Login, unlock, lock and sign out on a shared hospital device

A colleague says they logged out, but the next person can still see a record when the device wakes. The words staff use may describe different actions. Ask the supplier to demonstrate the actual behaviour before writing the hospital's shared-device routine.

These are questions for evaluating access behaviour across products, not a claim that every application implements the terms in the same way. Use the current instructions for the system your hospital operates.

Four actions to distinguish

Login usually establishes access through a named account. Ask when a connection is required, how the user is identified and which role is applied. The answer should describe what the staff member can access, without asking them to understand the underlying security machinery.

Unlock resumes access to a protected session or device. Ask whose identity is active afterwards and what an observer can see before unlocking. A device unlock and an application unlock may be separate actions.

Lock should prevent someone walking up to an unattended screen from reading its contents. Ask which action locks the application, how staff recognise the locked state and what happens when the device wakes.

Sign out ends an application session according to the product's design. Ask what it does to work saved on the device and what the next user must do. Never assume that signing out deletes local records or sends pending work to the practice.

Practise the staff changeover

Use an approved demonstration setup with two fictional staff accounts. Have the first person finish a task, follow the instructed changeover and let the second person use their own account. Check the identity and permitted work the second user actually sees.

Try the agreed unattended-screen action as a separate exercise. Do not ask staff to prove a lock by handing over passwords or entering real patient details into a support demonstration.

AHRQ's workflow toolkit is background for designing a routine around staff responsibilities. The supplier's current access documentation should answer the product-specific questions.

Record the confirmed steps in the hospital's training materials and use the training sign-off sheet to observe the changeover. If the behaviour differs from the instructions, keep the device under authorised control and raise a support issue before teaching the uncertain procedure to the rest of the team.