“Say a husband just dropped his wife off in the garage and comes up and asks, ‘Where’s my wife?’ ’’ said Clare Sullivan, a nurse director at Dana-Farber. “In the old building, it could take up to 30 minutes to locate her,’’ she said, because a cancer patient’s visit can be so complex, involving a blood draw, chemotherapy infusion, or medical imaging - on top of a physician’s visit.
Now, Sullivan can walk to flat-screen monitors and look for the blue icons that represent patients to see where a person is (only first names are displayed) and whether he or she is with a nurse practitioner or doctor, or sitting alone.
The technology, called a real-time locating system, isn’t a new concept. For years, hospitals have been using technologies to track equipment. It’s not just used for ventilators and IV pumps, though. A system at Massachusetts General Hospital, for example, monitors blood products, including things such as temperature.
But more hospitals are beginning to experiment with real-time monitoring of people’s locations for immediate and later use. The systems can let them know when a room empties out and needs to be cleaned, or whether a certain type of appointment typically takes longer than the time allotted.
Mass. General uses technology from Radianse, a North Andover company. Dana-Farber uses products from a Michigan company, Versus Technology.
“Consider a patient coming in for surgery… . How long are they waiting? How long are they by themselves? What’s happening with whom? We can start quantifying those things,’’ said Bethany Daily, administrative director of perioperative strategic and business initiatives at Mass. General. She said the technology is not currently being used to track patients, but in the past has been used to track breast biopsy patients.
