Body maps

Mark it, describe it, and track changes over time.

A bruise, a pressure area or a mark that raises a safeguarding concern, marked on a body map where it actually is. The changes to the mark stay in the person’s history, so three weeks of healing reads as one story rather than four loose sheets of paper.

Ameryst · Body mapsRecord 4417

Skin integrity and marks

Ella Marsh · Fairfield WardOpened 15 Jul

SelectPanZoom +Zoom −ResetMon 15 Jul

Front

Back

Mark description and explanation

Marks

BruiseLeft shoulder
BumpBack of head
No marks recorded yet.

Last amended by J. Ahmed · 15 Jul 09:40

How it works

A mark on the body, not just words

Where a mark is, what it is, and what the person said about it, in one place the next person can actually find.

1Mark it

Full body, head, hands or feet, front or back.

Zoom in and put it exactly where it is.

2Describe it

Your own mark types, in your own colours.

With a note on what it is and what the person said.

3Track it

The same mark changes as the person heals.

So the history is one thread rather than a pile of sheets.

It works on a tablet at the bedside, or a laptop - whatever is most practical at the time

Evidence

A record that holds up months later.

Every body map tracks the history, and every change to it is audited. What you can show later is the whole picture rather than a fragment of it.

Marks change rather than multiply. A wound reducing over three weeks is one mark you can monitor, rather than four pieces of paper to line up side by side.
What the person said about it, in their own words. A mark records the account as well as the injury, which is often the part that matters most when a safeguarding concern is looked at again.

In the module

What our body map software covers

Multiple views

Full body, head, hands and feet, front and back

Zoom and pan

Put a small mark exactly where it is

Your own mark types

With your own colour coding

A note with every mark

What it is, and what the person said about it

Marks that change

A healing wound stays one mark, with its history

Consent on the record

Captured on the body map itself

Touchscreen first

Works on a tablet in the room

Photographs

Attached to the mark they belong to, if appropriate to do so

Why it matters

What a body map in the record is worth

Compliance & governance

Demonstrable evidence

Loose paper body maps are the ones that go missing, and a photocopy cannot show progression. Held in the record, with the person’s consent and a note against every mark, the evidence is whole when someone asks for it: an inspector, a social worker or a coroner.

4views

Full body, head, hands and feet, front and back. A mark goes where the injury actually is, which is what makes it evidence rather than an approximation.

Patient safety

Skin integrity you can track

A mark on a picture tells the next person where, not just what, and lets them compare it with last week.

Patient outcomes

Progression, visibly

Healing shows as the same mark changing, rather than a new drawing each time with no way to line them up.

Reputation

A calmer conversation with a family

Being able to show exactly what was recorded, when, and what the person said about it takes the heat out of a difficult question.

In the room

Short enough to do at the bedside.

Open the body map

Safeguarding, transdermal or general

Place the mark

On the view that shows it best

Describe it

Type, colour, and what the person said

Save it

Consented, audited, in the record

A care plan can link straight to a body map, so a question about skin integrity takes staff to the right place.

Questions services ask about body maps

Can we use our own mark types and colours?

Yes. Mark types and their colour coding are your own list: bruise in purple, bump in green, whatever your policy already uses. Like most lists in Ameryst they archive rather than delete, so a mark recorded two years ago still means what it meant then, and the colour key on an old record still reads correctly.

Is a mark on its own enough evidence?

Every mark carries a note with it, saying what it is and what the person said about it. That note is what turns a coloured shape into evidence, and it is the part that matters when somebody reviews the record months later, whether that is an inspector, a social worker or a family asking a hard question.

What happens when a wound heals?

You edit the mark rather than drawing a new one, so a bruise shrinks as it fades and stays the same mark throughout. Every earlier state is kept, so three weeks of healing reads as one thread you can follow rather than a stack of separate drawings to compare side by side.

Can we add a photograph of an injury?

Yes. A photograph can be attached to the mark it belongs to, so the drawing and the image sit together in the record rather than in two different places. The body map already carries the person’s consent, which is the part that matters when a photograph of somebody’s injury is involved.

Does it work on a tablet?

Yes, and that is what it was designed for. Placing marks with zoom and pan works properly on a touchscreen, so the map is filled in at the bedside while the person is there rather than written up from memory at the end of the shift.

Is consent recorded?

Yes, on the body map itself rather than once globally, so every individual map carries the consent that applies to it. That matters most where a photograph of an injury is attached, because the consent and the image sit in the same record, and whoever reviews it later can see both together.

Can a care plan point staff to the body maps?

Yes. A care plan question such as “do you need to create a body map?” can link straight through to the body map pages, so a member of staff following the care plan lands in the right place instead of hunting for it. The detail stays on the body map and the care plan points at it, so nothing is written down twice.

Explore other functionality

Care plans Assessments Patient notes Episodes of care Reporting

See it working with your own service in mind.

Half an hour or an hour, whichever suits. We’ll spend it on the parts that matter to your service.