A comparison of commercial and custom-made electronic tracking systems to measure XXXX flow through an ambulatory clinic.

@entity1 @entity2198
BACKGROUND: Understanding how @entity1 move through outpatient clinics is important for optimizing clinic processes. This study compares the costs, benefits, and challenges of two clinically important methods for measuring @entity1 flow: (1) a commercial system using infrared (IR) technology that passively tracks @entity1 movements and (2) a custom-built, low cost, networked @entity2198 ( @entity2198 ) system that requires active swiping by @entity1 at proximity card readers. METHODS: Readers for both the IR and @entity2198 systems were installed in the General Eye Service of the Wilmer Eye Institute. @entity1 were given both IR and @entity2198 tags to measure the time they spent in various clinic stations. Simultaneously, investigators recorded the times at which @entity1 moved between rooms. These measurements were considered the standard against which the other methods were compared. RESULTS: One hundred twelve @entity1 generated a total of 252 events over the course of 6  days. The proportion of events successfully recorded by the @entity2198 system (83.7  %) was significantly greater than that obtained with the IR system (75.4  %, p  <  0.001). The cause of the missing events using the IR method was found to be a signal interruption between the @entity1 tags and the check-in desk receiver. Excluding those data, the IR system successfully recorded 94.4  % of events (p  =  0.002; OR  =  3.83 compared to the @entity2198 system). There was no statistical difference between the IR, @entity2198 , and manual time measurements (p  >  0.05 for all comparisons). CONCLUSIONS: Both @entity2198 and IR methods are effective at providing @entity1 flow information. The custom-made @entity2198 system was as accurate as IR and was installed at about 10  % the cost. Given its significantly lower costs, the @entity2198 option may be an appealing option for smaller clinics with more limited budgets.
