Understanding Site vs. Location

Site

A “Site” is best described as the group or entity with which a contractual relationship is established.  Just as a contract may cover one or many physical locations, a “site” may include one or many physical locations. 

The purpose of a “site” is to create a common entry from which information may be disseminated to a location.  Documents, clinical personnel, administrative personnel and clearance requirements entered at the “site” will be visible at all of that site’s locations.

Location

A “location” is best described as an address or associated with the site.  In addition to the documents, clinical personnel, administrative personnel and clearance requirements entered at the “site” that are visible at each location, users may choose to add any of these items that are unique to that location.

An Example

A medical system, ABC Healthcare, has 4 different hospitals and an ambulatory clinic who are a part of the medical system.  The “site” is ABC Healthcare requires that students complete a specific health clearance form, provides an orientation manual and asks that all students provide a copy of their flu shot – since these items apply to all 5 “locations” (the 4 hospitals and 1 ambulator clinics), they should be added at the “site” level.  If the ambulatory clinic provides a form to apply for parking privileges and requires students to complete child abuse training, these items should be added at the “location” level since they should not be a part of the profiles for the other “locations” covered by the site.

Availability to Accept Students
Slots can be offered at the “site” level – i.e. the corporation or health system agrees to accept a student but has not yet identified a specific location or at the “location” level – i.e. a student must be placed at a specific clinic.

You can decide how best to organize your site data, but here are a couple of examples on recommended organization layouts and what we have seen works best for different professions: