April 25, 2022
Healthcare is more competitive than ever – and there’s great pressure to reduce healthcare costs without lowering the standard of care. More and more hospitals and long-term care facilities are using Real-Time Location Trackers to meet their operational goals while also improving patient outcomes.
Real-Time Location Trackers typically use infrared, ultrasound, Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband, or Wi-Fi technology to keep track of people and equipment. They may also keep track of how much time a person or piece of equipment spends in any one area. The data is collected via a wireless network.
The data collected by Real-Time Location Trackers is then used to eliminate inefficiencies and make better use of hospital staff and assets – all of which leads to reduced operating costs.
Our Trellix Locate Real-Time Location Tracking System does all of the above. It works seamlessly with our wireless lighting control system, WaveLinx Wireless, without the need for new infrastructure.
Get more value from your existing medical equipment investments.
Would you be surprised to know that, during the average shift, more than one-third of nurses spend at least one hour trying to locate a piece of medical equipment?1 That’s a lot of time wasted that could be used to care for patients.
Real-Time Location Trackers are a simple wireless solution that reduces search time for critical portable assets such as ventilators and intravenous pumps. BLE (Bluetooth low energy) tags are attached to the equipment and located by sensors connected to the lighting infrastructure. When the equipment is needed, its location is easily pinpointed on a virtual floor plan and patients aren’t left waiting.
The typical healthcare facility under-utilizes its available medical equipment. Real-Time Location Tracking can help hospitals get more value from their existing equipment.
Real-Time Location Tracking systems can even be programmed to provide preventive maintenance alerts to help medical facilities protect their expensive equipment and avoid costly repairs.
Our Trellix Locate Real-Time Location Tracking System can also help hospitals:
- Minimize unnecessary equipment purchases and rentals.
- Reduce equipment theft and accidental loss.
- Decrease patient waiting time.
- Reduce repetitive tasks.
Improve safety for patients.
As Baby Boomers continue to age, the number of Alzheimer’s and dementia residents continues to rise, as does the need for strategies to help keep them safe.
Wandering – i.e., aimless walking around – is a serious consideration with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that as many as 60% of Alzheimer’s patients wander.2 In a hospital or nursing home setting, wandering patients are an ever-present safety concern.
Fortunately, the same Real-Time Location Tracking technology that helps hospitals locate medical equipment can also be used to locate Alzheimer’s and dementia residents.
Real-Time Location Tracking solutions, such as Trellix Locate, can help ensure that patients won’t wander away from safe and authorized spaces.
When Alzheimer’s and dementia residents wear a BLUETOOTH tag, their physical movements are easily tracked by sensors. If the resident wanders out of a pre-determined area, medical staff are immediately notified via real-time alerts on their monitors or mobile devices.
Trellix Locate Real-Time Location Tracking solutions can also improve resident, patient, and staff experiences by:
- Enabling contact tracing reports to see which people and assets have been in contact with an infected person.
- Allowing occupants or their caregivers to personalize lighting, temperature, and more.
- Locating medical staff quickly.
- Providing better medical care.
- Facilitate staff, patient, and resident assistance.
Increase space optimization and workflow efficiencies.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical staff were overworked, and hospital beds were in short supply. Maximized space utilization was mission critical during the worst of the pandemic.
Today, bed capacity management is still an important part of delivering quality care.
Real-Time Location Tracking allows for closer synchronization between patient discharge and housekeeping (i.e., bed cleaning), so beds become available more quickly. The location of any available beds is readily available and reliable, leaving hospital staff more time to communicate with units about the needs of incoming patients. This agility and elimination of bottlenecks results in more available beds, more patients treated, and more revenue for the healthcare facility.
Trellix Locate Location Real-Time Location Tracking can further help with operational goals by helping hospital administrators to:
- Analyze and improve staff workflow to improve processes, compliance, and safety.
- Reduce diversion hours and improve E.D. and O.R. turnaround times.
- Perform advanced analytics and generate reports.
- Minimize room for error.
- Reduce bumped and late surgeries.
For more information about how our Trellix Locate Real-Time Location Tracking solutions can help healthcare providers better serve their patients while also containing costs, please talk with your agent.