http://www.thertlsblog.com Its all about real time location and security. Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:24:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://www.thertlsblog.com/ggz-nml-hospital-deploys-ekahau-rtls-for-staff-safety-in-psychiatric-care-unit-2 http://www.thertlsblog.com/ggz-nml-hospital-deploys-ekahau-rtls-for-staff-safety-in-psychiatric-care-unit-2#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 17:03:01 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1914
SARATOGA, California, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Ekahau Inc., a leading provider of Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), today announced that GGZ-NML, a hospital in Venray, The Netherlands, is the first healthcare organization in that country to use Ekahau RTLS to ensure the safety of its employees in the psychiatric care unit. The hospital also recently demonstrated its cutting-edge Ekahau application to more than 50 other Dutch healthcare organizations, showcasing how real-time location tracking can assist in rapidly and accurately finding employees who may be in dangerous situations.

"With unpredictable psychiatric patients under our care, our staff often finds themselves in a position where their personal safety can be compromised," said Erik Stijnen, project manager for ICT at GGZ-NML. "As we were renovating our facility, we realized that we needed a safety application that could easily integrate with our new wireless IP infrastructure. We tested several real-time location tracking applications, but only Ekahau met our demands for accuracy and rapid positioning." ]]> http://pharmalicensing.com/public/news/viewNewsML/1026/GGZ_NML_Hospital_Deploys_Ekahau_RTLS_for_Staff_Safety_in_Psychiatric_Care_Unit

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/ggz-nml-hospital-deploys-ekahau-rtls-for-staff-safety-in-psychiatric-care-unit-2/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/rtls-can-impact-nurses%e2%80%99-time-spent-on-direct-patient-care http://www.thertlsblog.com/rtls-can-impact-nurses%e2%80%99-time-spent-on-direct-patient-care#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 16:34:53 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1895
Yes, RTLS enables hospital administrators the ability to increase oversight of millions of dollars worth of hospital-owned equipment to maximize their financial benefits. But, isn’t the true mission of any hospital really centered around the ability to provide quality care?

Yes, financial returns are indeed important. A hospital CFO once said to me “there’s no mission without money”. RTLS provides financial returns on increasing equipment utilization, reducing rentals, and impacting lost or misplaced equipment which are typically enough to pay for the system. These business drivers are the financial catalyst for getting an RTLS project approved.

But the real bottom line of any hospital technology is its impact on quality of care – and who impacts that more than hospital nurses?

No one wants nurses to spend their day dealing with equipment problems. RTLS helps provide the right equipment, in the right place at the right time, with nurses focused on patients instead of equipment. RTLS allows them to do what they do best (and what we all count on for ourselves and our loved ones) – care for people! More direct patient face time and a safer environment to provide care are the “soft” savings associated with RTLS, but in my opinion, really the most important ones. ]]> http://www.awarepointblog.com/2010/05/rtls-can-impact-nurses-time-spent-on.html

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/rtls-can-impact-nurses%e2%80%99-time-spent-on-direct-patient-care/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/it%e2%80%99s-all-about-location-%e2%80%94-rtls-establishes-line-of-sight-for-hospital-assets http://www.thertlsblog.com/it%e2%80%99s-all-about-location-%e2%80%94-rtls-establishes-line-of-sight-for-hospital-assets#comments Mon, 10 May 2010 16:29:17 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1889
By Annie Macios

For The Record

Vol. 22 No. 9 P. 6

Being able to find what you want the moment you want it is usually a luxury. In a healthcare facility, however, having this luxury is vital for providing care in critical situations. Appropriate line of sight on a facility’s assets also enables hospitals to maximize both their physical and employee resources in delivering healthcare in a timely, cost-effective manner. Real-time location system (RTLS) technology is one tool that can help facilities achieve this goal. But what is the best way to deploy this technology to maximize benefits while achieving a hard-dollar return on investment (ROI)?

“From our perspective, our technology is an enabler that supports the critical success factors to RTLS in a healthcare environment,” says Valerie Fritz, senior vice president of marketing at Awarepoint, whose technology is distributed by Skytron.

Fritz offers several recommendations that hospitals can follow to ensure the best RTLS implementation. “First, look at an RTLS solution that provides enterprisewide coverage,” she says, adding that facilities often make the mistake of looking only at a specific department or floor to cover with RTLS. Because assets and people move throughout an entire facility, the network must provide complete coverage for maximum long-term success.

Fritz also recommends that the system minimally provide room-level accuracy, emphasizing “room level” to mean supplying persistent location accuracy across the enterprise—even in areas that are not spatially confined by four walls. Further, she notes that sometimes when IT departments take the lead when adding RTLS, they consider leveraging their Wi-Fi network and often concede to zone-level accuracy, figuring it’s “better than nothing.” “But hospitals don’t have to sacrifice location accuracy. There are cost-effective solutions that coexist nicely with Wi-Fi without the added cost, complexity, and potential interference issues inherent in a Wi-Fi solution,” she says. “Make sure to find out what the facility’s pain points are and who the right constituents are to establish use cases and the right location accuracy.”

Fritz says it’s important to gain an understanding of what type of infrastructure is necessary to meet RTLS goals. Does the solution require cabling, wiring, or other installation disruptions? Ideally, the installation process should go unnoticed by patients and staff.

Providers “also need to understand the ongoing maintenance and calibration requirements as well. What does it mean to IT, and how can it affect the already cumbersome burden of maintaining the IT structure?” Fritz adds.

Staying Up-to-Date

Steve Miller, vice president of sales at Radiant Networks, has helped many facilities discover the benefits of RTLS and the significance of an appropriate infrastructure design. He’s learned that staying on top of technological advances can be vital.

“If you look at the baseline of most customers, typically we find they built their wireless network several years ago. The challenge is that most have designed their networks for applications that existed two or more years ago,” he says. As such, a mistake facilities will make is adding new applications on the existing infrastructure and expecting it to work without the architecture to support them.

“It’s important to take a look at the type of applications that are running. RTLS has a different design; the network needs to be designed to be ‘location ready’ and have the architecture to support it,” Miller explains.

“We see in many cases applications have grown and developed over the last few years but the networks and infrastructures were built when wireless was a secondary priority,” adds Dan Cooper, president and chief architect at Radiant Networks. By tailoring designs to support RTLS migration, it also provides facilities with the support needed for many new applications, so the capacity of the network itself is improved.

Miller says Radiant Networks has designed its system to be “vendor agnostic” to allow it to support other leading players in the wireless market. One mistake he says hospitals can make is being influenced by their vendor to add an application to a network without the certainty of knowing whether it will run as anticipated.

Performing an on-site survey or a predictive model are two ways to understand what will best suit a facility’s needs. “Healthcare is a very complex environment, with floor-to-floor issues and life-critical applications running on a facility’s network. I believe that in a complex application environment, it’s best to do an on-site survey,” says Miller.

Examining and understanding the system’s interoperability is also paramount. “Ask if the system can be used with other systems over time, as there are hundreds of applications in healthcare that can benefit from adding location awareness to enhance the value drivers,” Fritz says. “Educate yourself and understand the benefits and limitations of the technology you are looking at and what it means to your enterprise. Tracking assets is just the start; interoperability is key in maximizing long-term clinical and financial success.”

Cooper points out that RTLS applications have the potential to improve processes, workflow, and the bottom line. “One facility we worked with has more than 4,000 tags to track all of their equipment, from all their phones to COWs [computers on wheels] to laptops, among other things. And that is just one component of RTLS. So having the proper architecture in place to support various applications is paramount,” says Cooper.

Fritz says to keep in mind the business model (ie, how much the system costs up front), how scalable it is if the facility wants to add to it over time, and what ongoing training, maintenance, and client success support the vendor offers.

“If hospitals really analyze these ... things, they will have the benefit of hard-dollar ROI and an infrastructure to take them through a phased approach,” Fritz says. “Enterprise asset management is the best place for a hospital to start, but it’s just the beginning of a long list of benefits RTLS can provide.”

Financial Considerations

The biggest misconception about RTLS is the cost of deployment, according to Cooper. Previously, wireless RTLS was expensive to implement, with a system’s failure or success linked to proper design. “If you don’t get it right up front, you will continually struggle and be in remediation rather than come out of the gate ready to go,” Cooper says.

Miller notes there is a strong ROI associated with aspects such as the cost to replace missing equipment and the amount of time staff have to be pulled from their primary responsibilities to locate items. In addition, the technology can save money simply by keeping rental costs and thefts to a minimum. “At one facility, the RTLS is tracking pretty much everything, from IV pumps, wheelchairs, food carts, even medications kept in a refrigerator. We are always trying to learn about the back-end process to learn how all the tag information is being disseminated,” he says.

With most of today’s hospital IT budgets feeling the strain of a dragging economy, it is often prudent to collaborate with other areas of the facility to share the costs—and benefits—of implementing RTLS technology. Many vendors offer solutions to address budgets of all sizes with the intent of allowing the facility, over time, to migrate to full deployment. “So if a facility is on a budget, we have affordable solutions to help them enter into Wi-Fi where they can deploy A today, B next, and roll each phase into the design of the network,” says Cooper. — Annie Macios is a freelance writer based in Doylestown, Pa. ]]> http://www.fortherecordmag.com/archives/051010p6.shtml

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/it%e2%80%99s-all-about-location-%e2%80%94-rtls-establishes-line-of-sight-for-hospital-assets/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/csss-of-st-jerome-deploys-ekahau-rtls-to-improve-patient-and-staff-safetycsss-of-st-jerome-deploys-ekahau-rtls-to-improve-patient-and-staff-safety http://www.thertlsblog.com/csss-of-st-jerome-deploys-ekahau-rtls-to-improve-patient-and-staff-safetycsss-of-st-jerome-deploys-ekahau-rtls-to-improve-patient-and-staff-safety#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:53:01 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1907 Leading Canadian Hospital Uses Ekahau Badge Tags and Wi-Fi-based Location Tracking Technology to Speed Response Times When Staff Need Assistance

RESTON, Virginia, April 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

Ekahau Inc., the performance leader in Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), today announced that the Centre de sante et services sociaux (CSSS) de St-Jerome (the St-Jerome health and social services centre), a 405-bed multidisciplinary hospital in Quebec, Canada, is utilizing Ekahau RTLS to improve patient and staff safety. Ekahau is proud to work with ICT solution provider and system integrator Bell Canada to deliver an innovative solution that enables faster response times when patients or staff need assistance. It works by pinpointing their location using the Ekahau T301BD pager tags worn by hospital staff in the hospital's mental health facility.

The Ekahau tags are part of the Ekahau RTLS solution, an enterprise-grade location tracking platform used today by many leading hospitals around the world. Ekahau RTLS leverages a hospital's existing Wi-Fi network to locate small battery-powered tags anywhere within the footprint of the network within a matter of seconds. ]]> http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/csss-of-st-jerome-deploys-ekahau-rtls-to-improve-patient-and-staff-safety-91589774.html

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/csss-of-st-jerome-deploys-ekahau-rtls-to-improve-patient-and-staff-safetycsss-of-st-jerome-deploys-ekahau-rtls-to-improve-patient-and-staff-safety/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/rauland-borg-and-visonic-technologies-collaboration-brings-enhanced-rtls-functionality-to-the-responder-5%c2%ae-nurse-call-system http://www.thertlsblog.com/rauland-borg-and-visonic-technologies-collaboration-brings-enhanced-rtls-functionality-to-the-responder-5%c2%ae-nurse-call-system#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:11:33 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1864
The ability to locate caregivers is one of the primary challenges hospitals face when it comes to streamlining the delivery of safe and effective care. Improving staff response times to emergencies and special situations is a great example of how Elpas RTLS technology using existing wired or wireless Ethernet/Wi-Fi networks can be applied to benefit hospitals using the Responder 5 Nurse Call system. ‘Knowing the location of the required caregiver or location of where the medical incident is occurring to room level and with sub-room level precision in real-time, can mean a world of difference to the medical outcome” said Harry Murray, President Visonic Technologies America. “Besides improving the quality of patient care, the combination of Elpas RTLS with Responder 5 will also help hospitals reduce the amount of manual reporting required from staff and facilitate care giver guideline compliance.

Hospitals may easily leverage their Elpas RTLS investment to enhance other areas of patient and personnel safety including infant/baby protection in maternity wards, staff attack/duress alerting and wandering patient supervision. Elpas Active RFID/RTLS can also be scaled to manage mobile medical assets in order to reduce shrinkage and lower maintenance related labor costs without degradation to RTLS Responder-5 functionality.

About Visonic Technologies

Visonic Technologies (VT) is a fully owned subsidiary of The Visonic Group (vsc.TA) and is a global provider of scalable Active RFID/RTLS based safety, security and management solutions for the healthcare industry and leverage wired or wireless Ethernet/Wi-Fi networks. VT delivers out-of-the-box as well as custom tailored risk mitigation tools that enhance patient and personnel safety, infant protection; delivers comprehensive asset management; lessens negligence litigation and facilitates industry guideline compliance.

The company currently serves customers throughout the Americas, the U.K., EMEA and Asia-Pacific.

About Rauland-Borg
For over 80 years, Rauland-Borg has been the industry leader in manufacture and design of communications and life-safety equipment for institutional environments. Rauland Responder® Nurse Call combines traditional nurse call components with the latest technology and software management tools. Responder systems offer fast, complete and flexible solutions for staff-to-staff and staff-to-patient communication; resulting in enhanced productivity and higher standard of patient care. For more information on Responder Nurse Call Systems, visit www.rauland.com.

Contact
Talia Savir
Marketing Communications Coordinator-Visonic Technologies
Tel: +972 3 7681400
Fax: +972 3 7681415
E-mail: talias@visonictech.com
Web Site: www.visonictech.com ]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/rauland-borg-and-visonic-technologies-collaboration-brings-enhanced-rtls-functionality-to-the-responder-5%C2%AE-nurse-call-system

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/rauland-borg-and-visonic-technologies-collaboration-brings-enhanced-rtls-functionality-to-the-responder-5%c2%ae-nurse-call-system/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/versus-to-validate-improved-patient-care-with-rtls-at-himss-2010 http://www.thertlsblog.com/versus-to-validate-improved-patient-care-with-rtls-at-himss-2010#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:53:40 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1856
With hundreds of happy clients, countless integrations and an expanding partner group, Versus is pleased to showcase the most transformational RTLS applications in existence at this year's Health Information Management Systems Society conference, (HIMSS). You'll find Versus at booth #7949, the Rauland-Borg booth (#5603) and at Microsoft®'s booth (#6733) during exhibit hall hours, with special presentations from Ginger Banks and Steve Willis, both of PeaceHealth, at the Product Pavilion Session on Tuesday, March 2, from 3:15pm-4pm and at the American Hospital Association's booth (#6115) on Monday, March 1 from 4:30pm-5:15pm. These presentations will focus on using the Versus system for situational awareness and improved patient flow. ]]> http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0590173.htm

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/versus-to-validate-improved-patient-care-with-rtls-at-himss-2010/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/south-jersey-healthcare-enhances-tracking-and-communication-system-with-amelior-tracker http://www.thertlsblog.com/south-jersey-healthcare-enhances-tracking-and-communication-system-with-amelior-tracker#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:42:08 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1851
South Jersey Healthcare Regional Medical Center is a 262-bed facility in Vineland, N.J. To complement and enhance the delivery of responsive, efficient care, the integrated medical campus, which is a part of the South Jersey Healthcare network, is uniquely designed.

The installation will include the Amelior Tracker solution which is a part of the Amelior Enterprise Visibility Suite comprising department to facility-wide software solutions and services designed to more efficiently and safely orchestrate patient care through the real-time visualization of patient flow. The installation is expected to get completed by spring 2010. ]]> http://healthcare.tmcnet.com/topics/healthcare/articles/76772-south-jersey-healthcare-enhances-tracking-communication-system-with.htm

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/south-jersey-healthcare-enhances-tracking-and-communication-system-with-amelior-tracker/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/extension-inc-and-aeroscout-partner-to-deliver-solutions-for-healthcare-rtls-and-voip http://www.thertlsblog.com/extension-inc-and-aeroscout-partner-to-deliver-solutions-for-healthcare-rtls-and-voip#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:04:40 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1842
Both AeroScout and EXTENSION provide solutions that leverage healthcare organizations' existing Wi-Fi infrastructure. EXTENSION offers a comprehensive solution suite, including EXTENSION® HealthLocate™ for AeroScout and Cisco that utilizes the entire Cisco Unified Communications platform including Cisco Unified Presence Server for location services. Todd Plesko, CEO of EXTENSION, INC. noted, "EXTENSION can offer an extensive number of interfaces through a single, enterprise appliance. When healthcare institutions implement our solutions they can expect immediate improvements in communications among disparate systems, departments and across their entire organization. We are thrilled to have joined forces with AeroScout as this allows us to provide a solution in the fast-growing healthcare RTLS space with the recognized market leader." ]]> http://www.dotmed.com/news/story/11755/

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/extension-inc-and-aeroscout-partner-to-deliver-solutions-for-healthcare-rtls-and-voip/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/versus-rtls-to-support-ministry-of-health-performance-goals-at-rouge-valley http://www.thertlsblog.com/versus-rtls-to-support-ministry-of-health-performance-goals-at-rouge-valley#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:33:26 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1833
In 2008, RVHS was one of 23 hospitals selected by the Ontario government to focus on reducing ED wait times. "Efficient patient flow is evidenced to have a positive impact on safety, satisfaction and revenue," explains Darren Micallef, Consultant, HC4Site. "The provincial target wait times are very achievable at 8 hours for complex conditions and 4 hours for minor conditions, but hospitals struggle with identifying roadblocks. Bringing in an expert at patient flow, like Versus, is key to ensuring that the provincial targets are not only achieved, but achieved in a manner that is timely, efficient, intuitive for staff and that complements Rouge Valley's unique processes."

The Versus RTLS solution will be deployed in phases. The first phase will include a Dashboard, with key performance indicators (KPIs) like 'overall length of stay' and 'bed assignment to room' times displayed in real-time. A centrally-located electronic whiteboard (also available at individual workstations) will convey patient location and relevant patient information, like assigned caregivers. ]]> http://freshnews.com/news/283380/versus-rtls-support-ministry-health-performance-goals-rouge-valley

]]> http://www.thertlsblog.com/versus-rtls-to-support-ministry-of-health-performance-goals-at-rouge-valley/feed 0 http://www.thertlsblog.com/hospital-selects-wi-fi-based-tracking http://www.thertlsblog.com/hospital-selects-wi-fi-based-tracking#comments Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:42:58 +0000 Ajay Malik, Author RTLS for Dummies http://www.thertlsblog.com/?p=1901
Ekahau, www.ekahau.com, Saratoga, Calif., has announced that its Real Time Location System (RTLS) has been selected by Flagler Hospital, a 316-bed acute care hospital based in St. Augustine, Fla., in order to provide a variety of hospital-wide asset tracking, work-flow, and management applications.

RTLS is a system that can track the location of tagged assets over any generation or brand of enterprise-grade Wi-Fi network. Flagler Hospital uses a campus-wide wireless LAN (local-area network) from Cisco Systems, www.cisco.com, San Jose, Calif., for various applications, which means the same network can now be employed for inventory control and tracking several thousand clinical assets. Flagler Hospital expects to add more location-based applications, including staff and patient tracking and temperature monitoring in future. ]]> http://www.m2mmag.com/news/articles/article.aspx?ID=8144

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