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


Sanford Health uses RTLS hardware products produced by Sonitor Technologies, Inc. Wheeler says that the primary goal of implementing RTLS is to use data to drive operational decisions. “In ambulatory care, we want to have data at our fingertips, be able to access the data quickly and have it be more of an objective view, for example how long providers or staff are in the room with patients. Breaking out the different time periods of the patient’s throughput at a clinic and understanding where there might be variances at the different clinics. We want to standardize workflow and make sure patients are receiving the same type of quality care. Our team here at Sanford is forward thinking and desires to use data and analytics to predict and plan rather than only reacting to what the data is telling us.”

Florida Hospital Celebration Health uses Stanley RTLS hardware and Tableau analytics software, and Ashley Simmons, director of Innovation Development, has worked with vendors to develop real-time data visualizations and retrospective analytic dashboards to improve processes. The application of this data to patient flow processes and efficiency in the OR has resulted in accelerating improvements in wait time, on-time starts, room utilization and patient satisfaction.



Let’s talk results: success stories
McGreaham cites the example of Community Hospital in Muncie, Indiana, which was the first hospital in the U.S. to have a case of MERS. “When a patient walked in and was diagnosed, they were concerned for staff and other patients’ exposure to the virus. Because they use the [RTLS] system and all nurses wear badges, they could go to the analytics platform to see which caregivers were in the patient room and how long they were there. They gave that data to the CDC and as it turned out, it wasn’t long enough to contract the virus. They could also generate a report about where the nurse went after they left the room. Within 30 minutes of diagnosis they knew all exposure routes and could think about quarantine, who was exposed and contacting patients who were at risk.”


Rheault cites the example of temperature monitoring at Wake Forest, with a $1 million per year cost to the hospital in spoiled medications. He notes one incident that resulted in a $90,000 savings: “A refrigerator was left open on a Friday night. The RTLS system prompted an alert and within a few hours staff had fixed the problem.”

Florida Hospital Celebration Health uses RTLS to present patient flow data combined with visual analytics to improve OR process and patient satisfaction with surgical procedures. It wanted to address bottlenecks preventing on-time starts, integrate care team communication, maximize room utilization and provide analytic displays that support effective in-the-moment decisions. With RTLS, they reduced OR patient recovery time 10 to 24 minutes overall, with an impressive 75 percent reduction in staff phone calls in the acute care unit to confirm patient information, which is now displayed on a dashboard.

January/February 2016 Magazine

Read more stories from the January/February 2016 issue

More Magazine Features

Health IT Homepage