Citing superior accuracy and performance, the Methodist Healthcare System, San Antonio, TX, has selected TeleTracking Technologies' RadarFind real-time locating system (RTLS) to track thousands of assets, and eventually patients, across multiple facilities.
Methodist Healthcare System is jointly owned by Methodist Healthcare Ministries and the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), which is the largest privately-held healthcare system in the United States. Methodist will implement RadarFind's sensor-network based RTLS in five of its 24 facilities, with plans for future applications such as patient tracking, infection control, and contextual status reporting on critical environmental conditions.
"After extensive consideration of various RTLS systems, the RadarFind real-time locating solution offered superior capabilities, including greater scalability, accuracy and performance," said Edward Cuellar, chief information officer for Methodist. "The system will also provide powerful business intelligence to improve care, increase efficiency and plan for capital expenditures."
RadarFind's RTLS uses patented sensor-network technology to achieve room-level accuracy. The system operates wirelessly via a radio frequency ideally suited for accurately tracking both assets and people without compromising a hospital's Wi-Fi network.
Initially, more than 15,000 assets will be tagged, including infusion pumps, sequential compression devices (SCDs) and wheelchairs throughout five Methodist hospital facilities in the San Antonio vicinity. Implementation of the system is currently underway at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital with Methodist Hospital, Methodist Stone Oak Hospital, Metropolitan Methodist Hospital and Northeast Methodist Hospital to follow later this year.
RadarFind's sensor network can be quickly installed while patients are in the room and can easily scale to accommodate thousands of asset and patient tags across multiple hospital facilities. RadarFind also communicates information on a tagged item's status to show whether it is in-use, available or needs cleaning. Additional contextual status indicators include automated temperature monitoring for clinical refrigerators and freezers.
"Unlike most real-time location systems, RadarFind's innovative sensor technology determines not just location, but status and context," said Mike Nelson, president of RadarFind. "For example, a nurse can locate the nearest wheelchair, report whether it is occupied or available for use and report whether it is moving or not to make sure the right equipment is available for a patient at the appropriate time and place."
RadarFind is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TeleTracking, the three-year KLAS Leader in Patient Flow with more than 800 hospital customers. TeleTracking has supported Methodist since 2007. The strength of this relationship and the planned integration between RadarFind patient tracking applications and TeleTracking patient flow solutions played a key role in this decision.
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