Henry Tenarvitz, addressing the GDAHC audience
Henry Tenarvitz, Chief Intellectual Property Officer of Versus Technology, was one of the three speakers at the Greater Detroit Area Health Council Coffee & Controversy session yesterday. The topic was “Meaningful use beyond EMRs: Health IT trends to improve quality and patient safety.”
Ternarvitz spoke about hospitals using RTLS solutions for improving quality, safety, and efficiency. He explained that the data provided by real-time locating technology results in significant cost savings and improvements in patient care.
Tenarvitz demonstrated how with Versus’ system, hospitals use infrared-radio frequency (IR-RF)-enabled staff, patient & equipment tags to know exactly where people and assets are located with 99.9% accuracy. The system then marries this real-time data with a set of business rules to automatically update electronic systems with key information.
Below, two screenshots Tenarvitz showed the audience demonstrate how the information can be viewed by staff (these are only two of the several key views). The first shows an electronic greaseboard with the most current patient status information.
Versus E-Greaseboard
The second shows a color-coded floorplan view, which shows staff the status of rooms and facilities at a glance. Both of these views are automatically updated using passively collected data from the IR-RF tags.
Versus Floorplan View, showing color-coded room status
The following is a list of outcomes Tenarvitz reported from Versus’ case studies.
- Increased the number of patient care rooms by 150% without adding staff.
- Decreased ED wait times by over 60 minutes or more.
- Automated room turnover based on patient discharge and “room clean” status.
- Decreased room cleaning times to 24.6 minutes.
- Increased bed capacity by 25% with enhanced patient flow.
- Eliminated clinic waiting rooms, automated staff communication.
- Reduced phone calls by 75% creating quieter healing environments.
- Decreased equipment search time from 2 hrs. to <5 min.
- Decreased annual property loss from $1.5M to $40K.
- Alleviated equipment hoarding and nurse frustrations regarding equipment availability.
- Reduced the number of miles nurses log during their shifts by a ½ mile.
- Identified staff requiring prophylaxis after short, forgotten interactions with infectious patients.
- Increase hand washing tracking/compliance
- Increased Efficiency/Communication/Safety
- Automated 3rd Party Systems (E-greaseboards, reporting, Pyxis Medication Units)
The two case studies that were discussed in detail were St. Joseph Hospital (PeaceHealth) in Bellingham, WA. and the St. Louis VA Medical Center in St. Louis MO.
Contact us to learn more about these case studies, or to learn about Versus’ RTLS solutions for process improvement.
Dynamic Computer Corporation is an authorized systems integrator of Versus Technology RTLS solutions.
