3. Glossary
This glossary defines the terms used throughout the clearPath help. Terms are grouped into plain alphabetical order and a handful of common synonyms cross-reference the authoritative entry (for example, Opportunity → Moment) so the definition only lives in one place.
- Account
The top-level tenant in clearPath. Every facility, unit, user, report, and piece of audit data belongs to exactly one account. A single clearPath installation can host many accounts side by side. See also Corporation and Primary Account.
- Action
What the health care provider did at the moment of hand hygiene —
Rub,Wash, orMissed. Each Observation records exactly one action.- AFT-BFL
After Body Fluid Exposure Risk. The moment of hand hygiene immediately after contact with a patient’s body fluids, secretions, or mucous membranes — even if gloves were worn.
- AFT-PAT
After Patient Contact. The moment of hand hygiene immediately after touching a patient.
- AFT-PAT/ENV
After Patient / Patient Environment Contact. The combined moment used under the Just Clean Your Hands program covering both after touching the patient and after touching the patient’s surroundings.
- AFT-TPS
After Contact with Patient Surroundings. The moment of hand hygiene after touching anything in the patient’s immediate environment — bed rails, call buttons, furniture — without touching the patient themselves.
- API Token
A long, randomly-generated string that stands in for a user name and password when an application or script talks to the clearPath REST API. Tokens are tied to a user account and inherit that user’s permissions.
- Archive
The monthly, read-only bundle of every generated report clearPath keeps so historical runs can be retrieved even after the report definition has changed. See Report Archive.
- Attribute
A boolean tag attached to an Observation to describe what the observer saw —
Gloves,Nails,Bracelets, orRings. Attributes feed into several hand-hygiene reports.- Audit Form
A Custom Audit definition — the template of pages, questions, and response pools that an auditor fills in when they run the audit.
- Audit Schedule
The cadence at which a Unit is expected to be audited. clearPath uses the schedule to flag units that have fallen behind and to trigger reminder emails.
- Audit Session
A group of observations completed by an auditor in a single patient care area in one sitting. Opening a session, walking through a ward to observe several people, and closing the session counts as one audit session even if twenty individual observations were recorded during it.
- Auditing Device
A phone, tablet, or computer registered with clearPath as allowed to sync audits. Administrators can disable a specific device from the Audit Devices page without affecting the user’s other devices.
- Auditor
A clearPath user whose role is to collect observations in the field. Auditors can run audit sessions and enter observations, but typically do not have rights to edit facility or system settings.
- Auto-Close
The Challenges feature that closes a challenge and awards the winners automatically on its end date, so administrators do not have to remember to close it by hand.
- Badge
A decoration awarded to a user or team for reaching a milestone — finishing a challenge, maintaining a streak, or meeting a compliance target. See Challenges, Badges and Points.
- BEF-ASP
Before Aseptic Procedure (also called Before Aseptic Task). The moment of hand hygiene immediately before an aseptic procedure such as wound care, IV insertion, or preparing medication.
- BEF-PAT
Before Patient Contact. The moment of hand hygiene immediately before touching a patient.
- BEF-PAT/ENV
Before Initial Patient / Patient Environment Contact. The combined moment used under the Just Clean Your Hands program covering both before touching the patient and before touching the patient’s surroundings.
- CCPA
California Consumer Privacy Act — United States privacy legislation that gives California residents specific rights over how their personal information is collected and used. clearPath’s privacy statement covers how these rights apply.
- Challenge
A time-boxed goal in clearPath (for example, “achieve 90% compliance this quarter”) with a reward in points and/or a badge. See Challenges, Badges and Points.
- CMS
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — the United States federal agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, that administers the Medicare program and works with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Health Insurance Marketplace. CMS sets the conditions of participation that hospitals must meet to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, runs the public-facing Care Compare website, and operates several quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs that draw on healthcare-associated infection data submitted to NHSN. Hand hygiene itself is not a CMS-reported measure, but downstream HAI rates (CLABSI, CAUTI, CDI, MRSA, SSI) are publicly reported via CMS.
- Color Range
A per-account mapping from a compliance percentage to a colour (for example, ≥ 95% = green, ≥ 80% = orange, < 80% = red). Color ranges drive the colour of dashboard gauges and report cards.
- Compliance
The percentage of observed hand-hygiene opportunities where the health care provider either rubbed or washed (as opposed to missing the opportunity). The single most tracked metric in clearPath.
- Corporation
The database-layer equivalent of an Account. Most tables in the clearPath schema join to the
corporationtable to scope records to an account; customer-facing documentation always uses Account.- cp2go
The auditing application — cp2go — that auditors use in the field to collect observations. Available as a native iOS / Android app, as a Windows desktop app, as a browser-based auditing screen, and as a PWA.
- Custom Audit
A non-hand-hygiene audit template built in clearPath — for example PPE checks, environmental services rounds, medication safety, or patient-experience surveys. Custom Audits live under the Custom Audits section of the sidebar.
- CUSUM
Cumulative Sum — a statistical-process-control technique clearPath uses on some trend charts to flag shifts in compliance earlier than a running average would.
- Dark Mode
One of the two clearPath themes, optimised for low-light environments. Toggled from the sun / moon switch in the top bar. See Light Mode.
- Dashboard
The home screen of clearPath — a live grid of widgets showing compliance, trends, top performers, and alerts. See Dashboard.
- Digital Signage
Dashboard pages designed to run on large screens throughout a facility — typically showing the latest compliance numbers, a leaderboard, or a rotating set of widgets.
- Distribution List
A scheduled email that bundles one or more generated reports and sends them to a list of recipients. See Distribution Lists.
- DMS
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds — the coordinate format clearPath uses on the Facility Address tab when entering latitude and longitude by hand.
- EEA
European Economic Area — referenced in the privacy statement because some data-protection rights differ for residents of EEA member states.
- EHR
Electronic Health Record — the clinical system of record used by many hospitals. clearPath can accept feeds from an EHR via FHIR or a scheduled export.
- Facility
A physical site — a hospital, clinic, long-term care home, or any other building where auditing happens. See The Facilities Page.
- FHIR
Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources — an HL7 standard for exchanging healthcare data. clearPath has a FHIR endpoint for pulling facility and patient-care-area definitions from an EHR.
- Firewall
A device or piece of software that permits or denies network traffic based on a set of rules. clearPath sits behind your firewall; tablets and phones need outbound access to the clearPath server on port 443.
- Fiscal Year
An organisation’s accounting year, which may or may not line up with the calendar year. clearPath lets each account set its own fiscal-year start month so reports with period
Fiscal Yearrun correctly.- Floor
A physical level of a facility, used to group units and drive the floor-plan view. A facility can have any number of floors.
- Gauge
A dashboard Widget that displays a single metric as a half-moon arc with a colour-coded needle, driven by the account’s Color Range.
- Hand Hygiene
The core workflow measured by clearPath — the rubs, washes, and missed opportunities recorded during a shift.
- Hand Hygiene Session
See Audit Session. Used when a distinction needs to be drawn from a Custom Audit session.
- Hand Rub
An alcohol-based hand-hygiene Action — the “Rub” option on the observation-entry screen.
- Hand Wash
A soap-and-water hand-hygiene Action — the “Wash” option on the observation-entry screen.
- HCP
Health Care Professional — a clinician, nurse, or other licensed staff member who is the subject of a hand-hygiene observation.
- HCW
Health Care Worker — a broader term that includes every worker involved in patient care, whether licensed or not.
- Indicator
See Moment.
- IPAC
Infection Prevention and Control — the department or function within a healthcare organisation that manages infection-related risks, typically the primary consumer of clearPath reports.
- Joint Commission
The Joint Commission — an independent, non-profit organisation, founded in 1951, that accredits and certifies more than 22,000 health care organisations and programs in the United States. Its mission is to continuously improve health care for the public by evaluating health care organisations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. Joint Commission accreditation is recognised nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organisation’s commitment to meeting performance standards, and is a prerequisite for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement at most hospitals. The Commission publishes the National Patient Safety Goals, which include hand-hygiene performance expectations (Goal NPSG.07.01.01). Website: jointcommission.org.
- Just Clean Your Hands
An Ontario hand-hygiene program that uses four moments (
BEF-PAT/ENV,BEF-ASP,AFT-BFL,AFT-PAT/ENV). See Moment.- Keyword Manager
The clearPath screen for managing the exclusion word list used by the Word Cloud report. See Keyword Manager.
- Kiosk Mode
A display mode in which clearPath runs full-screen without browser chrome, intended for read-only dashboards on wall- mounted displays. Administrators control which accounts can be shown in Kiosk Mode.
- Leaderboard
The ranked list of Challenge participants, shown both on the Challenge Results page and as a dashboard widget.
- Leapfrog
The Leapfrog Group — a United States non-profit watchdog founded in 2000 by a coalition of large employers and private purchasers of health benefits. Its mission is to trigger giant leaps forward in the safety, quality, and affordability of U.S. health care by using transparency to support informed decisions and reward the highest-performing providers. Leapfrog runs the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey and the Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center Survey, and publishes the twice-yearly Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade that assigns each general hospital a letter grade (A–F) for patient safety. Hand hygiene is one of the practices evaluated by the survey; clearPath ships the Leapfrog Hand Hygiene Standard report to support the 2026 standard. Website: leapfroggroup.org.
- Ledger
See Points.
- LHIN
Local Health Integration Network — a now-retired regional healthcare body in Ontario. Some older clearPath reports and imports still reference LHIN groupings.
- Light Mode
The default clearPath theme with a white background, intended for day-to-day desk use. See Dark Mode.
- Live Badge
The small
LIVEpill in the clearPath top bar, indicating that the current page is wired up to the live data feed rather than a cached or static view.- LOINC
Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes — a medical-code standard used for some export formats where an organisation needs to interoperate with other clinical systems.
- LTC
Long-Term Care — residential care facilities that are a common segment of clearPath customers.
- Missed
An Action indicating the health care provider did not perform hand hygiene at a moment when they should have. Missed opportunities count against Compliance.
- Mobile Mode
The streamlined clearPath layout designed for running audits on a phone. Switched from the screen-icon button in the top bar, independent of the device you are actually using.
- MoHLTC
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (Ontario, Canada). The historical authority whose reporting formats clearPath supports natively.
- Moment
One of the discrete points during patient care at which hand hygiene should be performed. clearPath supports two standard frameworks:
Just Clean Your Hands (four moments):
Moment 1 : BEF-PAT/ENVMoment 2 : BEF-ASPMoment 3 : AFT-BFLMoment 4 : AFT-PAT/ENVWHO “My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene” (five moments):
Moment 1 : BEF-PATMoment 2 : BEF-ASPMoment 3 : AFT-BFLMoment 4 : AFT-PATMoment 5 : AFT-TPS- MQTT
Message Queuing Telemetry Transport — a lightweight publish / subscribe protocol used by some clearPath integrations, most commonly for pushing dashboard updates to digital-signage screens.
- NHSN
National Healthcare Safety Network — the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveillance system used by hospitals, long-term care facilities, dialysis centres, and outpatient facilities to track healthcare- associated infections, antimicrobial use and resistance, and selected process measures including hand hygiene. Data submitted to NHSN feeds CMS quality reporting programs and public-facing tools such as Care Compare. NHSN does not currently accept hand-hygiene CSV imports — values are hand-keyed into the NHSN web form — which is why clearPath ships the NHSN Hand Hygiene Summary report as a worksheet that mirrors that form.
- NICU
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit — a common type of unit audited in hospital deployments.
- NPS
Net Promoter Score — a standard 0-to-10 customer- satisfaction metric. clearPath ships an NPS response pool so custom-audit questions can capture NPS answers directly.
- NTP
Network Time Protocol — the protocol clearPath servers use to keep their clocks synchronised.
- Observation
An auditor’s record of a single hand-hygiene event performed by a single health care provider. An observation captures the provider type, the moment, whether the person rubbed, washed, or missed, and any attributes such as gloves or rings.
- Observer
Synonym for Auditor. Used in some older reports and exports.
- Offline Mode
The cp2go PWA and native apps keep working when the device has no network. Observations are stored locally and uploaded automatically the next time the device has a connection. See the cp2go PWA topic for details.
- Opportunity
See Moment.
- P-Chart
A statistical process-control chart that plots the proportion of compliant observations over time, with an upper and lower control limit calculated from the data itself. Points inside the control limits represent normal variation; points outside indicate a shift worth investigating. Open a P-Chart from the dashboard
Chartsgroup, or from theMoreaction on any compliance gauge. See Dashboard.- PACU
Post-Anesthesia Care Unit — another common type of unit audited in hospital deployments.
- PCA
Patient Care Area — a subdivision of a facility where auditing takes place. See Unit.
- PHO
Public Health Ontario — one of the public-health bodies whose reporting standards clearPath can export for.
- Points
The numeric reward currency used by the Challenges module. Points accrue as auditors meet goals and are tracked in the Points Ledger.
- POP
Post Office Protocol — a legacy email-retrieval protocol.
- Primary Account
The Root Account of a clearPath installation. Users in the Primary Account manage the installation itself; customer users belong to regular sub-accounts.
- PWA
Progressive Web App — a web app that can be installed on a phone or tablet’s home screen and works offline. clearPath ships cp2go as a PWA in addition to the native apps. See cp2go PWA.
- QIP
Quality Improvement Plan — an annual plan Ontario healthcare organisations file with Health Quality Ontario. clearPath can export compliance summaries formatted for inclusion in a QIP.
- Question Pool
The shared library of reusable questions available to any Custom Audit. See Custom Audits.
- Region
A collection of facilities grouped for reporting — typically by geography (for example, “Central Ontario”), but any grouping makes sense.
- Reminder
An automatic email or notification from clearPath prompting an auditor, manager, or owner to take action — for example, a distribution list with a configuration issue, or a unit falling behind on its Audit Schedule.
- Report Definition
A saved recipe that tells clearPath what report to produce, at what frequency, for which scope, and in which format. Every row on the Reports page is one definition. See Reports.
- Report Group
A named collection of report definitions — either curated by hand or filled automatically by a rule. See Report Groups.
- Reportable
A flag on an auditable unit indicating whether its numbers roll up into corporate / account-level reports. Non-reportable units are still tracked, but excluded from roll-ups.
- Response Pool
The shared library of reusable answer sets (Yes / No, multiple-choice lists, Likert scales, NPS) that can be attached to Custom Audit questions.
- Role
A named set of permissions that controls which parts of clearPath a user can see and change. clearPath ships with standard roles (Administrator, Manager, Auditor, Viewer) and lets you define your own.
- RSA
A public-key cryptography algorithm that relies on the difficulty of factoring large integers. Named for its inventors — Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman — who first published it in 1977.
- Rule Filter
A Challenge option that narrows the goal to a subset of observations — for example, only observations in a specific unit or only involving nursing staff.
- Session Note
Optional free-text information attached to a whole Audit Session — for example, “unit in outbreak” or “training provided prior to session”.
- Signage
See Digital Signage.
- Site ID
The short, three- or four-character code that identifies your clearPath installation in the URL — for example, the
hopeinhope.cphs.cloud. You can email support@clearpathhealthsolutions.com if you are not sure what your site ID is.- SMTP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol — the protocol used to send email. clearPath uses SMTP to deliver report distribution lists, alerts, and password-reset emails.
- SNMP
Simple Network Management Protocol — used to monitor network-attached devices.
- SSL
Secure Sockets Layer — a legacy cryptographic protocol for securing network communications. Superseded by TLS.
- SSO
Single Sign-On — an arrangement where a user signs into an identity provider once and is granted access to clearPath (and other integrated applications) without being prompted for a password again.
- Survey
A public-facing Custom Audit — typically an outpatient or patient-experience questionnaire reached via a Survey Invitation link.
- Survey Invitation
A tokenised URL sent to a specific recipient so they can complete a Survey without signing into clearPath. Invitations can be single-use and can expire.
- Sync
The process of uploading audit data from a device (cp2go running offline) to the clearPath server. Modern builds sync automatically in the background whenever the device is online.
- Target
A compliance goal applied to an account, facility, unit, or individual auditor. Targets drive the colour of the corresponding dashboard gauge. See Targets.
- TCP
Transmission Control Protocol — one of the two core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite (together with UDP). TCP delivers an ordered, reliable stream of data between two endpoints.
- Team
A group of auditors who participate in Challenges as a single unit rather than individually.
- TLS
Transport Layer Security — the modern cryptographic protocol that secures communications over the internet. TLS replaces the earlier SSL protocol. clearPath uses TLS 1.2 or higher for every connection.
- TOTP
Time-based One-Time Password — the six-digit code generated by an authenticator app when Two-Factor Authentication is enabled on an account.
- Two-Factor Authentication
A sign-in method that asks for a one-time code in addition to your password. clearPath supports time-based one-time passwords (TOTP) from any standard authenticator app.
- UDP
User Datagram Protocol — one of the two core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite (together with TCP). Faster and stateless, but without guaranteed delivery. Used by DNS, voice, and other latency-sensitive traffic.
- Unit
A subdivision of a Facility — for example a ward, a patient-care area, or a department. See The Facilities Page.
- UTC
Coordinated Universal Time — the time zone clearPath stores every timestamp in. The interface converts UTC to the user’s local time on display.
- WHMIS
Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System — the Canadian workplace-hazard communication standard. Some clearPath custom-audit templates reference WHMIS labelling when auditing hazardous-materials storage.
- WHO
World Health Organization — the United Nations agency whose My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene framework is one of the two standards clearPath supports.
- Widget
One of the tiles on the Dashboard — a gauge, a ranking list, a chart, or a stat card. The dashboard layout is made up of widgets you can show, hide, and rearrange.
- Word Cloud
A report type that renders the most frequent words from session notes and observation comments as a proportional cloud. Words on the Keyword Manager exclusion list are removed before the cloud is drawn.
- XML
Extensible Markup Language — a structured text format clearPath uses for some report output and for certain integration feeds.