AP‑HP Hôpital Saint‑Antoine - Asset Tracking & Wandering prevention system
Context & challenges
Within the emergency department of AP-HP Hôpital Saint-Antoine, teams must manage a high volume of patients arriving in potentially unstable medical or psychological conditions, while ensuring patient safety and operational continuity.
Two critical challenges were identified:
Preventing patient wandering for vulnerable patients admitted to the emergency department, particularly during early stages of care
Improving visibility on critical medical assets, frequently moved across emergency care areas and difficult to locate under time pressure
The objective was to deploy a real-time indoor location solution capable of addressing both patient safety and equipment availability, without impacting clinical workflows.
Project scope
The project covers emergency department workflows and includes :
Patients equipped with BLE bracelets upon arrival in emergency care
Tracking of mobile medical equipment, including:
stretchers
wheelchairs
bladder scanners
ultrasound devices
ECG systems
breathalyzers
Indoor tracking based on BLE tags
Real-time supervision interfaces for medical and operational teams
Solution deployed
Pole Star deployed a unified indoor location solution combining patient wandering prevention and medical asset tracking.
For wandering prevention, patients are equipped with a BLE bracelet upon arrival. Authorized care zones are defined digitally, and automatic alerts are triggered if a patient exits or approaches the perimeter of these zones. This enables staff to intervene quickly and prevent unsafe departures from the emergency department.
In parallel, critical medical equipment is equipped with BLE tags, providing continuous real-time visibility of assets across care areas. Medical teams can instantly locate available equipment, reducing delays in diagnosis and treatment.
Pole Star architecture & solutions
The solution relies on the following components:
NAO® Track for real-time indoor location calculation
BLE tags and bracelets for patients and equipment
NAO® Viewer for real-time visualization and alert supervision
NAO® Flow for asset tracking workflows and movement history analysis
The system integrates seamlessly into the hospital environment and supports real-time data visualization and operational monitoring.
Operational benefits
The deployment delivers clear benefits for emergency care teams:
Reduced risk of patient wandering and unsafe departures
Faster reaction to wandering situations through real-time alerts
Improved safety for vulnerable patients
Immediate visibility of critical medical equipment
Reduced time spent searching for assets
Improved efficiency and coordination within emergency departments
