22 Sep 2010
The crunch at the 1,500-bed Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is expected to ease, thanks to the world's largest bed management system.
The $3 million system combines patient tracking, admission and discharge information so that beds can be made available sooner.
The system cuts turnaround time - from the time a patient is discharged to having the bed ready - from 90 minutes to 50 minutes. This means that the time taken to get a bed from admission is cut from 15 minutes to just five minutes.
Each patient gets a radio frequency identification tag that will identify him throughout his stay in hospital. So instead of having to manually update books and whiteboards, hospital staff can refer to display screens to get real-time patient information, such as their admission and discharge status.
The system also shows if a bed is occupied, awaiting transfer or being cleaned by housekeeping.
Said Professor Ang Chong Lye, chief executive officer of SGH: "Without an integrated system, hospital staff had to rely on manual processes such as paper, whiteboards and extensive phone calls. This resulted in longer waiting times for our patients... and frequent emergency executive meetings to resolve tight bed situations."
Previously, the hospital depended on telephone calls to ascertain if there were any beds available in the wards. Now with hand-held PDAs, housekeepers are able to update the bed management unit when beds have been cleaned.
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