PeaceHealth, a 10-hospital system in the Pacific Northwest, keeps finding new ways to benefit from its real-time location system.
In 2006, the Vancouver, Washington-based not-for-profit health system PeaceHealth started with an RTLS pilot in the emergency department of its Eugene, Oregon, hospital to improve department throughput. PeaceHealth turned the Eugene facility into a specialty hospital, but replicated the RTLS setup in a replacement full-service hospital that opened in 2008.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
With the help of software from Versus Technology, Traverse City, Michigan, PeaceHealth has since integrated the RTLS with its admit-discharge-transfer system and created a dashboard to track patient, staff and equipment movement throughout the ED and beyond. The dashboard displays pertinent patient data, including chief complaints and status of laboratory and imaging orders.
The health system is now starting to integrate the RTLS with its Epic Systems electronic health record.
“We’ve made all sorts of enhancements since we went live [in the ED 10 years ago],” said Doug Duvall, lead systems analyst for PeaceHealth, which operates in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. PeaceHealth has an internal goal of never having patients wait more than 60 minutes for a bed after they’ve been admitted via the ED.
While the goal isn’t always met, PeaceHealth has cut physician-to-bed time by 52 percent and average length of stay by 14 percent, according to data supplied by Versus. No matter what, physician-to-bed time gets communicated to ED managers and captured for throughput analysis, Duvall said.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
After the ED rollout at Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend in Springfield, PeaceHealth expanded RLTS to operating suites, with tags on both staff and heavy medical equipment, though not individual surgical supplies. Next up was women’s services, including labor and delivery.
“They came to us,” Duvall said of the OB/GYN department. “We actually badge the moms when they come in.”
Obstetricians have RTLS badges as well. When a physician visits a patient, the system puts a check mark on the electronic locator board, so everyone in the department knows where to find the doctor. “That was the ROI for providers,” Duvall said, the promise of fewer pages and phone calls.
Physicians don’t wear RTLS badges in medical/surgical units, but the nurses do because it’s part of the nurse call system. Nurse response time has improved by at least 5 percent on each floor that has the technology, Versus reported.
Patients also get tags in high-volume areas of the Springfield facility, including the anesthesia clinic, Duvall said.
“We use [RTLS] it for asset management, too,” about 4,000 pieces of equipment in total, Duvall said. The biomedical department tracks infusion pumps, for example. Because it deploys the fleet more efficiently, PeaceHealth has saved $100,000 by no longer having to rent infusion pumps. “There’s a clear ROI,” Duvall said.
Springfield is the only hospital in the PeaceHealth system to have RTLS throughout, though Duvall is developing a roadmap for a wider deployment. “They don’t have the infrastructure in all the EDs,” Duvall explained.
RTLS is in the EDs in Longview and Bellingham, Washington, while the Vancouver, Washington, hospital is retrofitting its nurse call system with Versus software, he said. “It’s been a slow, deliberate process.”
Photo: Flickr user Rick Obst
