel that is programmed with sixteen alert timers, called Lights. Each office can program a precise number of Lights (anywhere from 0 to 120) in a way that helps manage team members, patients, and tasks, so your system may not have the same words or arrangement as you see in this example. Lights are designed to be used with touchscreens, but they can also be turned on and off with a mouse-click.

Turning Lights On and Off - Office Wide Alerts

These timers are called Lights, because when an alert timer is active, its state changes from Off (dark) to On (color). When an alert is required, click or press on that alert's Light timer to turn it On.

Everyone in the office that is viewing the Light Panel at their computer can see when an alert is active, as well as its relationship to all of the other alerts. The Light may also flash when an alert is active. When clicking on a Light, all other users whose BlueNote Lights panel is visible will see the same thing across all panels:

Or if a user has the BlueNote Light Panel behind other screens, they should still get the notification, because they will hear a tone, as well as see the movement of a popup alert instead:

Many Lights can be active all at once, each one with its own supplemental notifications in the form of popups and/or tones. Lights may change colors, depending upon how long each one has been active. When a Light is first turned on, it starts out green, then will change colors the longer it has been active. The image below shows three active Lights, with two of them that have now aged as time has elapsed. Aging timers are set by your office's Administrator, and they can be customized to work exactly as needed for each type of Light notification.

The context of a Light indicates the action needed or the status of an event. Anyone in the office can turn a Light On or Off. Turning a light Off indicates that the action or status has changed or is now complete. Click or press on the Light to bring up its Action Window, then select "Turn Off Light." This is how the Light is directly acknowledged, accepted, and/or removed when a task is complete.

Adding information to a Light

Some Lights may be programmed in a way that allows additional information to be selected before turning the light on. For instance, the name of a Light may represent a location in the office. If this Light has programmed to make it easy for a user to add information, it will display a colon at the end of the Light name. Clicking on this type of Light opens its Action Window. From here you may type a note and then turn the light On, or you may choose a pre-defined note that helps give full meaning to the Light alert. These pre-defined notes are what we call BlueNotes. For example, the two Lights in the video clip below are being used to summon a specific person to precise locations in the office. To turn on this type of Light, click or press the Light, then choose the appropriate BlueNote within the Action Window. Or type a comment in the white Comment space before choosing a BlueNote. In the example below, the same clinician is being summoned to two different rooms.

Viewing or adding Comments in an active Light

Any time a Light is Active, the Comment button inside the Light Action Window appears green. Click on the Comment button to view all previous comments added while the light has been active. To add a new comment, click in the space provided to type the comment, and then reselect a BlueNote, choose Update Light, or press the Enter key to update the Light.

Turning off a Light from a Popup

You don't always have to interact with the Light Panel. Lights may also be turned off from any Popup that appears on your computer. Click on each Popup to bring up its corresponding Action Window, then choose "Turn Off Light." 

The Focused button allows you to view only the active Lights in the order that they were turned on. For a fast focus view, click on the time and date. When a Light is turned Off, it will disappear from the Focused view.

Opting out of Popup and Sound Notifications

Because the Light Panel displays everyone's notifications in a single grid as a series of permanent objects, there's a good chance that some of those notifications are not helpful at one or more computers. If you have not yet made changes to the BlueNote user's settings, your computer will display popups and play sounds for every Light on an individual Light Panel whenever a Light is turned on by anyone, anywhere in the office.

Excessive popups and tones can be disruptive, especially if the notifications are not intended for the users at your computer. You have complete control of disabling them within your Alert Manager.  To control which popups and tones you see and hear at a specific computer or BlueNote client, choose Menu > Notifications > Open Alert Manager. Then toggle each Popup and Tone button beside each of the Lights from which you'd like to unsubscribe. Green is On, while Red is Off. You will continue to see the Lights on the Light Panel, but popups and sounds associated with each of these Lights will no longer interrupt your computer. Once a Light's indicator in the Alert Manager has been toggled to red, all tones and/or popups are immediately disabled for this Light, regardless of any comments or other actions added within the Light. 

Lights allow users to see and hear notifications from anywhere. When turning Lights off and on, users never have to keep track of where any recipient is in the office, because the recipient can be present at any computer and view their active Light notifications. This is critical for clinicians who are moving around constantly.

Sending messages to a specific computer or online user

If you would like to send a message only to an individual computer, choose the Conversations button, then select one or more computer's User name(s) from the left-hand side of the Conversations window in the Users list. Begin typing your message and then press the Send button.

Replying to a conversation

When receiving a BlueNote Conversation, a popup will appear and stay on the screen for an hour. You may click on that Conversation's popup to reply immediately back to all users in that Conversation thread. You may also respond from the Conversation Inbox or from Messages (previously read and previously sent Conversations).  Choose the Conversation, type your message, then press the Send button to reply.

Notice that the BlueNote icon in the Windows taskbar at the bottom quickly flashes green when the Conversation is received and the popup appears. This is an indication that there are one or more Conversations in the user's Conversation Inbox.

Changing Local Settings

It is important that each computer is labeled with the appropriate Conversation name so that it can be easily identified within the Conversation User list. To change a Conversation name, choose Menu, then Preferences. Click the "Change" button and change the User Name that you see there. Be sure to Save your change.

You are able to change many other settings that only affect your computer. Choose Menu to view all of the Actions you can perform, or choose Preferences to make permanent settings changes.

How to get help

Each user has a support ticket system built into their BlueNote client. Have a question? Need technical assistance? Choose Menu, then Help. Tab over to Support, then fill out the form under the green Contact Us button.