it already works like that, auto refreshing the status icon when operators change their status

are you sure it isnt refreshing? it utilizes Ajax- and often the "refresh" event, is virtually invisible- it does not do a meta refresh, it does not reload the page- it's a simple Javascript xmlhttprequest - it will only change something on the page if something actually changes- otherwise, the "refresh" is practically invisible. It might be nice to have a timestamp in the monitoring window, though- handy for many purposes.. and would also let you know whether window refreshes or not.

If it is definitely not refreshing (tail your log files to make sure, if you can) I would suspect you need to check your javascript settings in browser, or check your configuration settings..