From the January/February 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Brett McGreaham reinforces the importance of scalability and interoperability with the EMR and patient engagement software. He says “a lot more resources are being driven toward patient experience and satisfaction scores. EMRs will play a large role in efficiency with Meaningful Use, as well as competing with peers and pursuing reimbursement dollars. RTLS and patient engagement vendors have to work with EMR companies and use it as foundational technology.” McGreaham advises prospective customers to determine whether they can scale up affordably and think about the total cost of ownership, for a multi-phase implementation process.



What RTLS is doing to improve the patient experience
The president and CEO of Infinite Leap, Mark Rheault, is a consultant to Wake Forest Medical School, where they began using the CenTrak RTLS infrastructure and Intelligent Insites software in 2012. He says Wake Forest now has 100 use-cases in the queue and that RTLS has evolved into a critical core system, as important as the EMR and with $10 million in documented value. Rheault says Wake Forest wants to see 70 percent of the patient’s contact time be face-time with a provider. They are focused on improving their net promoter score with patients, aiming for a 9/10, indicating that patients talk positively about their experience without being prompted.

Rheault continues: “We are tracking all departments and visits per this score when they hand in their work flow badge. We correlate this score with wait times, nurse call response times — the biggest factors influencing patient satisfaction — and tie those variables in by provider, by day, by department.” Awarepoint’s Lee highlights the benefits of Bluetooth technology that supports personnel, equipment and environment management.

“Patients can download the wayfinding application to their smart-phone and follow the blue dot from their car to their appointment. Once the patient crosses the door, with geo-fencing the receptionist at the doctor’s office knows the patient is on campus and how far away they are. They can pull the file and reduce any in-office waiting. It all boils down to patient satisfaction, improving hospital flow and potential reimbursement.”


Mike McCarty, a consultant who works for Johns Hopkins Health System using Versus Technology products, says “everything we do these days is driven by more personalized service to the patient, and in order for us to do this in a better way, we have to manage workflow. [With RTLS] nurses will not get called back 3-4 times to see if the patient is in the room to reschedule a test. When the nurse goes in the room, the call bell is shut off. We will know when a cleaning person comes in to clean the room, so we will be able to help nurses understand situations on the floor more readily, which gives them more time to be with the patient.” In the Johns Hopkins radiology department,

Anthony Petruccy, an imaging informatics analyst, discusses the role of RTLS: “We use Web applications so we can see exams that need to be done and where. They show us where our assets are and the staff available and marry them together. We conducted an informal study that showed 3-5 minutes reduced OR time per image, and that time savings in the OR makes a difference financially.” He says he’s seen a 20 percent to 25 percent increase in efficiency in that department over 12 years using RTLS.

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