In the dynamic world of healthcare, the efficiency of hospital operations is paramount. According to a McKinsey report, nurses spend about 6 percent of a 12-hour shift searching for medical supplies or equipment, leading to significant time loss and inefficiencies. Migrating to digital asset tracking is just one challenge among many pain points in a healthcare facility that need to be addressed as organizations work to upgrade their security.
It is also becoming more vital for IT leaders to support the business departments in the hospital workforce (biomedical, nursing, security, etc.) with long term solutions that minimize deployment of siloed hardware infrastructure. Typically, hospitals may rent equipment to cover their medical asset needs, but in the long run renting is much more costly than owning.
This is where partnerships like rf IDEAS and Pole Star help deliver more value. As an indoor positioning pioneer, Pole Star’s location-based services coupled with rf IDEAS’ WAVE ID® Bluetooth® supported readers helps to eliminate the siloed infrastructure that is common within hospital environments. This results in an innovative approach for leveraging the technology within WAVE ID® readers to enable Pole Star to provide added value for customers using existing hardware.
The Need for Efficient Digital Asset Tracking
Research shows us that between 10% to 20% of a hospital's mobile assets are lost or stolen during their useful life, costing hospital facilities $3,000 per item. Historically, the method in which hospitals could solve this issue was through infrastructure-heavy solutions that are not cost effective or operationally beneficial. It is vital to strategically analyze the hospital ecosystem and understand how to better leverage existing hardware instead of continually adding more with each new issue that arises.
The rf IDEAS & Pole Star Joint Solution
rf IDEAS is a leading supplier of authentication solutions for logical access, with many hospitals already deploying our readers throughout their facilities for clinician tap-and-go login, secure printing and more. Because of our WAVE ID Mobile readers’ BLE beaconing and beaconing-reading capabilities their asset-tracking value can be maximized through Pole Star’s solution.
By partnering with Pole Star and their Bluetooth®-based RTLS technology, we offer a joint solution that allows for more security and workflow efficiency pain points to be addressed, including digital asset tracking. A few benefits of our joint solution include:
Time Efficiency: By instantly locating equipment through a user-friendly application, nurses can reduce their asset search time and focus more on patient care.
Improved Utilization: Hospitals can increase the utilization rate of owned equipment, reducing the need for equipment rentals.
Reduced Theft and Loss: By requiring authentication via a WAVE ID reader, valuable hospital equipment can only be accessed by verified users. Plus, through Pole Star’s RTLS NAO Track, alarms are raised when equipment leaves its designated zone, significantly reducing theft and loss.
Enhanced Patient Flow: Outpatient clinics can improve patient throughput and increase revenue by knowing where patients are in their journey.
Increased Staff Safety: Staff can reliably call for help, ensuring a quick response to safety incidents.
Cost-Effective and Scalable Solutions
Deploying legacy RTLS technologies often requires hefty budgets and high maintenance. In contrast, Pole Star provides Bluetooth-based systems that are compatible with existing infrastructure components, costing up to ten times less than legacy solutions to deploy.
Pole Star's NAO Track is a state-of-the-art RTLS solution designed for asset tracking and people monitoring in various environments, including healthcare facilities. NAO Track utilizes advanced technologies such as BLE, motion sensors, and map data to provide real-time location tracking, detailed analytics, and custom alerts. This system integrates natively with systems like access control, BLE-enabled Wireless Access Points (WAPs) and IoT platforms, offering a centralized and unified view of operations.
By leveraging rf IDEAS BLE-enabled readers such as the WAVE ID Mobile Mini, as Bluetooth sensors, organizations can maximize their hardware investment and address more use cases and challenges within their existing infrastructure.
A Joint Solution that Enables More with Less
rf IDEAS and Pole Star’s digital asset tracking solution aims to free up nurses and biomedical engineering time, improve hospital profit and loss statements, and enhance overall safety. By integrating BLE technology into hospital operations and applications, we are paving the way for a more efficient and secure healthcare environment and helping these organizations maximize their investment to find new ways to leverage their hardware and partnerships.
Interested in learning more about rf IDEAS and Pole Star’s joint solution? Contact us today to connect with the appropriate representative.
