Even before the pandemic, Sengkang General Hospital in Singapore had been using real-time locating system extensively for asset tracking and contact tracing. Now, it looks to expand its use to optimise hospital workflows in combination with IoT technology to allow staff to spend more time providing care.

It recently signed a memorandum of understanding with local healthcare technology company Cadi Scientific to develop smart facilities at the hospital by integrating systems, processes, technologies and people. In doing so, they aim to enhance management and healthcare service operations and improve patient experience.

SKH first worked with Cadi Scientific in 2017 to deploy RTLS across its hospital's inpatient and outpatient departments to drive patient safety and process automation.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

According to a press release, SKH and Cadi Scientific will collaborate on three key areas that will be further developed as part of SKH's smart facilities: operating theatres, the emergency department, and wards.

In the OTs, SKH has already installed a digital dashboard which receives the real-time surgery status of patients via an RTLS tag. These tags are also used to track almost 1,000 pieces of equipment in OTs, which have helped reduced routine equipment search to 5 minutes from 2-3 hours. 

For the ED, SKH plans to enhance the RTLS report to track patients' latest contact with staff. This will prompt staff to check on long-stay ED patients who had no interaction with them for a prolonged period and offer assistance if necessary.

Finally, for the wards, SKH will develop a location-tracking technology to deploy robots to the right patient or staff at the right spot. It will support nurses by taking away basic tasks such as delivering supplies to a patient's bedside. 

THE LARGER TREND

Another Singaporean hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, has been using RTLS as part of its COVID-19 response. It also uses RTLS tags to track patients, visitors and staff, as well as equipment, in real time.

In other news, a recent study done at the ​​Yongin Severance Hospital in South Korea found that RTLS can better identify close contacts of COVID-19 patients than conventional contact tracing methods. 

ON THE RECORD

"As we look into the future needs of the hospital, the combination of IoT and RTLS has become the backbone of our hospital operations. With this collaboration, we will look at further ways to enhance the use of RTLS in more areas beyond asset tracking and contact tracing. We have found that this combination of technology can be adopted for process optimisation, helping staff to spend more quality time interacting with patients and their families," Professor Teo Eng Kiong, CEO of Sengkang General Hospital commented.