Optimize Your Mobile Health Assets With RTLS

Edited by Ken Congdon, Editor In Chief, Health IT Outcomes

There's no denying that the growing use of mobile solutions in healthcare offers several advantages, including increased productivity and user convenience. However, increased mobility also comes with a potentially disastrous side effect — poor traceability. With more of your equipment and personnel on the move more often, keeping tabs on, and effectively managing these assets can become an increasingly complicated challenge that can negatively impact patient care. As the name suggests, RTLS can provide you with a real-time view of the exact location of your most critical assets at any point in time. This is made possible through the use of tags or badges, affixed to an asset, that transmit a wireless signal to a network and display an item's location on a software interface. Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) is one healthcare organization that has leveraged RTLS for years. Health IT Outcomes recently had the opportunity to interview Bill Foster, systems analyst at CHS to discuss some of the best practices CHS has deployed in its RTLS deployment and the benefits it has enjoyed as a result.