Case Study – Sunnybrook
Chemotherapy Patient Movement Management via RFID at Sunnybrook’s Odette Cancer Centre- Case Study
The Issue:
How do you make the waiting room experience more palatable for chemotherapy patients waiting for treatment?
With this question in mind, Administrators at the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto approached Bykart Software to help develop a solution that would allow them to track patient movement within the Centre and provide feedback to the patients so that they are better informed while waiting.
Who We Are:
Bykart Software Ltd. is a technology solutions provider for the healthcare industry. Its main product is CHARM, a Patient Information Management and communication system that optimizes a cancer clinic’s capacity to treat more patients with existing resources. It does this by automating processes to more quickly and efficiently facilitate approvals of chemotherapy between the chemotherapy unit, pharmacy and clinicians, and by improving scheduling and communication among care providers. CHARM uses an automated scheduling engine along with a patient management module, and a protocol/regimen management module to optimize a clinic’s resources. CHARM is currently in use at The Odette Cancer Centre and has been operational for almost 5 years.
Technology Partner:
RFID Canada was instrumental in the deployment of RFID technology at the OdetteCancerCenter. Bykart relied on the RFID team to lead in the selection of a solution that worked best for Odette’s requirements.
The Solution:
By adding a Patient Arrival and Tracking feature to Charm and linking it to RFID scanners throughout the clinic, patients are now able to check in on their own using an ID card with an RFID chip in it. The ID Card has a unique identifier so that patient names and personal information are kept confidential. Once their treatment area is ready they are notified via an airport-style monitor in the waiting room (the number associated with their card appears on the board, not their name), that they are ready to be seen and where they need to go. Once they get to their treatment area they scan their ID cards into a RFID scanner that lets nursing staff know that they have started their treatment. Upon completion of the treatment they once again scan their card notifying staff that their treatment is done.
For Odette Staff, the system can track wait time metrics from the time of check-in through the entire treatment process. Based on reports developed by Bykart, Odette staff is better equipped to discover where bottlenecks occur and how to eliminate them.
For Patients, the system gives them more information and control during the sign-in process. Before the implementation patients had no idea where they were in the queue for treatment. Now they consult the information monitor and know exactly when their treatment will begin and where they need to go.
This solution would not have been possible without the guidance of RFID Canada. Bob and his team, Silvana Cantalini and Alan Marion, were involved in every step of the process from meeting with the client to working with our development team to ensure that they knew necessary to complete the coding portion of the project. The staff provided the technical assistance required to bring this project on budget and on time, and at every turn their expertise provided the right answers at the right time.
Results:
Based on the success of a 6-month pilot project with 50 patients, the RFID cards are now being issued to all chemotherapy patients. In the 5 years since CHARM was implemented, the Odette Cancer Centre has experienced a 47% increase in throughput without adding staff or beds.