Maybe Cleveland’s chief rival in the medical mart competition is stronger than previously thought.
The Nashville Medical Trade Center announced its biggest tenant yet, an 80,000-square foot multi-vendor showroom that will feature RFID (radio frequency identification) and RTLS (real-time locating systems) technologies in healthcare.
Multiple companies associated with the RFID in Healthcare Consortium, a trade group, are planned to occupy the space.
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Added to health IT group HIMSS, the new tenant represents the second multi-vendor showroom that’s signed up for space in the Nashville medical mart.
That’s relevant to Cleveland because multi-vendor-themed showrooms are a new component of the Cleveland medical mart’s strategy under the new leadership of Jim Bennett, a senior vice president with the property developer behind the Cleveland project, MMPI.
And Cleveland has yet to announce any concrete plans regarding multi-vendor spaces, so the score stands at 2 to 0 in favor of Nashville as of now — for whatever that’s worth.
Cleveland medical mart spokesman Dave Johnson brushed off Nashville’s latest plans. “We certainly don’t see any concerning issues regarding Nashville’s announcement and our progress on the overall Cleveland medical mart concept, including potential multi-vendor showroom spaces,” he said.
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Here’s how Nashville envisions the RFID and RTLS showroom will look: A portion of the space called “The Intelligent Hospital” will replicate the hospital environment and will include registration, surgical services, emergency rooms and critical care units. The space will demonstrate automated technology such as real-time patient information delivered to smartphones or tablets from the operating room or emergency department, coordinated through a central “war room.”
RFID and RTLS technology has several uses in hospitals, such as to help locate surgical sponges used during operations, helping nurses and doctors avoid leaving the sponges inside patients after surgery. In general, the technology can be used to help hospitals track the location of equipment, patients and employees.
The Nashville project has been left for dead more than once, but that apparently was misguided thinking. With the new tenant announcement, the privately financed Nashville project appears to be on its way to landing the funding it’ll need to begin construction.
Still, the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center is scheduled to open on Aug. 31, 2013, and will likely give it at least a year or two head start on Nashville.