Optimization of Emergency Department Bed Availabilty using Patient Detection System

The Emergency Department (ED) is a crucial component in the scope of healthcare. One of the problems encountered within the ED is Overcrowding, which can lead into many unwanted things. This drives the development of solutions such as the creation of systems that can contribute to optimize the work done within the ED. One of the already made system in which inspires the work done in this research is a system which tracks the availability of the inpatient care. Such system can't be applied fully to the ED because of the more dynamic aspect of patient movement within and out of the ED. Hence, a new method involving an information system showing the availability of the ED installed with a physical input with the goal of obtaining real-time data is proposed. The said method is the usage of a simple switch installed alongside a wireless module placed on each bed of the ED, providing information on whether said bed is occupied or not. As hinted by the aforementioned wireless module, it is wirelessly connected to a database. After doing tests on said information system, a survey was done with 21 respondents which consists of 33% that have worked in the ED environment while 66% have not, where they are asked a few questions regarding the website. It has been obtained that 81% of respondents have been in an emergency condition needing emergency care. Furthermore, 95.2% respondents say that the website would help them in emergency conditions, and 71.4% respondents have said that no difficulties were found in the usage of the website.