Improving Healthcare Efficiency using Real Time Location

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sentinel Wireless LLC has created an automatic, continuous, real-time indoor location system (ILS) specifically for the healthcare environment. The ILS will be installed on standard networks and is compatible with existing databases, making its deployment simple, inexpensive, and user-friendly. The investigators believe that the system will improve the safety and efficiency of healthcare by enabling the monitoring and analysis of patients, staff and clinical process flows; providing data on equipment utilization; and reducing the time the clinical staff spends searching for equipment. This Fast Track application proposes installation of a previously prototyped Sentinel ILS in a limited area of the Massachusetts General Hospital in collaboration with CIMIT (Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology) and the Operating Room Future (ORF) program. The ORF is a single operating suite staffed by team of individuals dedicated to evaluating new technologies and successfully incorporating innovation into their work processes. Phase I will track patients and mobile surgical equipment through registration, surgery and recovery and will have an objective of demonstrating that the ILS can quickly locate medical devices or people in the clinical setting. Researchers will determine feasibility and validate accuracy of the ILS by: - Building, deploying and testing second-generation prototype equipment - Evaluating the ILS reliability, maintainability and ability to track items - Validate and verify the ILS information. Phase II will consist of system implementation, end-user education, acceptability and utility evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis and ultimately, re-engineering the commercial version of the product. The ILS system stores location data, creating a vast and accurate, and therefore exceedingly powerful, quantitative platform upon which to begin analyzing current process flows and resource allocation. Armed with this solid database, the research community can then tackle the compelling challenges of system inefficiencies and patient care improvements. This research will then allow decision-makers to make the correct operational changes and technology purchases needed to significantly impact cost and patient care. Investigators believe this work will have immediate and dramatic utility in the clinical environment and provide the needed documentation to implement the ILS through out the hospital.