Visualization and quantitative analysis of nursing staff trajectories based on a location system

Abstract

We sought to clarify the impact of information communication technology (ICT) on hospital management. We used a real-time location system for nurses’ workload assessment. First, we introduced a Bluetooth-based real-time location system into a hospital and visualized the trajectories of the nursing staff from the data obtained. Next, we conducted a quantitative analysis of the data to estimate the workloads of nursing staff from the duration of stay at each bedside. We found clear differences in the time spent on care between patients in general patient rooms and those in critical care rooms. These results show the potential of using the data obtained by ICT tools to support hospital management.