Real-Time Locationing Systems (RTLS)
and Patient Flow

Better patient flow means better patient care.  With more than 700 hospitals using TeleTracking solutions, you can feel confident that we are committed to helping hospitals deliver the highest quality, most cost effective healthcare by improving patient flow throughout the entire care delivery system.  

However, another piece of the patient flow puzzle for many hospitals is knowing where a patient or piece of equipment is in the facility, and thus eliminate many of the non value-added steps as they progress through their busy work day.   To achieve this goal, hospitals are beginning to evaluate  a variety of  newly-emerging wireless locationing technologies called real-time locationing systems (RTLS).

RTLS comes in multiple formats such as radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless technology (WiFi), Infrared and Ultrasound, each of which differs in terms of cost, accuracy, granularity and range.  

TeleTracking believes that the real value of RTLS will be realized when hospitals can do more than just know where a patient happens to be.  RTLS in the context of patient flow means that patient location is automatically communicated to key patient flow decision makers such as patient placement, housekeeping staff and patient transport.  When integrated with powerful patient flow automation systems such as TeleTracking’s suite of Capacity Management Solutions™, RTLS can increase the level of task automation that a hospital can realize, further improving patient flow. 

Today, TeleTracking is actively working with several RTLS technology vendors to integrate the information provided by RTLS systems into sound workflow decisions automated by our solutions.   TeleTracking’s systems enable us to ‘talk’ to multiple RTLS signals, such as RFID and Ultrasound, allowing us to accommodate whichever RTLS technology a hospital chooses.

If you are considering implementation of RTLS in your facility and have questions about how TeleTracking and RTLS can work together, please email us at rtlsinfo@teletracking.com, or contact your TeleTracking sales representative.