“The primary benefit of passive tracking from a patient
safety perspective is that, again, we know the location
of the patient at all times. That means that if a patient
in the waiting room goes into the restroom in our waiting
room and doesn’t come out, that is a flag to the triage
nurse. We also can track length of stay, so if we have a
patient with a fairly high triage acuity and they’re
not back in a room, then that’s also a flag that we
need to quickly make some changes. We know instantly when
labs are back or x-rays are completed. That helps with efficiency
in terms of diagnosing the condition and disposition of
the patients. We know also who interacted with the patient,
so from a staff safety perspective, we can track whether
or not staff need prophylaxis. So I think there’s
both patient and staff safety issues, but patient location
is really key.”
