From the November 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


About a year and a half ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs entered into a five-year, $543 million contract with HP Enterprise Services to provide RTLS for tracking assets, sterile processing and patient flow at more than 150 medical centers and seven outpatient pharmacies across the country.

For the project, HP chose to collaborate with some of the big players in the industry, including CenTrak, Intelligent InSites and WaveMark, to perform development, integration, implementation, testing, training, and support functions.


Debbie Elgot, HP Enterprise Services’ RTLS solutions portfolio manager for the U.S. public sector, says it’s still too early to say how the RTLS system has impacted the VA. Van De Graaff says the VA contract was more of an indication that use of RTLS matters to some big health care systems, but hasn’t led to much wider adoption.

“I think it created some good visibility, but there hasn’t been a strong trigger from what we’ve seen,” Van De Graaff says. RTLS providers say that facilities should look at the big picture when considering where the systems fit in, because in addition to tracking equipment, the technology can also be used to ensure patient safety and boost satisfaction, and prevent cuts to Medicare reimbursement rates.

“Healthcare systems are getting the opportunity now, and also it’s almost economically mandated that they look for ways to improve operational efficiency and at the same time improve patient experience,” says Marcus Ruark, vice president of Products and Strategy for RTLS software provider Intelligent InSites. “A few years ago, hospitals were very focused on electronic health records and the clinical side of delivering care. Now they’re getting a chance to address, more than ever, the operational side.”

Alphabet soup
While some may consider RTLS and radio frequency identification (RFID) interchangeable, they are actually quite different. RTLS tags are read automatically and constantly, while RFID is more passive, and are read at fixed points — kind of like the GPS on a smartphone versus electronic toll pass systems. RFID tags can’t confirm where a particular portable X-ray unit is — it can only tell you where it was last checked in, so it’s more commonly used for inventory control and disposable items, whereas RTLS is generally used to track staff, patients and larger pieces of equipment.

With RTLS, battery-operated emitters throughout the hospital provide accurate location data at certain levels, and the captured data works with the software programs. The software can be compared to the iPhone’s personal assistant, Siri, which uses the Internet — or the location data — to figure out where an asset is. RTLS systems use several different types of technology, including infrared, offered by companies such as CenTrak and ultrasound, which is the primary technology that Sonitor Technologies uses. CenTrak’s Peck says that ultrasound technology can have issues with battery life and that the speakers and receivers can be more difficult to clean for infection control purposes.

November 2014 Magazine

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