The Healthcare market is an ideal market for location services because asset allocation is critical, given the high value of assets and limited resources, said Daniel Corsetti, senior research analyst, enterprise wireless infrastructure for IDC. “The return on investment from location-based services deployed to track high value assets is a no-brainer,” Corsetti said. “Wi-Fi as a location technology is a great fit because it’s easy to deploy, reliable, secure and inexpensive,” he said. As the WLAN installed base for basic data connectivity grows, he said healthcare providers are asking how they can better leverage their networks for other applications besides data. “Wi-Fi-based locationing is the next step,” he said.
THREE TRENDS TO WATCH
IDC’s Daniel Corsetti highlights three trends to look for in 2008:
PERVASIVE WI-FI: The adoption rate of pervasive Wi-Fi deployments is higher in healthcare than other industries as the relatively late adopting provider community uses lessons learned from other industries to leapfrog them in terms of performance and sophistication.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS: The next stage in Wi-Fi deployment is the development of the expertise and vision that lets users build and migrate mobility-centric applications to the wireless network.
PRICES COMING DOWN: Prices will come down for active RFID, enabling a shift from allocation of primarily high value assets to optimization of personnel, devices, and location-sensitive supplies.
USER REVIEWS
“With the Radianse platform, we saw an improvement in our equipment tracking and in turn a cost savings. This now allows us to focus on our key process improvement initiatives.”
Sue Schade, CIO, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
We chose AeroScout because they offer a solution that is scalable to handle many thousands of assets, and meet the needs of a wide variety of hospital users across our large, distributed environment.”
Steven Erde, MD, vice president, information services technology and innovation, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
“With RTLS, we can quickly and efficiently find our equipment. Our ultimate goal is to improve patient safety and enhance the patient experience, and being able to track our equipment throughout the hospital will help us accomplish that.”
Jeff Pelot, CTO, Denver Health
“B Braun’s machines were designed by nurses for use by nurses, which made the changeover and training seamless for our staff. With the Outlook’s software monitoring each pump’s location and usage, clinicians can focus attention on the patient, not the machine.” Tammy Dills, chief nursing officer, Angel Medical Center
