Patient tracking system

A patient tracking system (also called patient identification system) allows a healthcare provider to log and monitor the progress of a person through the provision of care during their stay there. Such systems are part of an overall information system and may interact with the person's electronic health record,^[1] where information specific to the person is stored, the system used by radiology departments to track patients as well as the system storing medical images, the pathology laboratory information management system, as well as patient check-in and check-out systems.^[2]^[3]

Increasingly people, as well as biopsies and associated equipment are tagged in various ways, for example with radio-frequency identification tags.^[4]

A given floor or ward may use a white board as its system to track the status of all the people being cared for; for example in an obstetrics ward, each mother in labor is listed, along with her status and the time she was last checked.^[5]

References

^ "Using Tracking Tools to Improve Patient Flow in Hospitals" (PDF). California Health Care Foundation.
^ Lippi, G; Mattiuzzi, C; Bovo, C; Favaloro, EJ (July 2017). "Managing the patient identification crisis in healthcare and laboratory medicine". Clinical Biochemistry. 50 (10–11): 562–567. doi:10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2017.02.004. PMID 28179154.
^ Pantanowitz, L; Mackinnon AC, Jr; Sinard, JH (December 2013). "Tracking in anatomic pathology". Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. 137 (12): 1798–810. doi:10.5858/arpa.2013-0125-SA. PMID 23634908.
^ Kolokathi, A; Rallis, P (2013). "Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in healthcare: a literature review". Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. 190: 157–9. PMID 23823408.
^ Campbell, Emily M.; Li, Hong; Mori, Tomi; Osterweil, Patricia; Guise, Jeanne-Marie (2008). "The Impact of Health Information Technology on Work Process and Patient Care in Labor and Delivery". Advances in Patient Safety: New Directions and Alternative Approaches (Vol. 4: Technology and Medication Safety). Advances in Patient Safety. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US). PMID 21249956.