Hospital sees strong adoption of RTLS

Adding radio frequency identification tags to medical equipment and supplies can shave valuable time off the search for these tools, making a tremendous impact on efficiency and process safety. However, real-time location systems (RTLSs) still face hurdles in gaining acceptance from staff who may view tracking devices as an invasion of privacy. 

When Nemours Children’s Health System set out to redeploy an RTLS solution at its flagship hospitals in Orlando, Fla., and Wilmington, Del., the team behind the implementation committed to a multiphase approach that positioned its asset tracking system as staff support.

Nemours launched the “Nemours Sidekick” initiative in August 2020 with the deployment of RTLS-enabled temperature monitoring and asset tracking. 

“The ‘Nemours Sidekick’ name was selected to highlight that the RTLS technology platform is always there for Nemours staff when they need it,” explains Drew Corbett, senior director of infrastructure and operations at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. 

The system provides up-to-date location and status for 6,000 pieces of mobile medical equipment and monitors more than 1,000 temperature-controlled units. With support from vendor Infinite Leap, Nemours developed a multiphase, multiyear plan to ensure the Internet of Things technology was fully leveraged by staff. 

The first phase kicked off with interviews across clinical departments to dig into the challenges with the existing RTLS platform, identify opportunities to leverage more advanced RTLS solutions and understand each departments’ use cases of RTLS. “This helped shape the project goals and address many inadequacies of the original solution,” Corbett says.

Corbett adds, “Regular updates were provided to senior leadership, along with communications out to the organization, preparing them for the implementation.” Online virtual classes, department-specific in-person training, Q&A events and product demos rounded out the engagement effort.