Real-time Locating Systems (RTLS) are defined as any technology that can be used to continuously determine the real-time location of assets and personnel in an indoor environment. Location accuracy is the ability to locate equipment within a defined area. The value of RTLS deployment for asset management hinges on room level location accuracy. Knowing the specific room location of mobile medical equipment, personnel and patients is imperative to drive optimal asset tracking and asset management efficiency.

The Only Truly Practical Enterprise-Wide RTLS Solution for Hospitals

Awarepoint RTLS offers the quickest, most economical and least disruptive installation available to hospitals today. Once your hospital’s floor plans are provided and business needs determined, Awarepoint customizes the RTLS configuration to your specific facility. Awarepoint RTLS is installed and deployed in weeks not months or years.

Sensors are simply plugged in. The system can be installed anywhere in your facility without disruption, even in occupied patient rooms and sterile areas. Low profile Sensors plug securely into electrical outlets and form the wireless Awarenet® mesh network that ensures seamless operation. No site survey or calibration are required.

Tags are attached. Small, battery-powered Tags (less than 1.5” squared) are securely attached to equipment. Patient and staff Tags can be attached via belt clip, lanyards, badges, or ID bracelets.

Track. Users track equipment and people from any accessible hospital-based computer using the Searchpoint™ search engine. The interface is intuitive, offering simple, one-click searching capability that requires little to no staff training. With the selection made, a facility-specific map appears pinpointing the location or status of the asset or person

Simple. Scalable. Sensible.

In addition to using standards that are both well-documented and safe, Awarepoint has developed a patented plug-in sensor design that makes enterprise RTLS network deployment extremely simple and cost effective. Our patented Awarenet® Wireless Mesh Network derives its competitive advantages from:

  • Its use of 802.15.4 and ZigBee mesh networking standards
  • The strength of its positioning engine algorithms and software
  • The design of its tags and sensors

As soon as a sensor is plugged in, it automatically becomes a network “node” that can collect and route data received from Awarepoint tags to a coordinating bridge node which then forwards data to Awarepoint’s RTLS components for interpretation.

Each node on an Awarenet network is self-routing and able to connect to other nodes. Connections between nodes are dynamically updated and optimized as required. These ad-hoc routing capabilities give each Awarenet the ability to automatically re-route messages in case of a node failure that might occur anywhere in the mesh.

These characteristics make Awarepoint network solutions:

  • Highly scalable (a ZigBee network can scale to > 65,000 active devices)
  • Easily modifiable for use in dynamic environments
  • Easily deployed by technicians with minimal technical training

Begin with TRUST

Awarepoint best practice guidelines for healthcare advocate hospitals implement enterprise awareness associated with TRUST (Tracking, Rentals, Utilization, Shrinkage, and Temperature Monitoring). These initial value drivers deliver a hard dollar return, and provide a scalable platform for numerous additional applications to be leveraged related  to patient, personnel and workflow automation benefits. We have consistently delivered proven success for each module to leading hospital systems across the country.

Tracking: The ability for staff to easily locate assets, have an accurate inventory of assets, improve the percentage of on-time preventative maintenance of tagged assets, and reducing the number of “unable to locate” assets.

Rentals: Hospitals routinely rent equipment to support patient care needs. Rentals can include specialty items used infrequently, incremental equipment needs to support higher occupancy and acuity, and other daily therapy rentals. Tracking rental assets with RTLS provides insight to reductions in rental expense including lowering overall rental costs and rental days by equipment type.

Utilization: With RTLS, hospitals have the tools to closely track equipment and observe usage. Equipment utilization data identifies process inefficiencies that require excess equipment inventory often simply because staff cannot readily find otherwise available equipment. RTLS offers real-time data on the average and peak utilization of tagged equipment to make data driven purchase decisions. Average utilization, peak utilization by equipment type and ideal par levels are established.

Shrinkage: Lost, misplaced and stolen equipment is a constant drain on hospital resources. RTLS reduces the incidence of lost, misplaced and stolen assets with alerts and missing asset reports which are used to analyze shrinkage trends and make necessary adjustments to hospital operations.

Temperature Monitoring: Monitoring of temperature controlling assets often requires manual logging and reliance of nursing, pharmacy or laboratory staff. RTLS provides automated temperature collection for pharmacy, lab and dietary refrigerators, sending alerts for out-of-range temperatures and documenting corrective action for out-of range temperature events.

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