Stavanger University Hospital is one of Norway’s largest hospitals, with over 7,500 employees. The hospital has put a special effort into developing health and healthcare in the fourth industrial revolution and into promoting data-driven decision-making and processes. The hospital provides healthcare and medical services as well as research to a population of more than 330,000 people.

Stavanger University Hospital is planning a new hospital with 120,000 square metres of indoor space.

Space Management Challenges in Healthcare

Hospitals are constantly facing hard-to-resolve space utilisation issues and need to know how the space and rooms are used. Generally, more space is needed, but there is rarely a surplus of space. The management of Stavanger University Hospital wanted to improve and optimise the use of space. By optimising the size of the facilities, the hospital can provide more efficient treatment to patients. However, this has brought challenges.

Efficient healthcare services require functional facilities and smart solutions. In hospital environments, valuable medical assets and equipment can sometimes be difficult to find because relevant tracking data is not readily available when needed.

The hospital management wanted to explore ways to promote data-driven decision-making, boost productivity and space maintenance, and track valuable assets and equipment usage using the IoT and information obtained through sensors.

IoT Revolution: Solutions for Hospital

Haltian’s Empathic Building Hospital Solution enables Stavanger University Hospital to optimise space utilisation in its facilities and buildings by combining various smart technologies such as location tracking, temperature control and equipment maintenance.

The solution collects information about space usage using IoT sensor devices in the hospital. Haltian created a digital twin of the hospital building with a 3D model. The pilot platform was up and running in just one week.

Stavanger University Hospital has the world’s first accurate real-time positioning system in the emergency area, powered by Quuppa. Equipment, employees and patients can be tracked using simple tags with an accuracy of less than 50 cm.

Quantifiable impact: Results of IoT Integration

The Haltian Empathic Building Hospital Solution with the hospital 3D digital twin offers several benefits to Stavanger University Hospital. The Quuppa system enables accurate, continuous and dynamic tracking.

• Improves space usage and control of rooms and helps plan new hospital facilities to meet the actual needs of departments, clinics, healthcare professionals and patients.
• Gives control of specific equipment. Medical staff can quickly identify and locate valuable devices when needed.
• Improves preparedness to focus on patients.
• Provides solutions to achieve huge savings and boost cost-efficiency.
• Provides new tools to improve occupational and patient safety.

This IoT development project is truly an expedition, and our ultimate goal is to get more out of our daily operations and improve patient care. The youth clinic can, for example, operate in just 14 rooms in the new hospital, compared to 29 rooms at the moment, by looking into the space usage data.
To make sure the new hospital facilities really work, we can even test the timetable and rotation of patients, nurses and doctors with the digital twin. We have the potential to save hundreds of millions of Norwegian crowns with this project.”

IT Director Cato Hemvik, Stavanger University Hospital

Future Strategies: Advancing Hospital Operations

As a next step, the management of Stavanger University Hospital wants to analyse the results of the pilot project and better understand how the data collected by the IoT sensors can be used in the daily operations of the hospital.

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The occurrence of external emergencies with a large number of casualties is known in the medical field as a mass casualty incident (MCI). Whether in the form of train accidents, NBC emergencies, or in connection with terrorist attacks – a large number of injured people require special procedures that differ significantly from individual medicine due to the scarcity of resources. To ensure that staff is sufficiently qualified to act in such extreme situations, the special plans and procedures for such scenarios must be regularly trained.

In November 2023, Heidelberg University Hospital planned and carried out such a large-scale exercise in the new surgery building. The exercise aimed to find out how long it takes from the arrival of patients to actual treatment and what the process looks like in practice until then. The knowledge gained from the exercise will then be used to optimise processes throughout Europe.

Simulating a realistic emergency scenario

The exercise scenario: An explosion in a company building caused by heating repairs. Within two hours, 100 mostly seriously injured patients (impersonated by actors) arrived at Heidelberg University Hospital. With 140 employees of the hospital as well as forces from the fire brigade, the German Red Cross, disaster control, the German Armed Forces, and many more, the procedures in such a disaster scenario were rehearsed as realistically as possible.

From alerting all the necessary emergency services and medical staff to the coordination and documentation of procedures to the rapid and adequate care of patients – the MCI concept had to be put from paper into practice. To draw the right conclusions from the extremely realistic exercise and identify points in the process that could be improved, the stress level of the medical staff was to be measured using biosensors. On the other hand, the aim was to track and record the locations and routes of staff and “patients” in real time.

Innovative tracking technology for emergency exercises

To record and later analyse the positions and routes of the people involved in the exercise, Favendo equipped the UKHD’s New Surgery building with a Quuppa tracker infrastructure. From patient admission to the treatment and operating theatres, Q17 Locators were installed to track exactly where people were staying and/or moving and for how long, down to the sub-metre.

Patients were equipped with Quuppa tags for localisation before the exercise began. The same goes for the hospital staff. When the ambulances arrived in front of the hospital building, the tag IDs were scanned using smartphone cameras and the Favendo Tagger software. The preliminary triage status of the patients was also recorded here. Thanks to the web-based software, handling was very simple and did not require any additional hardware. Once inside the building, the positions of patients and staff were then recorded anonymously and in real-time so that the data could later be used for optimisation purposes.

Key findings and Process Improvements

The scan processes were used to record the time stamp of the patient’s arrival at the hospital. In retrospect, it can be reconstructed for each patient exactly how long it took from the accident to admission and then again to treatment. This allows conclusions to be drawn about the care situation of a hospital in emergencies.

In addition to the time stamps, all position data was also recorded during the exercise. As pure geodata, but also visually in the Quuppa Data Player. Thanks to the geolocalisation, those responsible were able to identify bottlenecks and unclear processes during the exercise.

The video format makes it possible to analyse routes and junctions on the hospital floor plan retrospectively. This can also be used to identify possible incorrect positioning of treatment areas or bottlenecks in patient care. In addition, the recorded movement data can be subsequently enriched with further recorded data (e.g. which tags belong to medical or nursing staff).

In addition to the position data, the data from the biosensors for the stress level is also included in the analysis. Conclusions about the group dynamics within the treatment teams are possible by combining both data. Thanks to real-time localisation, the MCI exercise not only enabled practical training of hand movements and procedures but also provided new insights.

For more information, visit favendo.com.

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Quuppa RTLS Benefits for Healthcare

Faster & better care

• Respond quickly to patients and monitor patient roaming
• Prevent patient misidentification, falls or medication errors
• Monitor hand hygiene compliance
• Prevent the spread of infections through alerts, contact tracing and quarantine monitoring

Enhanced safety

• Control Access and automatically open doors for authorised personnel
• Prevent unauthorised visitors or child abductions
• Enhanced emergency response

Smooth & cost-effective processes

• Facilitate ER patient triage and management
• Manage Inventories: automate counts, monitor and maintain optimal temperatures, alert of the medication expiry date
• Optimise workflows, routes and layouts
• Prevent asset overlapping by tracking assets and digitising work orders

 

Real Stories. Real Results.

Stavanger University Hospital Transforms Patient Care with Haltian and Quuppa IoT Solutions

Stavanger University Hospital improves patient care and operational efficiency with Haltian’s IoT sensor devices and Quuppa’s real-time positioning system. By optimising the use of space and equipment, the hospital expects to make significant cost savings while ensuring patient safety.

Read More

Personnel tracking during MCI training at Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD)

Heidelberg University Hospital conducted a large-scale mass casualty incident (MCI) simulation to test the preparedness and effectiveness of their emergency response protocols. The excercise, involving 100 mock patients and 140 staff, used advanced tracking technology to gain insights and improve medical response strategies across Europe.

Read More

Case Study: University of Fukui Hospital

The University of Fukui hospital improves hand hygiene procedures by 300%.

Read More

Our Premium Healthcare Partners

Our industry-leading solution partners leverage Quuppa RTLS technology to deliver a range of indoor positioning solutions that can transform your healthcare operation.

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Both Secure Care Products and Quuppa specialize in safety and security solutions that feature indoor, real-time identification and location of infants, residents, and staff in healthcare facilities allowing for quick and precise response rates, integration of smartphones, scanners, and mobile devices, and scalability with multiple sites and projects. This partnership provides a joint-solution, dynamic location-based data innovation that elevates the level of safety and well-being of residents within the industry.

“Launching this partnership brings safety and security solutions to a new level in the industry. Secure Care can provide revolutionary location-based management and monitoring solutions that operate in a dynamic, real time location environment. This provides Secure Care with a highly accurate, versatile, scalable, and open solution for the healthcare industries. This partnership will do just that.”

Marc Chandonnet, Director at Secure Care

“We are very excited about the partnership with Secure Care who already has a long history and broad expertise in the field. Our joint offering is a perfect match with the healthcare decision makers need to improve staff and patient safety and at the same time meet the regulatory requirements.”

Tom Ruth, VP Sales at Quuppa U.S.

“Secure Care and Quuppa share a similar mission: to improve healthcare safety and security using location-based technology and adaptable solutions. We have been bringing healthcare and senior living facilities reliable safety solutions for over 40 years, and this latest partnership with Quuppa will expand our solutions while continuing to support our focus – safety and security always come first.”

About Secure Care Products, LLC   

For over 40 years, Secure Care Products, LLC has been committed to providing improved safety, and security, and locating solutions through best-in-class service and innovative design for your most valuable assets.  At Secure Care Products we put technology and innovation to the test, to provide wander management, infant security and healthcare security solutions that encourage independence while boosting safety. We strive to be the best, most trusted security partner for facilities and collaborate with our clients to understand and address their needs. Using state-of-the-art, technologically advanced solutions, we keep people and things protected. Let us know how we can help you by calling 1.800.451.7917 or contact us.  

About Quuppa  

Quuppa is the leading technology provider for real-time locating systems (RTLS). We offer a complete platform to serve companies in a range of industries, including manufacturing and logistics, retail, healthcare, sports, law enforcement and security. For more information, please see quuppa.com.

Learn more about this exciting partnership: Secure Care partners with Quuppa for healthcare facility safety solutions.

Media contacts 

Secure Care Products
Marc Chandonnet / Director of Sales and Marketing
Mchandonnet@securecare.com

Quuppa
Sari Arjamo-Tuominen / Chief Marketing Officer
sari.arjamo-tuominen@quuppa.com

The post Secure Care Partners With Quuppa For Healthcare Facility Safety Solutions appeared first on Quuppa.

The shortage also puts extreme pressure on existing staff to work overtime, making them more susceptible to burnout. The dire situation has led to 58% of nursing homes placing limits on new admissions. Patients are either being turned away, or they’re not getting the level of care they need.

Fortunately, recent developments in IoT (Internet of Things) technology could help alleviate the pressure that many nursing homes are feeling right now. While some of these IoT technologies have been around for a while, they are only now starting to find their way into the long-term care sector, where there is now a critical need. 

Location-based services as part of IoT

In short, IoT refers to any system of interrelated devices that connect and exchange data over the Internet or other communications networks. These interconnected devices can range from everyday smartphones and desktop computers to medical wearables and motion sensors. Basically, anything that can be embedded with sensors or actuators and connected to a smart device can be part of an IoT network.

In the long-term care sector, IoT networks can serve many purposes, such as improving communication between staff members, restricting access to specific areas, and gathering data on patient care. But perhaps the biggest benefit IoT can bring to the table is location tracking.

Location-based services refer to determining, monitoring and recording the real-time location of objects or people in a workspace. IoT does this through a network of sender devices, often wearable tags, and locators that record the position of each tag. Often referred to as Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS), these tracking systems come in many forms, some far more real-time and accurate than others. 

RTLS systems are already being deployed in industries as diverse as manufacturing, retail and healthcare, where they are helping to eliminate bottlenecks, track the movement of assets, and provide improved safety measures. 

The benefits of location-based IoT in long-term care

IoT location services can provide a lot of benefits to overstretched and understaffed nursing homes.

1. Equipment and inventory tracking

In nursing homes, medical devices can often get misplaced, leading to staff wasting a lot of time looking for them when they could be doing more important things. Fitting a traceable tag to each medical device allows staff to immediately locate a misplaced device with a minimum of fuss.

Medicines can also be tracked to prevent them being misplaced, lost or stolen, something that is especially important for cold-storage medicines, which can spoil in a short time if not returned to storage.  

2. Patient tracking for improved safety

The health and safety of patients is the number one priority of every nursing home. Even so, this can be difficult to achieve with an exhausted and overworked team, especially when it comes to patients with neurological conditions such as dementia that can cause them to wander off and injure themselves or others. 

With IoT, patients can wear traceable bracelets, so staff can monitor their location and quickly find them if they wander off. Alerts can also be set to go off if a patient tries to enter a restricted area or walk out the front door. 

3. Improved workflow and efficiency

Doctors, nurses and other staff members can also carry tags to help management know their location in the building at any time. This saves time for everyone and contributes to a more efficient work environment. Visitors can also be given tags to monitor their movements and keep them out of restricted areas.

In addition, managers can monitor the real-time location of everyone in the building throughout the day, which can provide vital information on which time periods are the busiest, which tasks take the longest, and how much individual care each patient is getting. With this information, facilities can design more efficient workflows that benefit everyone in the long run.

Final thoughts

Nursing homes and other long-term care centers are unlikely to overcome their staffing issues in the near future. In fact, the problem is likely to grow worse due to an aging population, budget cuts and an increasingly burnt-out workforce.

IoT location tracking won’t solve all your staffing problems, but it will certainly reduce the workload on staff while also contributing to a safer and less stressful environment for everyone.

The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.

This article was originally published here

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The post The power of IoT and Indoor Tracking in the LTC sector appeared first on Quuppa.

The manufacturing industry has always been a high-risk sector for workplace accidents. In 2019, there were 395,300 workplace injuries reported in the industry, making it the third-most dangerous occupation in the jobs market. Such startling statistics make it imperative for manufacturing managers to place a higher focus on accident prevention and safety initiatives within the workplace. But where should they start?

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has already had a beneficial impact on the manufacturing industry, creating complex machinery and automated systems that have slashed operating costs, increased output, and reduced environmental damage. But until recently, not enough attention was being placed on how these new technologies can also improve health and safety for manufacturing workers. That’s changing now as more manufacturers wake up to the advantages of using a real-time locating system (RTLS).

What is RTLS?

RTLS refers to a location-tracking system, for example, based on the use of Bluetooth-enabled tags. Each tag sends out a signal to a series of sensors that collect the data into a positioning engine that displays the real-time location of all the tags in the monitoring system. The tags can be affixed to assets or carried by staff as a sort of ID card, allowing for a highly efficient tracking, monitoring, and locating system within the workplace.

The potential uses and applications of this technology are almost innumerable. Already, RTLS is being integrated into the daily operations of a wide number of sectors, including health care, hospitality, retail, transportation, and construction. In the coming years, it’s likely to spread to just about every sector you can imagine.

RTLS infrastructures come with a range of benefits for improving staff safety. Some examples include:

• Access Monitoring: Any factory or warehouse equipped with heavy machinery has a high potential for work-related accidents. Most of the time, these accidents happen because unskilled workers have wandered into high-risk areas that they are not authorized to be in. To ensure this doesn’t happen, an active RTLS platform provides real-time location information to an access monitoring system, so that only skilled workers are given access to pass within a designated area. Any unskilled staff members who try to do the same will set off an alarm signal that warns them of the danger.
  
• Automated Emergency Mustering: In an emergency that requires a full evacuation to a designated assembly area, a lot of precious time is often lost counting heads the traditional way. Meanwhile, someone could be missing and in need of immediate assistance. RTLS ensures there is no time wasted by providing managers and foremen with an instant headcount of everyone who has made it to the assembly area. If anyone is unaccounted for, the RTLS system can provide their last known location.
  
• Monitored Visitor Access: Other accidents are the result of allowing visitors unrestricted access to the workplace. By providing visitors with RTLS tags, you can restrict their access and prevent them from wandering into high-risk zones.
  
• Minimizing Stock Handling Mistakes: In the fast-paced work environment of a storage depot or manufacturing plant, it can be difficult for staff to keep track of stock. Mistakes and oversights are common, affecting not just a company’s bottom line, but also the stress levels of the staff who must fix the problem. Stressed staff members are more likely to cause accidents that could endanger their lives or those of others. Switching to the use of RTLS to track and locate stock with minimal fuss can prevent such a scenario.
  
• Better Safety Through Data Analysis: By analyzing the RTLS data on the lead-up to an accident, management can better understand how the accident happened and what the company can do to prevent similar accidents from recurring.
  
• Better Regulatory Compliance: Regulatory compliance is a top priority for businesses. Unfortunately, mistakes from human error while recording data can result in non-compliance, higher costs, and a bruised company image. RTLS reduces this possibility by automating the process of compliance data collection and entry.
• More Accurate Forecasting: Accurate planning is vitally important for all businesses. By using RTLS data on past trends and patterns, managers can make better forecasts about future production, inventory, and marketing campaigns.

By empowering your staff with an RTLS system you are not only providing them with an invaluable sense of safety, but you’re also making a profitable investment in your company.

Once you’ve covered the costs of the initial implementation, the return on investment for an RTLS system is huge. Reducing workplace accidents and showing your commitment to maintaining a safe working environment will undoubtedly reduce your insurance costs. Any money you save on overhead you can then invest elsewhere, such as better equipment, more staff, or new products or services. It’s truly a win-win for everyone involved.

This article was originally published at Manufacturing.net

The post A New Approach to Health and Safety for Manufacturers appeared first on Quuppa.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic upended the world in ways that are normally associated with global conflict. For many, the measures to control the spread of the virus have gone from temporary inconveniences to a new way of life – but at a huge cost. From South Africa to Portugal, the United Kingdom to Japan, doctors and healthcare officials warned of hospitals on the brink of collapse under the weight of new cases arriving each day.

However, a less discussed and more positive aspect of the past year has been the digitisation of healthcare systems around the world, driven by the transformative effects of Industry 4.0. This has manifested in the rise of “smart” frameworks; making extensive use of emergent technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) in order to create more integrated, efficient spaces that better suit the needs of their users and occupants.

For many, the term “smart” conjures images of apps, but smart healthcare is much more than that. It’s about creating a healing environment where the increasing digitisation of the building, processes and infrastructure mean that the technology works in unison to deliver benefits to the people connecting to it. As noted by Siemens, “In a smart hospital, the focus is on the digital systems and the potential they offer to the building itself to effectively become a member of the team.”

What the pandemic has done is boost existing interest and adoption of smart technology across the board. Even before Covid hit, healthcare executives were struggling with issues around the safety of their facilities, the quality of care provided to their patients and costly workflow inefficiencies that were impacting their bottom line. An additional issue these executives are dealing with is a global population that is not only getting larger, but also ageing.  By 2030, the world will have more than 8.5 billion people and by 2050, the number of people over the age of 60 will have doubled in comparison to 2015.

We have seen this smart digital adoption across several different healthcare areas.  Telemedicine already accounts for roughly ⅔ of outpatient appointments across the United States during 2020 and research from Purdue University also suggests that telehealth can reduce the amount of time people spend in the hospital itself, with no corresponding fall in the quality of care provided.  However, one of the newest and most effective technology solutions to address these mounting challenges has been the integration of Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) into hospital processes.

This development has been powered primarily by the growing appreciation and value of data, the foundation of all digital transformation and “smart” initiatives. In a world in which data is referred to as the “new oil,” it is perhaps understandable that effective use of data will be vital in tackling the resource problems facing healthcare today.  However, to make the right decisions that will fundamentally change the healthcare ecosystem, that data needs to be captured throughout a facility—as well as the insight to make changes that positively impact staff and patients.

The success of a smart hospital is based on connecting diverse data into actionable insights that lead to optimal care and increased operational efficiency. By using RTLS to identify, track, locate and monitor the condition of every patient, staff and assets in an organization, executives now have the healthcare facility business intelligence that helps deliver better outcomes for patients—as well as the hospital’s bottom line.

Practical examples of this are dotted across the healthcare landscape, over a large variety of applications. Take something as simple as hygiene management, especially crucial during the pandemic. GWA Hygiene, a leading hospital hygiene provider, found that only half of the workers in one of its partner hospitals were washing their hands properly – increasing patient risk of infection.

With the twin goals of improving infection control amongst workers, visitors, and patients; as well as streamlining existing IT processes, GWA installed cloud-based IT infrastructure in the hospital.

As Tobias Gebhardt, managing Director of GWA Hygiene noted “We should not leave infection control teams alone with outdated tools. We needed a totally new tool set for the hospital management to better understand and break infection chains.”

The response also included the incorporation of RTLS locators and tags on hand sanitiser dispensers throughout the hospital which provided valuable real-time insights into usage frequency, usage time and more. The result was significant savings in both time, money and resources – allowing the company to upgrade its dispensers, rather than having to enact a wholescale replacement program.

Elderly care is another area that has benefited from location tracking technology. With a growing number of Alzheimer’s patients in their 50 retirement centres across Austria and German, 7iD was presented with the challenge of monitoring the whereabouts of their residents and preventing them from wandering off the premises and running away.

In response, the company implemented a comprehensive Bluetooth-based RTLS program. Smartwatch-style trackers were distributed to patients which monitored their actions and proximity to certain areas and staff, setting off alarms if rules were broken. Pinpoint accuracy was delivered with limited hardware requirements. The power efficiency of the technology also meant that time was saved on recharging the devices.

It allowed them to not only expand their operations to other sites, but also diversify their offering; adding support to prevent the separations of newborn babies from their mothers; a huge problem in Eastern countries.

Workflow is another area that has benefited from the transition to smart healthcare and location services. This is especially egregious in healthcare as the potential benefits are so great. Research from Columbia University highlights how valuable predictive analytics can be in reducing patient waiting times.  In this scenario, data is used to better predict the number of patients that are likely to be in the emergency room at any one time so that resources can be planned accordingly.

This was the experience of Artisight, a US-based solutions provider. As noted by Chris Heddon, VP of Product, hospitals and clinics often have very complicated workflows. He noted “Cancer centre workflows can include up to four appointments, which is a big opportunity for process optimization. At peak hours, a high-volume clinic may have up to 200 people in each workflow at a given time and you need to know where each one of them is.”

“One of the most valuable resources in a cancer center is the infusion chair, which many clinics do not have great utilization metrics around. Tracking patient location with RTLS allows Artisight to build data-driven resource utilisation models that ensure the highest possible utilisation of infusion chairs and other valuable resources.”

He added “Orthopedic clinics have similar challenges – ideally appointments can be optimized to hour between when the patient arrives in the parking lot to when and when they leave. The only way to do that is to know where clinicians and patients are at all times. So how do we make them more efficient?”

By incorporating tracking systems into their existing computer vision and artificial intelligence infrastructure, they were able to create substantial revenue gains and efficiency savings for their hospital clients. Operating rooms normally cost over $100 a minute to operate, but implementing the technology meant not only an increase in on-time case starts, but also a reduction in operating room turnover time; allowing more operations to take place and maximising the space; a 16% productivity gain for one their client hospitals. Staff overtime was reduced significantly and the gains in overall case volume (from 1400 to 1800 in a single month) meant the centre did not have to build extra operating rooms to increase business.

The next decade will present new opportunities and technologies that create value and dramatically improve patient care. By integrating smart infrastructure technologies such as RTLS into hospitals, healthcare providers are going to be able to increase efficiencies, maximise patient comfort, and cope with the difficulties of tending to patients in a modern world. Ambitious goals and global change require new ways of working where staff, patients and visitors are supported throughout their journey. This requires the recognition of the vital role that technology, especially digital transformation, can play in the process. This approach heralds a new age of the smart hospital.

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This article was first published here: knowlex.co.uk

The post How Covid-19 has Boosted “Smart Healthcare” appeared first on Quuppa.

COVID-19 has placed global healthcare systems under a huge amount of pressure. Hospitals have had to deal with an influx of patients far beyond capacity, putting significant strain on both staff and resources. In addition, the shutdown of most non-COVID-19 services during the first wave, combined with drastic changes in patient behaviour, has meant that the NHS is still coping with a large backlog of non-COVID-19 care cases, accumulating greater problems for the future.

As if that were not enough of a challenge, before the pandemic, hospitals were being pushed to their limits. Demographic changes were already placing an increasing burden on them. An ageing population and an increase in both chronic disease and behaviours that are detrimental to health all contribute to an increasing demand for healthcare services. Despite this, in the UK, it was found that staff within the NHS have to log in up to 15 different systems to do their jobs properly. This is a huge waste of time, resulting in reduced patient care as well as loss of revenue. Despite the potential benefits of new technologies, it is generally acknowledged that their adoption within the healthcare sector is slow.

Outdated stems are also vulnerable to cyberattacks. A study by Palo Alto Networks checked 1.2 million Internet of Things (IoT) devices in thousands of locations across enterprise IT and healthcare organisations in the United States – and found that 83% of those devices were running outdated software, making them vulnerable to attacks. It is no surprise, then, that according to recent research from cybersecurity firm Check Point, cyber-attacks in the healthcare industry have increased by 45% since November 2020. Essentially, health and care services are an easy target.

Perhaps the only silver lining of COVID-19 and overwhelmed systems has been the renewed spotlight on digital transformation. Prior to the pandemic, telemedicine, Artificial Intelligence (AI)- enabled medical devices, and blockchain electronic health records were just a few of the concrete examples of digital transformation in healthcare. These technologies were completely reshaping how patients interact with health professionals, how data is shared among providers and how decisions are made about treatment plans and health outcomes. However, recently in the UK, a new report by NHS Providers highlighted the key role that technology and digital solutions played as part of the organisation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rollout of virtual consultations, use of AI to diagnose potential COVID-19 patients and deployment of Attend Anywhere and Microsoft Teams at scale across the NHS are key examples of these innovations in action during a troubled time.

Crucially, the pandemic has shown that technology can increase efficiency, streamline processes, support staff and above all, help healthcare teams pivot in response to a crisis. Digital transformation has been on the agenda of many healthcare providers, but has remained only a long-term goal, despite healthcare systems and governments committing to investing more in the technology. In fact, COVID-19 has forced many governments to act and commit to widespread digitalisation within healthcare sectors.

One technology set to transform the healthcare sector is Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS). Location-Based Services (LBS) providers use realtime location insights and location of people, assets and mobile devices in both indoor and outdoor environments. Location-Based Services help organisations turn the data into actionable insights that enable informed decision-making and optimal care, which can improve overall efficiency and increase profitability of facilities.

Location-Based Services help organisations turn the data into actionable insights that enable informed decision-making and optimal care, which can improve overall efficiency and increase profitability of facilities.

Sari Arjamo-Tuominen, Quuppa

Benefits & Use Cases of RTLS in Healthcare

In terms of RTLS benefits for Healthcare, a good example is monitoring hand hygiene compliance within hospitals to stop the spread of infections between patients and staff. As shocking as it may seem, research has shown that some healthcare professionals clean their hands less than half of the times they should. Ensuring hands are kept clean is one of the most important measures healthcare staff can take to avoid spreading infections across throughout hospitals.

Location technology can be used to track the usage of soap dispensers, including when staff
approach the hand hygiene station, whether they use the soap dispenser, and the amount of time they spend in the zone surrounding the dispenser. By combining both hand hygiene data and staff positioning, the technology can notify staff if they have been exposed to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 or other influenza-based viruses in locations where they have been. This ensures that vulnerable and elderly patients are protected from diseases that can be prevented with simple hygiene measures.

As an example, the University of Fukui Hospital implemented a hand hygiene monitoring system using location-based technologies to improve the hand sanitising habits of medical staff. The hand hygiene practices were automatically monitored, without interrupting normal work by health care staff. After implementation, the number of times medical staff performed hand hygiene measures while attending to a patient increased by more than 300% as a result of visualising the presence and timing of hand hygiene practices.

RTLS can also alert staff of upcoming medication expiry dates, as well as monitoring and maintaining optimal temperatures of the medication.

Sari Arjamo-Tuominen, Quuppa

Another benefit of RTLS is the potential it offers in terms of monitoring assets. Healthcare equipment is expensive to replace, and this technology can prevent equipment from going missing in the first place. Healthcare workers can keep track of where everything is in real time. If a piece of equipment has been moved from a certain area, hospital staff will be able to locate exactly where it is and send someone to retrieve it. Furthermore, placing RTLS on hospital assets means that healthcare professionals can track equipment immediately when time-critical medical emergencies occur instead of having to search manually for it, potentially saving lives in the process.

Taking this one step further, during the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen how hospitals have had to borrow equipment, such as personal protective equipment (PPE), when they do not have enough in stock or have run out. With RTLS, hospitals can see if other facilities in close proximity have enough of the equipment they need. Collaborating with other healthcare facilities in this way means that staff will not necessarily need to order more equipment, but
instead can borrow from hospitals nearby.

As well as this, implementing RTLS enables hospitals to automate inventory counts, freeing staff up to help with patient care. As stated earlier, today’s healthcare facilities are facing increased patient volumes as well as higher expectations for patient experience and satisfaction. To meet these growing demands, they need to eliminate wasted steps and create more streamlined workflows. RTLS can also alert staff of upcoming medication expiry dates, as well as monitoring and maintaining optimal temperatures of the medication.

Beyond the above use cases, RTLS can also help hospitals and healthcare facilities to increase their security. Many hospitals house vulnerable patients or those in mental distress, as well as volatile or intoxicated patients. Tags can be placed on room doors which trigger an alert to staff if these patients start wandering around the facility or go outside allocated areas. Having this knowledge means healthcare workers do not have to monitor these patients day and night, freeing up time for them to spend with other patients.

Similarly, the technology can help to future-proof hospitals against crises like COVID-19. For social distancing purposes, the tags can be placed on healthcare workers’ badges and send out an alert if they get too close to others. With this in mind, if we are required as a nation to socially distance again at some point in the future, RTLS technology ensures hospital settings will be ready. Meanwhile, if staff or patients have been exposed to an infectious disease like COVID-19, RTLS can provide an audit trial of where they have been. Managers can then go back and trace who has been in contact with infectious person(s) and tell them to isolate.

More hospitals are now using RTLS for efficient management of hospital settings. The technology can improve patient care by increasing the time clinical staff are able to spend with patients, reduce costs and increase resources and security of facilities, which increases overall profitability.

Sari Arjamo-Tuominen, Quuppa

More hospitals are now using RTLS for efficient management of hospital settings. The technology can improve patient care by increasing the time clinical staff are able to spend with patients, reduce costs and increase resources and security of facilities, which increases overall profitability. The data can also be used to track and report key metrics, such as door-to-doctor time in the emergency room, patient throughput and wait times. Hospitals can keep track of this data and alleviate any inefficiencies or problems straight away. For hospitals of the future, RTLS-powered mobile application will be used to direct visitors to patients on their mobile device or on digital signs.

As seen above, location-based technology has the potential to transform healthcare systems. We expect to see RTLS and LBS to become the ‘new normal’ in hospital settings as their benefits become common knowledge. Moving forward, as we emerge from the pandemic, industry leaders need to adopt the technology to transform healthcare sectors and future-proof them against infectious diseases.

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Quuppa RTLS can be a life-saver in Healthcare

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This article was first published here: Healtheuropa Quarterly 18th Issue

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The University of Fukui Hospital is a premier special-purpose hospital striving to overcome intractable diseases. The hospital researches, develops and practices cutting-edge medical care with the support of the latest technologies.

CHALLENGE

The hospital aims to comply with the WHO hand hygiene guidelines, which are one of the standard precautions for infection prevention management. However, hand washing is, in general, thought to be an easy step to be overlooked when medical staff makes their patient rounds. Therefore, the University of Fukui Hospital was looking for an affordable and effective hand hygiene monitoring system to improve the hand sanitising habits of medical staff.

SOLUTION

The University of Fukui Hospital decided to develop a hand hygiene monitoring system using location-based technologies. The main requirement for the technology is high positioning accuracy as the system must detect not only the medical staff going in and out a room but also their real-time distances to patients.

After having evaluated different options, the hospital chose a solution from SATO Healthcare and CARECOM, based on Quuppa RTLS technology. Quuppa Locators were installed overhead in hospital rooms and corridors while tags were attached to disinfection sprays and also carried by medical staff who do not have a spay with them. The signal from the tag is instantly transmitted to the Locators and so the system can detect the real-time location of medical staff. In addition, the system monitors sensors attached to the disinfection spray pumps to assess whenever they are used, indicating that hand hygiene practices are being followed. By combining all the data, it is now possible to identify immediately if medical staff have performed the disinfection in the right place at the right time.

RESULTS

According to the University of Fukui Hospital, the number of times medical staff performed hand hygiene while attending to a patient increased by more than 300% as a result of visualizing the presence and timing of hand hygiene practices. Hand hygiene practices are automatically monitored, providing a useful solution, without interrupting normal work by health care staff.

NEXT STEPS

The hospital is applying the solution intensively to boost hand hygiene practices within the facility. Meanwhile, SATO Healthcare and CARECOM are offering similar and more advanced solutions to other hospitals.

SATO Healthcare Co., Ltd. offers comprehensive solutions of printers, labels, software, and maintenance services designed specifically to meet the needs of healthcare industry professionals and their patients. For more information, visit: http://www.satoworldwide.com/
SATO Corp. / RTLS Japanese info: http://www.sato.co.jp

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Digital transformation has been on the agenda of healthcare providers for many years. However, despite huge progress in the emergence of technology that can help diagnose, treat and cure patients, the wholesale adoption of digital technology to transform services or businesses remains, at best, a long-term goal.

However, everything was shaken up when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Before the global crisis, healthcare facilities were already burdened with high demand, short staffing, and inefficient workflows. However, in the face of Covid-19, the need for greater efficiency, streamlined processes, and increased responsiveness has become even more urgent.

The British Journal of Surgery has reported that over 28 million elective surgeries across the globe may be canceled as a result of the Covid-19, causing a huge backlog and putting the issue into stark focus. As the global healthcare industry gets back on its feet with the roll-out of efficient vaccine programs worldwide, hospital departments will be tested to their limits as they resume standard treatments, while continuing to support critical care for Covid-19 patients.

To effectively navigate through the pandemic and create a robust healthcare system that can withstand future emerging threats, decision-makers need to look to advancements in technology that can assist healthcare professionals with patient care. But what does that look like?

The solution

The latest innovations making headway in this space are Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) and Location Based Services (LBS) – which is enabled by LBS.

In short, RTLS works through a combination of wireless technology and advanced proprietary algorithms to provide real-time insights and positioning of people, assets and mobile devices in both indoor and outdoor environments. LBS makes the location information actionable by creating data insights, analytics reposts or defining rules around the position of assets, people, and equipment in both indoor and outdoor environments.

Healthcare facilities are an example of where RTLS can really add value. The technology has an accuracy of around 0.5m and can be configured to track any sensor-enabled device such as a smartphone or a physical tag placed within a lanyard or ID badge. The device then transmits real-time data back to a system, enabling healthcare managers and workers to gather positioning insights on the spot. As well as being able to accurately track the distance between objects and people, the technology can also be rolled out within hospitals to ensure social distancing is being adhered to. The tags work by monitoring the distance between workers and sending out a vibration or an alert in seconds if they get too close.

Beyond social distancing and contact tracing, RTLS technology can also vastly improve patient care by increasing the time clinical staff are able to spend with patients, reduce costs and increase resources and security of facilities. It also provides hospitals with a performance edge by giving decision-makers access to data and insights that can lead to optimal care. With that in mind, we’ve outlined four ways location tracking can benefit healthcare facilities around the world.

Hand hygiene compliance

Hand hygiene protocols form a key part of infection control in hospital environments. Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps anyone can take to avoid getting sick or spreading germs to others. That being said, research has shown that some healthcare professionals, on average, clean their hands less than half of the time they should.

Location-based technology solutions can be implemented to ensure hand hygiene compliance by alerting if an individual has entered the handwashing station area. Being placed on soap dispensers, it can track the time spent washing hands and send out an alert when the appropriate length of time is up. By having this data, management can get an accurate confirmation that staff hands have been cleaned in line with protocols.

What’s more, combining hand hygiene data with insights on staff positioning, RTLS can identify and notify staff if they have been exposed to diseases such as influenza based on their recorded interactions with patients, potentially saving lives in the process.

Share resources across locations

A major challenge in hospitals is having enough equipment for specialist care as and when emergencies arise. We’ve seen this recently with the Covid-19 pandemic, with hospitals needing to borrow PPE and ventilators to accommodate the increasing number of patients. Using RTLS technology, hospitals can view stock levels of assets and equipment at facilities in close vicinity and their subsequent locations. Collaborating with neighboring hospitals in this way means staff doesn’t need to order more equipment but instead can loan from hospitals nearby – and quickly.

Time is of the essence with medical emergencies. In an emergency situation, location-based services can help track assets and immediately find the needed equipment, such as the closest defibrillator. Instead of having to search for objects or equipment manually, staff can glance at a screen and instantly know where everything is, which can make a difference in a life-and-death situation. In addition, with the technology being able to show staff whereabouts, RLTS can be integrated into pagers and alert the closest doctor or specialist to the patient in an emergency situation.

Saving money

Hospitals are settings where assets are always on the move and can get lost in the process. Placing RTLS tags on equipment means healthcare workers can keep track of where everything is in real time. This removes unnecessary replacement expenses if something gets lost, an improvement that can positively impact a hospital’s finances.

Another benefit of RTLS is monitoring the expiry date of medicines, particularly those with short shelf life or those that need to be stored at a certain temperature. Monitoring the status of the equipment frees up staff time, saving the facility time and money in the long run.

Security

RTLS can also help hospitals and healthcare facilities increase the security and safety of patients and staff. Hospitals house vulnerable patients, as well as patients in physical or mental distress and volatile or intoxicated patients. By providing these patients with tags that trigger alerts if these patients start wandering around and go outside allowed areas – or even when they fall – healthcare workers can immediately help and address the situation at hand.

Another use case for enhancing security is via access control, making sure those without authorization cannot access areas they should not. This can be extremely successful for areas where medications are kept or limiting areas with surgical equipment for doctors and nurses only.

Conclusion

As we emerge from the pandemic, hospital facilities need to invest in technology that can withstand future crises. Hospitals using RTLS and LBS can significantly improve patient care, as well as increase efficiency of processes, saving them time and money in the long run.

Original article here

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Driving all these innovations is the ever-present need for data and information – to make the right decisions, you need data captured throughout the facility—as well as the insight to make changes that positively impact staff and patients.

Healthcare facilities are increasingly turning to services based on real-time locating systems (RTLS) for answers. A key innovation in the digital transformation of the healthcare sector, RTLS based solutions provide hospitals with a performance edge by connecting diverse data into the kind of actionable insights that lead to the best possible care. Location-based services are already helping the sector seamlessly capture vast amounts of data, which in turn can be used to improve efficiency and increase profits.

RTLS is a technology-enabling location-based services (LBS) that seamlessly relays the current positioning of objects, assets, tools, equipment, shipping containers, and people. This functionality gives organisations immediate access to the objects or individual’s location and also explains where it has been previously. This is done by placing a tag on the object that you want to track. The location system captures radio packets transmitted by the tags then transmits the computed real-time positioning data to the application server, enabling managers and employees to keep their fingers on the pulse of activities at that exact moment more control and a deeper understanding of where things are in an instant.

According to a study by Zion Market Research, the global market for RTLS technologies will reach $11.81 billion by 2024, up from $2.37 billion during 2018. In large part, this is due to the transformative power that RTLS solutions deliver to healthcare. In fact, it has been said that “Next-generation RTLS technology is as transformative to hospital operations as Uber is to personal transportation.” More and more hospitals are now using RTLS to enable the efficient management of burgeoning patient populations and to keep operations smooth in an urgent setting. Emergency rooms are a good example of this – with over half of hospitals’ inpatient admissions coming from the ER, improving patient flow and satisfaction levels can have a direct and significant impact on the hospital’s bottom line.

In regard to benefits, a relevant example (given the current COVID epidemic) is the enforced compliance of hand hygiene systems to minimise the spread of infections. A concrete example of this is the soap dispenser sensor – the same system can be used to track nurses who approach the hand hygiene station and the time spent in the zone surrounding the dispenser, as well as monitor when the dispenser is used. By combining data sources, management can get a pretty accurate confirmation that hands have been cleaned. Taking the issue of staff health a step further, RTLS can identify and notify staff of exposure to communicable diseases, notably influenza, based upon their recorded interactions with patients. Data generated by the RTLS can also be pulled to create transaction data by application services, to reveal historical patterns of dips and spikes in staffing needs, which can inform administrators about staffing levels and types.

Another example is faster care, such as nurses being immediately alerted when a patient falls or tries to get away from the bed against recommendations. In many medical emergencies, time is of the essence, and location-based services can help staff track assets and find the equipment they need in each case faster. Instead of having to search for objects or equipment manually, staff can glance at a screen and instantly know where everything is. The technology also provides the ability to keep track of people and makes it easier to delegate tasks to staff in the vicinity by showing which staff need resources sent their way, which is especially helpful in healthcare settings.

Services and applications powered by RTLS can also help hospitals and healthcare facilities increase security. One simple way is by providing both staff and patients with devices equipped with a button that they can use to call for help when needed. Another use case for enhancing security is via access control, making sure that those without authorization cannot access areas they should not. RTLS can also be used to implement stricter access controls. In the event an unauthorized individual enters a location they’re not allowed in at one of your facilities, you can receive automatic notifications. What’s more, RTLS can also help enforce social distancing and facilitate contact tracing in any work setting.

Inventory is another area in which RTLS can help transform healthcare services. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are locations where assets are seemingly in constant motion. With this movement comes the increased possibility for assets to be misplaced or leave the building, creating an unnecessary replacement expense that can negatively affect organisation’s bottom line. Many believe that RTLS technology can play a key role in powering the future of inventory management, as staff will always be able to tell what inventory levels are at any point in time, complete customer inventory delivery and take stock of what is present so that they can order appropriately. Staff can also use the technology to evaluate whether an asset should be moved from one area to the next to increase use, compared to simply buying another one.

The role of location-based services in healthcare continues to expand. From asset tracking to patient and workflow, the impact RTLS can have on the sector has far-reaching implications hospital-wide. As these services and providers continue to look for ways to improve their offerings, they need to be smarter when it comes to investing in new technology. Clinical-grade RTLS technology enables the addressing of multiple clinical, operational, and financial challenges simultaneously and, unlike other IT investments, offers a near-immediate return on that investment.

Original Article from Health Tech Digital

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Quuppa, a Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) provider based in Espoo, was founded in 2012 with the overarching goal of developing and creating cutting-edge smart indoor location tracking technology. Now, with more than 50 employees, 200 commercial partners, and offices on four continents, Quuppa intends to channel its blend of innovation and collaboration across a broad range of sectors – including healthcare and clinical practices.

RTLS enables users to track people or items in healthcare facilities. For the healthcare sector alone, this can improve the security of facilities, slow the spread of infection, reduce costs and increase the time clinical staff are able to spend with patients. The scalable Bluetooth-powered Quuppa Intelligent Locating System delivers indoor positioning accuracy of around 0.5m; and can be configured to track any Bluetooth®-enabled device, be that a physical tag or a smartphone.

RTLS use cases

Hand hygiene

Alongside the ongoing threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the continued danger posed by hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) remains present and pressing – in the US and Europe alone, HAIs kill around 136,000 patients per year. Frequent, thorough hand hygiene protocols form a key part of infection prevention in hospital environments, but a number of studies have indicated that a significant proportion of healthcare professionals either do not perform hand washing and sanitising often enough or as thoroughly as they should.

RTLS within a healthcare facility can reduce that risk by recording the movements of staff between patients, thereby ensuring that if a member of staff either does not stop at a sink before and after meeting with patients or makes too brief a stop, the issue can be flagged and the healthcare worker can be reminded by a haptic or audible alarm. Not only does this allow administrators to address poor hand washing practices at the source, but staff are more likely to perform the proper hand hygiene protocols.

The use of an accurate RTLS system for hand hygiene processes is beneficial for multiple parties: firstly, it means that fewer patients will contract infections during their stay. Fewer infections mean shorter stays and thus improved turnaround for the healthcare facility. In the US, furthermore, fewer hospital-acquired infections mean lower costs to the patient, as healthcare insurance may not cover all costs. “We are very excited to see that our technology has been successfully tested and implemented by our partners to significantly increase hand hygiene compliance and help save lives,” says Christoffer Segercrantz, VP Sales at Quuppa.

Saving money

A functional asset tracking system can save healthcare facilities not only staff hours and resources but also money. The loss of equipment which has not been comprehensively tracked may incur substantial costs. By maintaining a continuous oversight of stock levels – particularly medicine and other consumables, including disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) – administrative staff are able to avoid unnecessary duplicate orders and stock losses.

Saving lives

Administrative and procurement professionals within healthcare facilities face a number of singularly challenging obstacles, ranging from insufficient budgets to the fact that – unlike most other sectors – asset loss can cause genuine harm to patients and in some cases can even hasten a patient’s death. The expiry date of medicines, particularly those with short shelf life or which are not commonly in use, must be monitored assiduously, as must the temperature of some medications. Single-use tools and equipment for use in lifesaving procedures must be kept well-stocked, for example in the case of emergency crash carts. Meanwhile, monitoring the location and status of equipment and medical devices is a necessary drain on staff hours. With the burden of supervising and adjusting stock levels reduced, clinical staff are free to spend more time with patients.

Improving workflows and silos

Another significant issue within hospital procurement is that of siloed departments and sectors: disparate departments within a single facility may not communicate with each other. This can lead to duplicate orders or stock disparities between departments. Some hospitals have stowed away unused beds in storage spaces, only to reorder unnecessary additional beds due to a failure to communicate.

Establishing a single collaborative platform through which each department can view stock levels and locations throughout the whole facility enables different procurement teams to share resources, communicate item losses and retrievals, and construct a hospital-wide procurement plan to optimise the deployment of existing assets and the sourcing of new ones.

Patient and staff safety

By necessity, healthcare facilities host a potent combination of vulnerable patients, patients in physical or mental distress, and volatile or intoxicated patients; along with a great deal of expensive equipment and strong medications. More recently, alongside all this, doctors and nurses have reported a growing number of patients displaying physical and verbal aggression relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, with some becoming agitated by the suggestion that they wear a mask and others denying that the virus exists at all or refusing treatment.

In order to protect patients and staff members, secure spaces must be strictly defined and maintained. Access control measures, whereby certain doors can only be opened with a staff ID equipped with an electronic tag, can shore up the safety and security of staff and patients. These measures are particularly useful in maternity wards to assuage the risk of child abduction, as well as in preventing the spread of infection between hospital departments by limiting the space in which potentially contagious patients can roam.

The safety of patients must remain a key priority: by equipping each patient with an RTLS-tagged alarm button, which triggers an alert if the patient falls, experiences distress or if their condition worsens. Similarly, when healthcare workers are able to access location-tracking panic buttons, the respondent is able to see immediately exactly where to direct help or support.

Quuppa in partnership

Use case: Essity

Global hygiene and health firm Essity, described as a ‘global shaper’ of the hygiene market, distributes its products in around 150 countries worldwide. Tork, the workplace hygiene arm of Essity, has partnered with Quuppa as part of its mission to transform hand hygiene and the prevention and control of HAIs.

We want to do our part when it comes to healthcare; and the obvious first step is hand hygiene, because it is so important. Hand hygiene is one of the biggest weapons against HAIs, but hospitals commonly measure hand hygiene compliance by observing it manually, which means they do not get an accurate measurement because the subjects know they are being observed.

We want to measure hospital employees’ hand hygiene compliance in a very precise and objective way, to help them improve their hand hygiene; and by extension to decrease the number of infections in healthcare spaces. Quuppa has been a great help, because its indoor positioning system allows us to track nurses with a very high level of precision – one that nobody else in this particular market can replicate – and it also allows us to be very flexible when it comes to establishing rules and standards. Using Quuppa’s location tracking technology we can track the movement of nurses and the corresponding levels of hand sanitising in nearby dispensers; and then once we have gathered that compliance data, we can send it directly to the cloud where it can be calculated and assessed.

Håkan Lindström, Global Technical Innovation Manager for Tork Services

Use case: GeoAngel

US-based GeoAngel, which provides services for long-term care facilities such as group homes and assisted living, teamed with Quuppa on a crucial safety initiative. GeoAngel Product Executive Derek Stiver tells HEQ:

One of the key services which is needed in our field revolves around the ability to know exactly where elderly residents are. The classic scenario is with patients who exhibit dementia and Alzheimer’s symptoms. Upon awakening, a resident may be disoriented due to short-term memory loss. However, they remember where ‘home’ is, because their long-term memory is still intact. So they do what is very natural: they attempt to go home. It is completely normal, completely natural; and extraordinarily dangerous for everybody involved. When a resident leaves, it is termed an ‘elopement’ which has financial repercussions for the operator of the facility. The traditional solution to that problem has involved some variation of locking everybody in the building.

In some senses this is necessary – it’s unpleasant for everybody involved: the staff, the residents, the families all dislike it, however necessary it is for patients’ safety.

The ability to use an interior positioning system in combination with GPS has allowed us to get rid of all of these locks, because now we can track where people are. If they become confused and try to leave the building, the location tracker will set off an alarm so that staff know what has happened and can go and bring the patient back to a place that is safe, without turning the nursing home into a prison.”

Derek Stever, GeoAngel Product Executive

This is vital in the US as these facilities are at risk of losing federal and state funding if they experience even a low number of resident elopements.

Use case: Haltian

Haltian is a global player in the field of commercial Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Alongside Quuppa, Haltian has been trialling its digital hospital twin at the ‘Smart Care’ testing laboratory in Stavanger, Norway. “Quuppa demands the initial infrastructure commitment, but once it is installed, it will run forever,” comments Haltian Head of Hospital Business Sector Gunnar Hansen. “With Quuppa’s accurate indoor positioning system, we are able to visualise the location of people and assets in our Emphatic Building digital twin in such a way it immediately adds value to our customers.”

Quuppa tracking technology delivers a big advantage. If I were to build a new building and I wanted an accurate, stable tracking platform, it is the system I would personally choose. The team is experienced; the product is reliable; and it is a leader in terms of accuracy. Of course, the need for precision differs between different parts of the hospital – in some departments or wards accuracy of 15cm would not be necessary and a metre would be enough, but in some parts, that increased level of accuracy is critical.

One of the primary benefits of indoor positioning in the field of empathic building for hospitals is its application to contact tracing: if a person becomes infected, the tracking system can let you know if they have been in contact with another person – but what it can also do is determine where medical equipment has been and which patients have used it. If a patient is rolled into the hospital in a wheelchair, put to bed, the wheelchair is pushed somewhere else and a new patient is put into that wheelchair; and then the first patient is diagnosed with COVID-19, then the hospital needs to know where that wheelchair is now and who has used it since that first patient.

Gunnar Hansen, Haltian Head of Hospital Business Sector

Use case: NESA

NESA Solutions, a US-based solution provider since 2013, aims to harness the power of precision location to revolutionise the way in which the healthcare sector and numerous other industries can visualise and execute their workflows. COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the business landscape, transforming technological innovations from a nice-to-have to a must-have, in order to successfully navigate the need to balance health and safety with productivity and efficiency. NESA’s applications – which range from combating the spread of infection with highly accurate contact tracing and quarantine monitoring; to implementing and enforcing precise hand hygiene protocols which follow the World Health Organization’s Five Moments of Hand Hygiene; to tracking people and assets in real time; to monitoring inventory within the supply chain; to keeping infants safe; to eliminating the potentially dangerous wandering of our elderly population; to deploying our award-winning crash cart inventory and location-based regulatory survey modules – are designed to capitalise on this critical need.

As one of Quuppa’s original partners since 2013, we knew pretty quickly that their dot was a game changer. Our mission was to take that dot and create a platform around it that would enable organisations to automate and improve their workflows. Starting out in the healthcare space, we quickly realised that our platform can be utilised in any industry, so we made numerous enhancements to it; as a result, today, our platform is being utilised by some of the largest companies around the world, in over 20 different industries.

Neil Salem, CEO and founder of NESA

Contributor: Sari Arjamo-Tuominen, VP of Marketing, Quuppa Oy

The article was originally published in Health Europa Quarterly issue 16, page 46.

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