Location-based Patient-device Association and Disassociation

Abstract

Electronic associations between a medical device, a patient, and a care provider (e.g., a nurse) are new problems in hospitals. As today's devices transmit data to electronic health records, correct associations are necessary. Moreover, the unknown location of required mobile devices (e.g., cardiac monitors) represents additional issues such as unnecessary search effort, delays, and equipment underuse. To mitigate such issues, a patient-device connectivity management system that monitors and tracks patients and their assigned devices becomes an interesting option. Popular approaches for managing associations often involve bar-coding systems, which still require scanning time and which do not solve equipment location issues. This paper proposes a new system that exploits existing Real-Time Location System (RTLS) technology to track patients and devices and support simpler association by a nurse, until disassociation (intended or not) happens, at which point the nurse is notified. The system interacts with nurses through their mobile device (e.g., a tablet). A prototype version of this system was developed as a proof of concept, with correct behaviour. We expect this system to help avoid the above issues while increasing patient care quality and efficiency.

Contamination Landscapes: Spatio-Temporal Record and Analysis of Pathogens in Clinical Settings

“…To make this work, spatial precision must be substantially increased since, for example, a device location in a room with four patients would not reveal which patient is using it. A manual definition of a connection between a patient's tag ID and device's tag ID while starting an application may be required [23].…”

Real-time location systems in nursing homes: state of the art and future applications

“…Monitoring patient flows can help improve the services and indicate bottlenecks (Vakili et al , 2015). Furthermore, RTLS can be used to associate and disassociate equipment and devices with a patient (Rezaee et al , 2014). RTLS for patient tracking can enhance patient care by optimising patient flows, prevent medical errors and speed up processes (Tzeng et al , 2008).…”