Real-time location systems in nursing homes: state of the art and future applications

IF 1.7 Q2 REHABILITATION

Journal of Enabling Technologies Pub Date : 2018-03-20 DOI:10.1108/JET-11-2017-0046

C. Weernink, E. Felix, P. Verkuijlen, A. V. Daele, J. Kazak, J. Hoof

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引用次数: 11

Abstract

Purpose In the domain of healthcare, both process efficiency and the quality of care can be improved through the use of dedicated pervasive technologies. Among these applications are so-called real-time location systems (RTLS). Such systems are designed to determine and monitor the location of assets and people in real time through the use of wireless sensor networks. Numerous commercially available RTLS are used in hospital settings. The nursing home is a relatively unexplored context for the application of RTLS and offers opportunities and challenges for future applications. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This paper sets out to provide an overview of general applications and technologies of RTLS. Thereafter, it describes the specific healthcare applications of RTLS, including asset tracking, patient tracking and personnel tracking. These overviews are followed by a forecast of the implementation of RTLS in nursing homes in terms of opportunities and challenges. Findings By comparing the nursing home to the hospital, the RTLS applications for the nursing home context that are most promising are asset tracking of expensive goods owned by the nursing home in order to facilitate workflow and maximise financial resources, and asset tracking of personal belongings that may get lost due to dementia. Originality/value This paper is the first to provide an overview of potential application of RTLS technologies for nursing homes. The paper described a number of potential problem areas that can be addressed by RTLS.

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疗养院的实时定位系统:现状和未来的应用

目的在医疗保健领域，可以通过使用专门的普及技术来提高流程效率和护理质量。在这些应用中有所谓的实时定位系统（RTLS）。这样的系统被设计为通过使用无线传感器网络来实时确定和监控资产和人员的位置。许多市售RTLS用于医院环境。养老院是RTLS应用的一个相对未探索的环境，为未来的应用提供了机遇和挑战。本文旨在讨论这些问题。设计/方法论/方法本文旨在概述RTLS的一般应用和技术。之后，它描述了RTLS的具体医疗保健应用，包括资产跟踪、患者跟踪和人员跟踪。在这些概述之后，从机遇和挑战的角度预测了RTLS在养老院的实施情况。发现通过将养老院与医院进行比较，最有前景的养老院RTLS应用程序是对养老院拥有的昂贵商品进行资产跟踪，以促进工作流程并最大限度地增加财政资源，以及对可能因痴呆症而丢失的个人物品进行资产跟踪。原创性/价值本文首次概述了RTLS技术在养老院的潜在应用。本文描述了RTLS可以解决的一些潜在问题领域。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Enabling Technologies REHABILITATION-

CiteScore

4.10

自引率

9.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Enabling Technologies (JET) seeks to provide a strong, insightful, international, and multi-disciplinary evidence-base in health, social care, and education. This focus is applied to how technologies can be enabling for children, young people and adults in varied and different aspects of their lives. The focus remains firmly on reporting innovations around how technologies are used and evaluated in practice, and the impact that they have on the people using them. In addition, the journal has a keen focus on drawing out practical implications for users and how/why technology may have a positive impact. This includes messages for users, practitioners, researchers, stakeholders and caregivers (in the broadest sense). The impact of research in this arena is vital and therefore we are committed to publishing work that helps draw this out; thus providing implications for practice. JET aims to raise awareness of available and developing technologies and their uses in health, social care and education for a wide and varied readership. The areas in which technologies can be enabling for the scope of JET include, but are not limited to: Communication and interaction, Learning, Independence and autonomy, Identity and culture, Safety, Health, Care and support, Wellbeing, Quality of life, Access to services.