Real-Time Location Systems Market Map: Helping health systems find equipment and ROI
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While radio-frequency identification (RFID) and other real-time location systems (RTLS) have been in use for decades, Apple’s introduction of Find My iPhone (and subsequent AirTag technology) created the revolutionary consumer expectation of being able to locate or “ping” a particular item with remarkable accuracy. In a complex health system with thousands of pieces of equipment and hundreds of staff members, that capability can prove invaluable.
In healthcare settings, RTLS leverage tracking devices or badges and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to track the movement of equipment, staff, and patients across healthcare facilities to improve operational efficiency.
How RTLS Works
Real-time location systems consist of a few components:
Tags: These are the physical items placed on the person or object to track.
Location sensors: Sensors can rely on a range of technologies to identify tags, including light, camera vision, infrared, sound, ultrasound, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, ZigBee, ultra-wideband, GPS, and cellular.
Location engine software: This software communicates directly with the tags and sensors, passing information to middleware, which acts as the “plumbing,” and ultimately provides data to end-user applications.
Across these components there are a dizzying array of factors to consider, such as power requirements, battery life, range, installation requirements, maintenance, cost, and time and space resolution (i.e. specificity and frequency of location data). Existing infrastructure is also an important consideration, as consistent Wi-Fi or cellular coverage may be needed for some systems.
Differentiating RTLS Vendors
There are essentially two use-cases at play when looking at RTLS:
Managing physical assets: The more traditional use-case for RTLS is in locating or tracking physical assets, such as equipment, beds, or rooms. This can help with reducing equipment theft or loss, allowing staff to page security to their location, and improving patient flow and reducing waiting times.
It contributes to the latter by indicating when a bed or necessary piece of equipment is available for use, locating that equipment, speeding up housekeeping turnovers, and locating equipment due for maintenance. All of this can contribute to ROI by increasing patient satisfaction, improving bed turnover, and reducing “left without being seen” rates. Vendors that support these use-cases include Cognosos and Blyott.
Managing people and processes: Looking toward the future, RTLS can also be used as part of a broader AI-informed facility management approach, helping health system leaders understand patient volumes, wait times, how staff is spending time, locating patients and providers, and tracking patient flow between departments.
All of these functions may ultimately support adjacent categories such as AI remote patient monitoring and triage—allowing long-term care facilities to flag when a patient hasn’t moved from their bed to use the bathroom, for example—and scheduling optimization of staff based on patient volume or acuity. In a post-COVID world, the value of a system that is capable of contact tracing and enforcing hand-washing protocols also can’t be understated.
AiRISTA, Apprentice Health, Centrak, Kontakt.io, Midmark, Navenio, Securitas, and Sonitor track staff and patients in order to deliver actionable analytics and insights around workflow optimization in addition to physical asset tracking.
As hospital rooms become ever smarter we expect to see RTLS leveraged in clinical workflows with increasing frequency. The question, however, is whether these solutions will remain independent or will consolidate with other AI facility management solutions, remote patient monitoring and triage, or even EHRs.