A Novel Use for Real Time Locating Systems

Abstract

In 2009, the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) installed a Real Time Locating system (RTLS) in their eye clinic. The system tracks staff and patient movement through a combination of radio-frequency identification and infra-red technology. This system, in addition to its primary purpose as a throughput monitoring system, was used to gather data for the validation of a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) of the eye clinic. Use of the RTLS gathered data greatly diminished the time required to validate the simulation, as well as the cost of labor needed to observe and record the data points necessary. RTLS systems may be employed by operations researchers and systems engineers to assist in patient flow analysis in capacities beyond the ‘Real Time’ aspects of the locating system.