Pretoria – The Gauteng Department of Health says the new Electronic Bed Management System (eBMS) has reduced patient waiting times by at least two hours at some of the hospitals in the Steve Biko Academic Cluster in Pretoria.
The department introduced eBMS as part of health care modernisation and piloted the project at Steve Biko Academic Hospital recently. The system addresses bed shortages in hospitals as Gauteng hospitals manage an average of 27.7 million patients annually.
“The eBMS allows medical staff to seamlessly identify the location of available beds across the cluster, thereby improve patient movement and management.
“Using innovative cloud-based technology, the system allows hospital staff to view current bed availability within their hospital on large display screens or over the internet on their mobile device or personal computer,” said the department.
The department said the system proved successful during the pilot stage, which is why it will be rolled out across the cluster.
“Hospital staff and management have commended the new system. Hospital personnel are using the information gleaned from eBMS to make both long and short term decisions that have led to some hospitals seeing a reduction in patient waiting times and better ward and staff utilisation,” said the department.
Kalafong Hospital Clinical Manager Dr Khin Htwe said management is using eBMS to make reallocation decisions about ward beds.
“We have split not frequently used wards to move beds to a ward that is always busy. Having had the system in place since early January, Kalafong has already seen a two-hour reduction in their casualty waiting times.
“We are so excited about being able to view available beds across the cluster. This increases transparency, which helps us improve patient care," said Htwe.
The department said Gauteng Emergency Medical Services is also on board and will use the system when transporting patients to hospitals, which will lead to better coordination of its services.
Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu said the introduction of this system was part of initiatives by the department to improve health care provision through use of technology.
The MEC anticipates that the system will be fully implemented across the province by the end of 2016. - SAnews.gov.za
