From the November 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


“I think most hospitals are probably doing those first because those are the lowhanging fruit,” Frisch says. “It’s a little easier to justify.”

The cost of an RTLS system also varies significantly depending on how it’s used. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, costs will usually be higher in an older facility, because walls, more abundant with less open floor plans, may limit the range of systems, and so more monitors, or “bases,” may need to be purchased. Our Lady of Lourdes included the cost of its system in the capital budget, while ongoing costs are included in the operating budget. Tags can have a useful life of one to five years, while the systems themselves can last around 10 years, estimates Peck.


“By that time, technology will have improved so much, that it probably makes sense to upgrade the infrastructure [or] system by then,” Peck says. “Still, it probably could last 20 to 25 years and still work great.” Sonitor’s Bugge, agrees that even if asset management is most important at the moment, hospitals should also consider a system that manages workflow.

“As they make that decision, they should be looking into the future as well and make sure they’re investing in a system that has the capacity to expand as their own needs expand,” Bugge says. Total cost of ownership is another important aspect to consider, including the initial cost and the cost of maintenance and services, she says. “Batteries, for instance, can be very expensive if they’re short lived,” Bugge says.

Broussard, at Our Lady of Lourdes, recommends that facilities review both the vendor and the technology and ensure that they have the capability to easily create alerts, so there’s less of a need to go back to the vendor every time a tweak needs to be made. For example, Broussard says he was easily able to put a tracking badge on the keys to the narcotics storage cabinet, go into the system’s web interface and get it to issue an alert if someone leaves with the keys in their pocket.

Broussard likens a system that doesn’t provide the ability for facilities to tailor it to their own needs to using Excel and contacting Microsoft every time you wanted the spreadsheet to calculate something. Some systems are not so flexible and the tools that are available when you go live are what you are stuck with, Broussard says. Broussard recommends using tracking systems to determine the viability of sharing assets between facilities within the same health care system, and says his hospital system has just started to look into that.

November 2014 Magazine

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