A machine has not been heard from
The difference between a machine that has gone quiet and one that has never been switched on, and why they need different answers.
2 min read
The dashboard and the daily brief report machines that are out of touch. There are two kinds and the wording tells you which.
"Has not been heard from for N hours"
A machine that used to report and has stopped. Something changed: it was switched off, moved, taken off the network, or it has failed.
This one is worth chasing, because that machine may be holding work nobody else has. If a consulting-room machine has been off the network for two days and is then reinstalled, whatever was on it goes with it.
Find the machine. If it is running, look at its own banner — it will say what it cannot reach.
"Has not been heard from yet"
A machine that was approved and has never reported. Usually one set up but not yet put into service, or set up in the wrong place.
This is not a fault and it is not urgent. It is listed so that a machine that was approved and forgotten does not stay approved forever — an approved machine nobody is using is an account nobody is watching.
These were once reported as the same thing, with a machine that had never been seen described as silent for 24 hours — a duration that was simply invented. They are different facts and now say so.
Where to look
System / Devices on any machine lists what it can see: which machines exist, what each is for, and when each was last heard from. The portal shows the same across the whole hospital.
Retiring a machine
A machine that has genuinely gone — sold, stolen, dead — should be retired in the portal. A retired machine cannot sync and cannot open the hospital's records; its data stays unreadable without a valid lease. Retiring it also takes it off this report, which keeps the report meaning something.
If a machine is stolen, retire it immediately. That is what stops it.