Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Automated Patient Tracking in the ED

At any one time, more than 100 patients are in this busy and complex ED. Historically, staff actively tracked patients with manual entry of a patient's location into a computer system. Keeping track of such a high number of patients in real time was clearly a challenge given the ongoing movement of patients in and out of bays and off for tests. Some of those patients could not be located without multiple phone calls and walking tours. Clerical staff often spent a great deal of time locating charts to place lab and diagnostic reports. This information was critical for infectious disease management and staff prophylaxis. Christiana Hospital's aim was to develop a tracking program that would be 100 percent effective in real time and would be accepted by all levels of personnel.
The Solution
Christiana Care chose to implement an automatic tracking solution—a "passive" system that does not require staff to input information manually. The ED selected an automatic patient and asset tracking software system in conjunction with an infrared sensory network and locating hardware. Infrared badges for patients, staff, and assets and in-room sensors "passively" collect real-time locations. Significantly, the system interfaces with the hospital's information systems. For example, it interfaces with the hospital's bed management system to streamline patient admissions from the ED, which account for approximately 60 percent of all hospital admissions.

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