NEWARK, DE – Infrared technology is helping staff at Christiana Health Systems keep track of patients in its busy emergency department.

The initiative is part of a bigger effort to improve efficiency at the facility, which has about 70 rooms and treats about 92,000 emergency patients a year.

The system, which keeps track of patients' movements, also could be used in other areas of the hospital for tracking patient movement and organizing workflow, hospital executives say.

Christiana's emergency department is divided into areas of specialty, but even so, it was difficult to track where patients were, said Linda Lashowski Jones, director of trauma, emergency and aeromedical services.

After investigating options, the facility decided to try Patient Care Technology Systems' EDTracker passive tracking software, which it was able to see in operation on a smaller scale at a couple facilities in Pennsylvania.

The passive system uses infrared badges and more than 300 sensors located on the ceilings of the emergency and radiology departments. The badge, worn by patients and staff, emits an infrared signal every three seconds. Software translates the badges' signals into individual locations.

Christiana combined this initiative with a detailed look at its workflow and processes, Jones said. That's helping it save time and eliminate paper-based and redundant steps.

The initiative has greatly improved the efficiency of staff that escort patients to destinations within the hospital, she added. It's helped planners who can better estimate how long it will take to get patients into a hospital bed.

"The typical view we see is a map view with people in rooms," Jones said. "Colors indicate the acuity of the patient. We can get a quick glimpse of the acuity of the department."

The system already has reduced the length of stay by emergency patients and was able to reduce the number of patients who left without treatment, she added.