NFC-based Smart Notification System for Hospital Discharge Process and Bed Management

Abstract

An efficient discharge workflow with objective to minimize the turnaround time upon discharge of a patient in a typical hospital environment is proposed. The implemented workflow, which relies on a near-field-communication (NFC)-based patient discharge event, triggers a sequence of notifications and actions both by the nurses and housekeepers till the bed is cleared for occupancy by the next patient. The notifications are automated through Telegram Bot API. Android-based mobile applications are developed for both nurses and housekeepers. The mobile apps allow for follow-up actions and the status of the bed to be captured and sent to the cloud. Key functionalities of the system include immediate notification send to the housekeepers when a patient leaves the hospital, simple sending of cleaning requests and viewing of bed status. The system has been deployed in a hospital and evaluation is carried out in terms of improvement in the turnaround time of hospital beds.