Sensors keep patients flowing smoothly at surgery center

The typical outpatient surgery facility is a hard place to find anything. Staff members make hundreds of phone calls each day to determine where patients are, keep updated on surgeries, and track down specialized equipment. Each time a call is dialed, a colleague on the other end must stop what he or she is doing to answer. The phones in the new 60,000-square-foot surgical suite at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center don't get nearly as heavy a workout because the facility's automatic tracking system displays the location of each patient in real time.