GE Healthcare has launched a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based solution known as Encompass, that enables its hospitals and other health-care facilities to capture real-time location (RTLS) data about assets, and can be installed in days. The system, which the company calls “cost-effective,” comes with BLE beacons, BLE to Wi-Fi receivers, and receiver software from Zebra Technologies. The cloud-based Encompass solution, jointly developed by GE and Zebra, makes the beacon-based data available to users via Web-based mobile applications. Users can integrate the asset data with their own management systems.
The Encompass system, GE reports, is intended to bring asset and equipment visibility to biomedical and clinical health-care providers at a cost (based on capital and installation investments) about 60 percent lower than that of a traditional RTLS solution. That’s because the technology requires no cables or fixed readers. Instead, it consists of fixed and mobile BLE receivers, which can be plugged into outlets or powered by batteries, as well as a BLE-transmitting tag on each asset being tracked. Zebra receiver software captures, analyzes and filters the collected location data, which is then forwarded to the cloud-based Encompass software, where crowd-sourcing is used to further analyze the data.
“With BLE and Wi-Fi,” says Rob Reilly, GE Healthcare’s VP and general manager for services in the United States and Canada, “there will be no need to open ceilings or drill into walls to run cable, like with other RTLS technologies.”
Typically, Reilly says, each health-care facility deployment will cover installation design, IT setup to integrate with the software, and the tagging of assets. The process would take less time to complete than a traditional cabled solution would. “We are replacing what used to take months to install with non-invasive deployment with a process that takes weeks and days,” he states.
Among its technology products, Zebra has been offering BLE solutions since 2016. BLE can be less expensive and much easier to install than traditional RTLS solutions, explains Chris Sullivan, Zebra’s global health practice lead, and has also become more effective in identifying location than earlier versions of the same technology.
Zebra worked with GE Healthcare to develop the health-care-focused solution and hardware beacons with a more aesthetically pleasing design for the hospital market (they’re white), and with a smooth design to minimize germ collection and withstand standard health-care disinfectants.
Fixed beacon receivers can be plugged into A/C outlets throughout a hospital. The beacon receivers capture transmissions from beacon tags moving around them, then forward the unique identifiers of those tags via the hospital’s Wi-Fi network to GE’s cloud-based server. Hospitals can view location information based on that data. The beacon tags can be attached to an asset, or be worn by staff members or patients.
Encompass also includes mobile BLE receivers in the form of a badge device, similar to a pager, worn by clinical personnel. Like the fixed receivers, these devices also capture beacon transmissions, and forward the data via the Wi-Fi network. The system can use big-data analytics and crowd-sourcing to expand the solutions range and real-time accuracy. Users can then use a Web-based application to easily find assets (the closest assets, all assets of one type, a specific device, etc.). For instance, if a staff member were looking for a clean infusion pump, he or she could make a request via GE’s FindIt app on his or her tablet, then access location data related only to items within the same zone in which they are located.
GE Healthcare has many customers, Sullivan says, for which it manages assets. This enables Zebra’s beacon-based technology to be available to a wide market as part of Encompass. The Encompass system, he adds, “has a software platform that can be interoperated with a customer’s existing management system.”
The technology can be used to help biomedical personnel locate equipment that they gather for inspection and preventative maintenance. In addition, nurses and other health-care providers can utilize the technology to identify where equipment is located when they need it for patient care. The historic data from the system will enable hospitals to better understand how, when and how often their equipment is used. They can prevent equipment from gathering in a single department when it is needed elsewhere.