Following Tuesday's news that Terre Haute, Ind.-based Union Hospital is deploying an enterprise asset tracking system from Versus Technology, the Traverse City, Mich.-based provider of Active RFID and IR patient locating solutions on Wednesday added Rouge Valley Health System to its list of healthcare provider clients. Read »

If a group of healthcare IT professionals said we should stop questioning whether wireless sensors and tracking systems actually work, would it be enough to get the industry concentrating on deploying the most effective systems for yielding results? Read »

U.K.-based Airetrak, a provider of Wi-Fi based real time locating systems for the healthcare sector, has enhanced its ResourceView information solution with Wi-Fi Temperature Monitoring functionality. Read »

Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, Fla., has joined the growing ranks of hospitals nationwide that are leveraging their Wi-Fi networks for data and voice communications. Read »

Healthcare's growing implementation of asset and patient tracking technologies helped pave the way for solid growth among patient flow automation vendors last year, driven mainly by the industry's need to cut costs, increase efficiencies and improve the quality of patient care. Companies such as Pittsburgh-based TeleTracking Technologies, Inc., which experienced its eighth straight year of growth in 2009, already are forecasting 2010 to be another growth year. Read »

As you might expect, the use of wireless systems in healthcare organizations has been steadily growing. This shift, which has taken place despite cost containment initiatives that present barriers to investing in new IT, underscores an increasing number of healthcare professionals who now believe that wireless technology will provide improved data accuracy and reduce errors. Read »

The role of real-time location systems in healthcare has garnered considerable attention over the past year, as hospitals advance efforts to implement technologies aimed at reducing costs and increasing operational efficiencies. Now, a study of the use of RTLS at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton, N.C., finds the technology can save hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and improve clinical outcomes. It can even boost staff morale. Read »

The University of Toledo Medical Center has stepped up its asset tracking efforts. As the area's only academic medical center providing specialty care in cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics, cancer, surgery and kidney transplantation, its recent decision to extend a relationship with Awarepoint signals the organization is moving beyond the initial search-and-locate phase of the RTLS system to apply business intelligence rules that enable proactive management of resources, according to UTMC manager of distribution services Pat Nopper. Read »

The healthcare industry loves Wi-Fi-based real-time locating systems, but the size of Wi-Fi tags and their integrated batteries have pretty much restricted their use to tracking larger items. On the other hand, smaller, passive tags can be used on everything from IV bags to small instruments to patient wristbands, but they have a much shorter read range and can't piggyback on wireless LANs. Since the value of tracking assets and patients has been well documented in healthcare settings--and cost-cutting efforts are shaping decision making--we're seeing more vendor partnerships aimed at integrating solutions, as well as an increase in the number of different handheld and mobile RFID readers. Read »

Ekahau is expanding its hardware line with what company officials are calling an industry first--a wristband format Wi-Fi tag. The Wi-Fi-based RTLS vendor just unveiled the T301W, a wristband tag that is designed for use in applications that determine the precise location of people in hospitals and other settings. Combined with the recently launched Ekahau room and bed beacons, the wristband tags guarantee precise location capabilities down to less than a few feet. Read »