Procedure
If the connection drops
When the connection drops, this page helps you keep working safely, understand what Pensieve saves, and reconnect when the link returns.
When the connection drops, keep calm and keep the patient safe. This page shows what Pensieve holds, how to work through the gap, how to reconnect when the link returns, and what changes when the whole ward is down.
One clean state
A save that Pensieve confirms is committed with its trail. A save the drop interrupts leaves the record as it stood, so the record holds one clean state.
Signs of a drop
A drop shows on screen. A save spins without settling. A list stops filling. A banner marks the link as lost.
Your confirmed work stays in the record. Your entry in progress waits with you on the screen.
Keep working safely
- 1
Hold your entry on screen
Stay on the form you are filling. Your entry waits with you while the link is down.
- 2
Note what matters
Keep the patient and the entry in mind. For a clinical step, note it on paper for the moment.
- 3
Wait for the link
The screen settles when the connection returns. Give it a short while before you retry.
If the link stays down, move to a workstation with a steady connection and carry on there.
- 4
Sign back in as yourself
On a shared workstation, sign in as yourself when the link returns, so the record stays attributable. See sign in on a shared workstation.
- 5
Confirm your entry
Re-confirm the save and watch for the confirmation, so the record holds one entry.
What Pensieve holds
A confirmed save is committed with its audit entry in the same step, so a committed change always carries who acted and when.
A save the drop interrupts leaves the record exactly as it was before. You confirm the entry once the link returns, and the record holds one clean version.
If the drop holds
If the drop holds or repeats, tell your ward lead and report a problem so the support team can look at the link. In an urgent clinical moment, reach the record through emergency access, which stays fully logged.
If the whole ward has lost the link
If the screens are down across the ward rather than at your workstation, the site has lost its link to Pensieve and the hospital's downtime procedure takes over. Paper is the record for that period. The ward works from the printed fallback forms and from the downtime pack, the hospital's own read-only extract of active in-patient summaries and current medication orders.
A pack read sits outside the audit trail, because the pack is held on storage the hospital administers and the read never reaches the platform. The hospital keeps its own account of who opened it. Each paper entry is brought back into Pensieve afterwards as a late entry that carries its true clinical time. Read what keeps running meanwhile in what happens when the link drops.
Does a drop lose a confirmed entry?
A confirmed entry is committed and held. A drop during a save leaves the record as it stood, so you re-confirm once the link returns.
Can I keep charting while the link is down?
Note the clinical step for the moment, and enter it once the link returns. Your session picks up where you left it.
Do I sign in again after a drop?
On a shared workstation, sign in as yourself when the link returns, so each entry stays attributed to you.
Read how to correct an entry that landed on the wrong record, on if you charted the wrong patient.