Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym University Medical Center (HUMC) has recently adopted an IoT(Internet of Things)-based Real-time Locating System for the management of its portable medical equipment for the first time in Korea. This system is designed to help its medical staff concentrate more on patient care by reducing the workload of nurses on portable medical equipment management and increasing the efficiency.

The system, which was introduced this February, allows its doctors and nurses to check the location and the usage of portable medical equipment with their PDAs in real-time, and it is also linked to OCS and EMR to be automatically recorded in the nursing record.

In this system, the sensor attached to the portable medical equipment uses the Wi-Fi in the hospital and gives information of their current location and usage status in real-time. This is how nurses can immediately check the current location and usage status of the RTLS-equipped equipment on their computer dashboard.

Currently, the RTLS-equipped moveable equipment includes Bladder Scan, C.P.M Knee (a device that is used to gently flex and extend the knee joint), EKG (Electrocardiogram), DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis), Infusion Pump, Nebulizer, Patient Monitor, and Pulse Oximeter(a medical device that indirectly monitors the oxygen saturation of a patient’s blood).

“It took a long time for nurses to fill out the usage status of equipment in transfer of duties. However, since this system was introduced, it became much easier for the nurses to check the status at a glance through the computer,” said Unit Manager Mee Hwa Shim of general ward at Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital.

“The nurses are very satisfied since they can spend more time for patient care, as the time needed to check the status of equipment has been reduced,” she added.

By Hyun Ho Choi, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (dullie1989@hallym.or.kr)