Patient tracking system

File:Wrist Identification Band.jpg.]]

A patient tracking system (also called patient identification system) allows a healthcare provider to log and monitor the progress of a person through the provision of care during their stay there. Such systems are part of an overall information system and may interact with the person's electronic health record,{{cite web|title=Using Tracking Tools to Improve Patient Flow in Hospitals|publisher=California Health Care Foundation|url=https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-UsingPatientTrackingToolsInHospitals.pdf|access-date=2020-10-28|archive-date=2020-10-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031025342/https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-UsingPatientTrackingToolsInHospitals.pdf|url-status=live}} where information specific to the person is stored, the system used by radiology departments to track patients as well as the system storing medical images, the pathology laboratory information management system, as well as patient check-in and check-out systems.{{cite journal |last1=Lippi |first1=G |last2=Mattiuzzi |first2=C |last3=Bovo |first3=C |last4=Favaloro |first4=EJ |title=Managing the patient identification crisis in healthcare and laboratory medicine. |journal=Clinical Biochemistry |date=July 2017 |volume=50 |issue=10–11 |pages=562–567 |doi=10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2017.02.004 |pmid=28179154}}{{cite journal |last1=Pantanowitz |first1=L |last2=Mackinnon AC |first2=Jr |last3=Sinard |first3=JH |title=Tracking in anatomic pathology. |journal=Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine |date=December 2013 |volume=137 |issue=12 |pages=1798–810 |doi=10.5858/arpa.2013-0125-SA |pmid=23634908|doi-access= }}

Increasingly people, as well as biopsies and associated equipment are tagged in various ways, for example with radio-frequency identification tags.{{cite journal |last1=Kolokathi |first1=A |last2=Rallis |first2=P |title=Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) in healthcare: a literature review. |journal=Studies in Health Technology and Informatics |date=2013 |volume=190 |pages=157–9 |pmid=23823408}}

A given floor or ward may use a white board as its system to track the status of all the people being cared for; for example in an obstetrics ward, each mother in labor is listed, along with her status and the time she was last checked.{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Emily M. |last2=Li |first2=Hong |last3=Mori |first3=Tomi |last4=Osterweil |first4=Patricia |last5=Guise |first5=Jeanne-Marie |title=Advances in Patient Safety: New Directions and Alternative Approaches (Vol. 4: Technology and Medication Safety) |date=2008 |publisher=Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US) |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK43761/ |chapter=The Impact of Health Information Technology on Work Process and Patient Care in Labor and Delivery |series=Advances in Patient Safety |pmid=21249956 |archive-date=2018-06-10 |access-date=2018-05-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180610174641/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK43761/ |url-status=live }}