Emergency Department Real-Time Location System Patient and Equipment Tracking

The Valley Hospital continues to expand their work on medical error reduction by implementing a Mobile Equipment Tracking system utilizing a real time location system along with radiofrequency tagging. The initial phase of the project built a hospital-wide infrastructure of RTLS hardware and defined the desired zone-based configuration needed for adequate tracking. AgileTrac software was then installed to pass the milestone marks to disparate systems for the purpose of location, preventative maintenance or repair of tagged equipment. The proposed research project intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of using middleware to homogenize data produced by varied real time location system (RTLS) platforms for consumption by a common user interface and application. The project is intended to lead the way to further study of the application throughout the hospital in the inpatient and peri-operative setting tagging other assets as well as patients and caregivers.