RFID/RTLS
The research firm rated 11 RTLS vendors and found that today’s vendors are looking beyond the basics to help healthcare organizations improve care quality, increase staff efficiency and boost the bottom line.
Iowa- and Illinois-based Genesis Health Systems has joined forces with visibility and analytics provider, STANLEY Healthcare, and nurse call platform provider, Critical Alert, to streamline clinical workflows using STANLEY'S RTLS platform and Critical Alert's Nurse Call tool, the companies announced last week.
Using the native integration from Critical Alert and the staff workflow function of STANLEY's RTLS platform, the staff at Genesis can locate clinicians and respond to bedside patient alerts and requests. Maureen Nylin, nursing clinical informatics specialist at Genesis Health System told Healthcare IT News that Genesis expects the implementation will improve HCAHPS scores and staff and patient satisfaction.
"The implementation was a collaborative approach," Nylin said. "Alarm management is a hot button issue from everyone across the board; it's getting tongue-in-cheek. It's not about managing alarms, but making sure what you're doing is meaningful."
"For our clinicians, when they're getting messages, they know exactly what the patient needs," she added. "Trying to overcome alarm fatigue is about getting the right message to the right person, at the right time."
Implementation began in June of 2015 at Genesis' DeWitt Community Hospital. According to Nylin, one of the greatest improvements is that patient calls are canceled as the nurse walks into a room, which frees up time for the clinician.
Furthermore, the data is being collected for a knowledge base to "see the low-hanging fruit," Nylin said. "We'd like to use the analytics to see where we can improve efficiencies."
The Critical Alert tool captures data from clinical workflow, allowing staff to analyze the data points into the nurse call system, according to Josh Troop, marketing director for Critical Alert.
"We're working with companies like STANLEY, to create something much more valuable than two equal parts," Troop said. "In this case, we were able to leverage the STANLEY investment that Genesis already made to ramp up our tools already. Our systems work together seamlessly in the background."
For STANLEY, it's about making sure "clinicians have more time to spend with the patient to improve the care arena," Nadav Barkaee, product manager for integrations, STANLEY Healthcare said. "One of the major benefits of being able to offer an enterprise-grade RTLS solution is to make sure the investment can be used across multiple solutions for staff efficiencies and workflow."
Genesis plans to implement the systems at four more of its hospitals in the near future.
Two people who died at the UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center are among seven patients that UCLA has identified as infected by the deadly superbug CRE, the Los Angeles Times reports today.
Just a few years ago, discussion of the use of radio-frequency identification in healthcare was usually limited to drug manufacturers and wholesalers. But more and more hospitals are using RFID technology to improve safety and efficiency.
The healthcare industry will be among the first to reap the benefits of emerging four-dimensional printing technology, according to a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
The supply chain represents about 25 percent of a healthcare facility's operating budget, and industry trends strongly indicate that this percentage will continue to grow. Thus, supply chain optimization is not an option, it's a must.
Amazon.com revolutionized the online buying experience for millions while giving sellers an expanded market. Now a new online direct contracting service called Aptitude is attempting a similar coup, letting healthcare organizations negotiate with suppliers in an attempt to speed up the contracting process and reduce costs.
In opening its new, flagship hospital in the state capital last month, MaineGeneral Medical Center took a bit of a gamble promoting the $312 million Alfond Center for Health on Facebook.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has tapped HP Enterprise Services and Intelligent InSites for a $543 million contract to deploy real-time locating system technology in VA medical centers nationwide.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and real-time location systems (RTLS) offer big savings and ROI for hospitals, and hold the promise for big improvements in patient safety. They also happen to be really cool.