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.

SingHealth's CIO recounts experience with implementation of automated bed management system

Enterprise Innovation (Internet), interview, September 28, 2011:

In this interview, SingHealth’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) recounted his experience with implementation of an automated bed management system at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). “… what the old system did not have is the visibility to the patent transfers done at the wards … We needed a way to automatically identify available beds and patients who are waiting to be discharged.  … We started tagging all patients with RFID to improve the process”, he said.

Source:

Chia E. SingHealth CIO follows healthcare IT calling. Enterprise Innovation [Internet] 2011 September 28.

URL:

http://enterpriseinnovation.net/article/singhealth-cio-follows-healthcare-it-calling

Note:

The 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.

Singapore General Hospital improves bed management with automated system

Hospital IT Europe, article (summary), summer 2010:

To better manage bed resources, Singapore General Hospital deployed the Eclipsys patient flow software in integration with wireless patient location tracking system from Cadi Scientific. The integrated system significantly improved operational efficiency in patient flow from admission to discharge. In particular, it reduced daily average overflow by 12%, the average time to find a bed from 15 minutes to 5 minutes, and the number of phone calls per bed request from 5 minutes to 2 minutes.

Source:
Benedict Tan. Smart solutions. Hospital IT Europe 2010, 3(2):17,19.

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