Entity Types and Entities are the building blocks that represent the assets or people in the Kio Apps. Entity management, in Company Settings, is where you create and maintain both.
Note: Entity management is also accessible through the Entity Manager Kio Cloud app. Both access points manage the same data.
Entity Types
An Entity Type is a category of person or asset, such as "IV Pump," "Wheelchair," or "Nurse." Each Entity Type carries:
- A Profile Type — a required, system-defined classification chosen when the Entity Type is created (Mobile Asset, Person, Static Asset, Patient, Storage Unit, or Temperature Monitor)
- Assigned Applications — the Kio Apps that use this Entity Type
- An optional icon and color for visual identification in Kio Apps
- Attributes — custom data fields attached to every entity of this type (for example, serial number, department, owner)
- Status categories — the set of statuses available for entities of this type (for example, Available, Utilized, Down)
Profile Type and Assigned Applications
When you create an Entity Type, you first choose its Profile Type — a required, system-defined value that tells the platform what kind of thing the Entity Type represents. The Profile Type then determines the Assigned Applications available: the platform filters the list to the Kio Apps that support that Profile Type.
An Entity Type is commonly assigned to one application, but it can belong to more than one. For example:
- Mobile Asset → Asset Tracker, IV Pump, Wheelchair Manager
- Static Asset → Hand Hygiene
- Person → Staff Safe, Clinical Staff Flow Analytics
- Patient → Patient Flow, Patient Elopement
- Storage Unit and Temperature Monitor → Temperature Monitoring
The applications available depend on which Kio Apps your account uses, so your list may differ.
Entities
An Entity is a specific instance of an Entity Type: one IV Pump, one nurse, one wheelchair. Each entity has:
- An External ID — a required, unique identifier for the entity (for example, an asset management number or employee ID). This is the Entity ID shown in Kio Apps.
- An optional display name — a label for the entity. Names do not have to be unique.
- An Entity Status — the current state (Available, Utilized, Down, Unavailable, Unknown)
- A Tag assignment — the Kontakt.io Tag or Smart Badge linked to this entity for location data
- Attributes — values for the fields defined by its Entity Type
How Entity Types and Entities relate to Kio Apps
Kio Apps act on entities according to their purpose: Asset Tracker shows where assets are located, Staff Safe monitors staff. Each app works with specific Entity Types, and an entity only appears after its type is associated with that app.
Tags report location data. Until a Tag is assigned to an entity, its location data does not appear for any specific person or asset in a Kio App.
Entity Types and Entities are managed here in Company Settings, but each Kio App refers to them by its own names:
| Kio App | Entity Types are the… | Entities are the… |
|---|---|---|
| Asset Tracker | Asset Types | Assets |
| IV Pump | IV Pump Types | IV Pumps |
| Wheelchair Manager | Wheelchair Types | Wheelchairs |
| Temperature Monitoring | Storage Unit Types | Storage Units |
| Hand Hygiene | Dispenser Types; Staff Roles | Dispensers; Staff |
| Staff Safe | Staff Roles | Staff |
| Staff Workflow Analytics | Staff Roles | Staff |
| Clinical Staff Flow Analytics | Staff Roles | Staff |
| Patient Flow | Staff and Patient Types | Staff and Patients |
| Patient Elopement | Patient Category (or Resident Category) | Patients (or Residents) |