Singapore General Hospital's new bed management system shortens waiting time for beds

News articles (summary), September 2012:

Singapore General Hospital (SGH) implemented the world’s largest bed management system based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in May 2009. The system allows hospital staff to check patient status and search for suitable beds electronically in real time. With this system, the time from the moment a patient is charged to the moment his or her bed is ready for another patient has been reduced from 90 minutes to 50 minutes. Also, patients can now get admitted to the emergency department within 2 hours, instead of having to wait for up to 10 hours previously, and the number of bed transfers have dropped from 8% to 6% and the number of overflow cases, by 12%.

Sources:

1.    Huang C. Shorter waiting time for beds at SGH with new bed management system. Channel NewsAsia (Singapore) [Internet] 2010 September 21.

2.    Tan J. RFID cuts SGH’s bed crunch. Straits Times (Singapore) 2010 September 21: Breaking News [Internet].

3.    New bed management system. Shorter waiting time for bed at SGH. The New Paper (Singapore) 2010 September 22: 8.

URLs:

1.     http://news.xin.msn.com/en/singapore/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4348640

2.     http://www.sgh.com.sg/about-us/newsroom/News-Articles-Reports/Pages/ShorterwaitingtimeforbedsatSGH.aspx

Notes:
The integrated bed management system was jointly supplied by Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc (USA) and Cadi Scientific (Singapore). Cadi Scientific integrated its RFID system with the Allscripts patient flow solution and then implemented the integrated system at Singapore General Hospital.