Why Hospital Executives Need RTLS Strategy
Caryn Hewitt, a seasoned healthcare executive, emphasizes that hospital leaders should integrate Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) into their strategy to gain real-time operational visibility, primarily through asset tracking and management, which leads to significant cost savings by optimizing equipment utilization and informing purchasing decisions.
RTLS Strategy Initiatives for Hospital Executives
When you have a veteran healthcare executive like Caryn Hewitt on your team, you can't miss an opportunity to invite them to share their experiences. Caryn, who is a Registered Nurse, held executive positions at a leading healthcare system in the Midwest—Sanford Health. Over the span of almost 40 years, she has served as Director of Operations - Head of Special Projects, Director of Nursing Operations, Chief Clinical Informatics Officer, and CIO. Now she is responsible for ensuring the success of clients—healthcare organizations leveraging the power of Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) to make their operations more effective, safer, and more satisfying for patients and staff.
We asked Caryn to share what healthcare executives should know about RTLS.
Why should healthcare leaders include RTLS in their strategy?
Healthcare leaders understand the need to have visibility into what is going on in their organization. There are many systems that provide insights into financial standings, supply chain, and clinical outcomes; however, where things are foggy is having a real-time view of healthcare operations. This gap can be filled by implementing a Real-Time Location System (RTLS).
What are the main use cases of RTLS in healthcare?
The most basic use case is asset tracking (asset locating) and asset management. It is fundamental from the perspective of getting an RTLS foundation in place and achieving fast and measurable ROI. Organizations that have implemented RTLS for asset management can see savings in equipment purchases and reduced rentals. This is accomplished through increased utilization of the equipment fleet they already have, as staff knows the location and status of each piece of equipment in the facility. These are hard dollars that can be returned to the organization's bottom line. With RTLS data, informed decisions can be made regarding relocating existing equipment or budgeting for new purchases.
Another critical use case is temperature monitoring, especially now when hospitals are receiving precious supplies of COVID-19 vaccines. However, the use case Caryn is most excited about is leveraging RTLS for improving patient flow.
Why is patient flow important?
As a nurse, Caryn understands the struggle between the need to provide the best care to patients and limited resources to provide the best patient experience. Nurses are overworked, so anything healthcare executives can do to reduce the number of manual tasks provides more time to dedicate to patients.
How can RTLS help?
It all comes down to having real-time visibility into patient workflow. RTLS systems provide needed information on patient location and status. EHR systems can provide that information, but it is only as good as the data entered by staff. With location badges given to patients, data is collected automatically and in real time.
When Caryn's organization implemented an RTLS system for patient flow, they were able to optimize many processes that would be impossible or burdensome to apply without RTLS. These processes included patient self-rooming, adopting an on/off-stage physical layout, and automating communication regarding patient status for care provider efficiencies.
RTLS also became a crucial tool in the fight against COVID-19. Because the system stores information about staff/patient locations and interactions, healthcare organizations with an RTLS system can immediately see exposure risks and shorten the contact tracing process of patients under investigation.
Another application of RTLS is using location-enabled staff badges to improve staff safety. The healthcare environment can be unpredictable. In recent years, staff violence has escalated, with more than two nursing personnel being assaulted every hour during Q2 last year. Situations can escalate rapidly, and patients or their family members can become aggressive towards nursing staff, putting nurses' emotional and physical wellbeing on the line.
The real-time location badges worn by staff proved to be a critical element of the rapid response system. When staff were in a distress situation, they could press the button on their RTLS badge, which triggered an alert. Knowing the exact location of the staff member in need enabled a much faster response from security and other co-workers. The RTLS-enabled staff duress system is a must-have for any healthcare facility—it protects staff, lowers organizational liability, and often allows situations to be deescalated before they become dangerous.
How can healthcare executives ensure the success of an RTLS initiative?
The main key to success is aligning an RTLS initiative with your corporate strategy. An RTLS system can enable many process improvement initiatives and should be seen as a mission-critical tool. It is recommended to start with an RTLS solution design process to identify how RTLS can be leveraged in your organization, and to establish a clear roadmap and execution plan.
Partnering with an experienced RTLS technology partner is also strongly advised to apply best practices and avoid potentially costly mistakes. Caryn and her team offer advice on this, helping institutions ensure their RTLS technology is optimized to empower process improvements and significantly increase efficiency, quality, capacity, and revenues for the organization.
Caryn's goal is to share what she has learned throughout her journey with RTLS and to help RTLS systems be an enabler to achieve operational excellence for her colleagues in healthcare.
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