Celebration Health, a Florida Hospital facility, is employing a real-time location system (RTLS) to measure the operational efficiency of its 11-suite operating room. A 2016 RFID Journal Award winner for Most Innovative Use of RFID, the facility handles more than 14,000 cases annually. With the growing demand, there is constant pressure to increase efficiency and leverage capacity to the fullest. Team members wear RTLS badges enabling the hospital to gather and analyze data regarding staff members’ movements, in order to ascertain how the OR could become more efficient. The system utilizes the facility’s existing Wi-Fi infrastructure and ultrasound exciters with tags that transmit data to the Wi-Fi nodes and exciters, and software that manages information related to RTLS reads. Celebration Health is using a business-intelligence and analytics tool, as well as its own business-management software, including Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, to evaluate the data and determine what it means for staff efficiency, patient flow and satisfaction, and how these could be improved. Learn how the solution allows management to view information, such as the number of trips for supplies, enabling the hospital to improve procedures based on those findings.
