Sharing RTLS Experience with the Industry

By Stephanie Bertschy, Senior Marketing Manager

The focus for Midmark at this year’s MGMA conference was demonstrating how real-time locating systems (RTLS) help clinics meet operational challenges in order to improve patient-centered care. This was supported by informative presentations from some of our most valued customers.

Kevin Hoover, MD, PhD, and director of musculoskeletal imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), discussed how VCU Health worked with Midmark to create an optimal environment for patient-centered and multidisciplinary care. VCU wanted an ambulatory care facility that provided patients access to their own room upon check-in.

Supporting patient self-rooming in a facility with more than 88,000 square feet of clinical space required a novel approach. RTLS technology emerged as a powerful tool that could support this. It helps to visualize workflow at the time care is provided, identify longer-term opportunities for improvement and measure the effect of changes in workflow. In the year following the center opening, staff continue to leverage RTLS to benefit patients in real time by utilizing learning algorithms to model patient visits and optimize scheduling.

Another Midmark client, Dulcye Field, CMPE, CPHQ, discussed how Columbia Basin Health Association integrated RTLS to improve patient throughput and workflow management. Columbia Basin was working out of two aging buildings and were unable to provide a full scope of services to patients in a rural area of eastern Washington. They incorporated RTLS into the design of their new building and used it to improve patient satisfaction by reducing wait times, improving safety by locating patients more quickly utilizing RTLS badges, and improving the overall efficiency of workflows.

RTLS technology allowed Columbia Basin to collect data that provided insight into the overall efficiency of the clinic. Now, the association utilizes illuminated panels automated by RTLS data, to easily show room status so team members can see when it is time for their interaction. Green indicates the room is ready for a patient, yellow means a patient is in the room, blue is for patients ready for the provider, orange is a call for the phlebotomist and red means the room is empty and ready for cleaning. 

To learn more about how Midmark helped these organizations, download the slide decks here: Virginia Commonwealth and Columbia Basin.