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Development and evaluation of an intelligent centralized transportation dispatching information system in a large
Mengjiao Zhang1, Jin Xue1, Rui Shi1
1Department of Information and Data Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Background:
Traditional hospital central transportation adopts manual telephone dispatch, bringing high communication costs, poor traceability, mismatched resources and weak quality control, which impede clinical efficiency and patient safety. This study designs an intelligent dispatching system integrating RFID, IoT and mobile terminals, and assesses its performance in a large tertiary hospital.
Methods:
A single-center retrospective observational study was carried out at West China Hospital. The system combines RFID-IoT real-time positioning and multi-objective scheduling algorithms, with two-way connections to HIS, examination platforms and PDAs. We analyzed system data of transport tasks, time metrics, tool utilization and patient satisfaction from Jan 1 to Jun 30, 2026 (post-implementation). Pre-2025 non-digital records were only used for qualitative reference; incomplete raw data excluded formal statistical comparison and inter-period hypothesis testing. Continuous variables were median (interquartile range); categorical variables n (%).
Results:
Over 6 months, the system handled four core transport scenarios. Post-implementation median single-task dispatch time reached 0.57 (0.31-0.82) min, and emergency examination transport time 24.3 (13.41-32.87) min. Among 24,545 tool records, independent ambulation (54.5%) and wheelchairs (32.0%) made up 86.5% of transports, stretchers (6.5%) and hospital beds (7.0%) for critical and postoperative patients accounted for the rest 13.5%. In 5,508 surveyed inpatients, overall transport satisfaction hit 97.78%, with item-level satisfaction rates ranging from 95.51% (staff attentiveness) to 98.14% (staff appearance/professional grooming).
Conclusion:
This single-center retrospective evaluation shows the RFID/IoT intelligent dispatching system achieves brief dispatch & transport durations and high patient satisfaction. Without matched complete pre-implementation baseline data, results only describe post-launch performance instead of causal improvement evidence. Prospective multi-center or interrupted-time-series studies with standardized baselines are required to verify its incremental value.
