Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Enabling the Smart Hospital: What Location Data Makes Possible

Transcript

Enabling the Smart Hospital: What Location Data Makes Possible · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - Well, hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason
• 0:02
  - with Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for
• 0:05
  - tuning in to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
• 0:08
  - Today, we're going to cover enabling the smart
• 0:11
  - hospital and what location data makes possible.
• 0:14
  - Joining me for this conversation is Stephanie Anderson,
• 0:17
  - the vice president of cloud and platform strategy
• 0:20
  - at Securitas
• 0:21
  - Healthcare.
• 0:23
  - Stephanie, welcome to the podcast. It's great to
• 0:25
  - have you with us. Thanks, Erica. I appreciate
• 0:27
  - it.
• 0:28
  - Yeah. So so glad to have you. And
• 0:30
  - before we learn more about your work
• 0:33
  - and everything that you're doing with real time
• 0:36
  - location systems, can you just give us a
• 0:38
  - brief overview of your role and the scope
• 0:40
  - of the work that you oversee?
• 0:42
  - Yes. Absolutely.
• 0:43
  - So as you had mentioned, my my title
• 0:45
  - within Securitas Healthcare is VP of cloud and
• 0:48
  - platform strategy. So that really encompasses
• 0:52
  - all of our cloud solutions.
• 0:55
  - Being in health care and technology, as you
• 0:56
  - know, things are are always changing. So we
• 0:59
  - need to be able to quickly adapt and
• 1:02
  - and move as fast as the market wants
• 1:04
  - us... Wants and needs us to. So there's
• 1:07
  - never a shortage of of projects on our
• 1:09
  - end. That's for sure.
• 1:12
  - Oh, completely. I... It's funny when I think
• 1:14
  - back on some of the
• 1:16
  - health IT and technology focused conferences and conversations
• 1:19
  - that we've hosted at Becker's, they look so
• 1:21
  - different today versus what they did even just
• 1:24
  - a few years ago. So,
• 1:26
  - glad that that your role is keeping you
• 1:28
  - on your toes. But let's go ahead and
• 1:30
  - dive in a little bit more to learn
• 1:31
  - about real time location systems. I know that's
• 1:34
  - at the heart of our conversation today,
• 1:36
  - and these systems have long been understood as
• 1:38
  - a way to track equipment and also people.
• 1:41
  - But I sense that that framing
• 1:43
  - is shifting.
• 1:45
  - So I'd like to know from you, what
• 1:46
  - have you seen change in this technology or
• 1:49
  - even what hospitals are asking of it?
• 1:52
  - Mhmm. And it absolutely has changed, and it's
• 1:55
  - changed
• 1:56
  - for the better. When I got into this
• 1:57
  - space almost twenty years ago, it is exactly
• 2:00
  - what you just mentioned. It was just tracking
• 2:02
  - and
• 2:03
  - locating
• 2:04
  - equipment and staff predominantly.
• 2:07
  - But hospitals are demanding
• 2:10
  - better, faster, more affordable
• 2:12
  - technology that provide them
• 2:15
  - real outcomes. So more than just
• 2:18
  - a quick search and find and absolutely
• 2:21
  - understandable, and we as vendors need to evolve
• 2:24
  - evolve with that.
• 2:26
  - That used to be what everyone would use
• 2:29
  - as a driving force to build and expand
• 2:32
  - their RTLS system was producing an ROI
• 2:35
  - of tagging assets. And
• 2:38
  - equipment isn't walking out the door anymore. We're
• 2:40
  - able to find it much quicker. Staff aren't
• 2:43
  - spending
• 2:44
  - as much time looking for it. We're not
• 2:46
  - buying equipment that we can't find or is
• 2:48
  - lost or or stolen.
• 2:50
  - The real shift has come probably in the
• 2:53
  - last five years or so
• 2:55
  - as we've seen facilities
• 2:57
  - put a much stronger focus on patient care.
• 3:01
  - And what I mean by that is you
• 3:03
  - and I know that we have a lot
• 3:05
  - of options
• 3:06
  - where we go for care, whether it just
• 3:08
  - be an urgent care or walk in,
• 3:10
  - family members that, you know, are going for
• 3:12
  - cancer treatments. We have all kinds of options.
• 3:16
  - And
• 3:16
  - what that ex... That patient experience
• 3:19
  - looks like helps
• 3:21
  - us determine
• 3:22
  - where we wanna go.
• 3:24
  - So there's things that RTLS
• 3:27
  - helps
• 3:28
  - monitor and manage around that patient experience, everything
• 3:31
  - from as simple as
• 3:33
  - wait
• 3:34
  - times and how a long wait time can
• 3:37
  - affect our patient satisfaction
• 3:39
  - scores, you know, up or down.
• 3:42
  - Things like room management,
• 3:45
  - you know, how do we see patients faster.
• 3:48
  - But the other big shift too is starting
• 3:50
  - to utilize
• 3:52
  - our existing RTLS systems
• 3:54
  - for more and utilizing
• 3:57
  - a single badge that we might use for
• 3:59
  - staff duress to also provide
• 4:02
  - hand hygiene,
• 4:04
  - staff rounding,
• 4:06
  - contact tracing reports. So
• 4:08
  - looking at at utilizing
• 4:11
  - our same technology in existing deployments,
• 4:14
  - but hospitals are also expecting more from us
• 4:17
  - and that we can we can use that
• 4:19
  - data to do a lot of different things.
• 4:22
  - One of the
• 4:23
  - areas that we probably
• 4:26
  - hear the most about and and our competition
• 4:29
  - and customers would say the same is they're
• 4:31
  - talking a lot about smart hospitals
• 4:33
  - and high-tech patient rooms, and what do they
• 4:36
  - look like
• 4:37
  - as we move into the future? I don't
• 4:39
  - know that there's a more discussed topic than
• 4:41
  - that.
• 4:42
  - One of the things that
• 4:44
  - we bring to those conversations
• 4:47
  - is a true
• 4:48
  - platform solution.
• 4:50
  - And what I mean by that is hospitals
• 4:52
  - aren't buying disparate systems anymore. They're not going...
• 4:55
  - Buying point systems. They're looking at
• 4:58
  - platforms that can tie in
• 5:00
  - to different solutions,
• 5:02
  - and that can be everything from
• 5:05
  - consuming data
• 5:06
  - or pushing data back out. So we know,
• 5:10
  - as the owner of location data,
• 5:13
  - we have a lot of very
• 5:15
  - valuable data that's been
• 5:17
  - unmanipulated
• 5:18
  - that,
• 5:19
  - is very beneficial for a number of of
• 5:21
  - other systems that hospitals are running. So those
• 5:24
  - would be the big shifts
• 5:26
  - that we've definitely seen over the last handful
• 5:29
  - of years.
• 5:30
  - Mhmm.
• 5:31
  - Oh, it's such a great overview, Stephanie, and
• 5:34
  - really interesting to learn how not only are
• 5:36
  - hospitals expecting
• 5:38
  - RTLS
• 5:39
  - technology to deliver more, based on what they've
• 5:42
  - already got in place, but that they're looking
• 5:44
  - to tie those capabilities to patient experience and
• 5:48
  - and outcomes in that realm. So,
• 5:51
  - I really appreciate that context setting you you
• 5:53
  - gave us upfront.
• 5:55
  - I also know that,
• 5:56
  - moving RTLS
• 5:58
  - to the cloud is part of this shift
• 6:00
  - as well. So can you elaborate on practice...
• 6:04
  - Practically speaking, what does a cloud based system
• 6:06
  - actually enable?
• 6:08
  - There's a number of things. And first and
• 6:11
  - foremost, being in the cloud is really required
• 6:13
  - anymore. When we look at a number of
• 6:16
  - systems,
• 6:17
  - especially EMRs that our hospitals utilize every day
• 6:20
  - for every single patient,
• 6:22
  - when they are in the cloud, it's an
• 6:24
  - expectation
• 6:27
  - RTLS provider as... That that we are as
• 6:30
  - well. Some of the big things, it allows
• 6:33
  - us to do deployments and get customers up
• 6:36
  - and going so much quicker,
• 6:38
  - but also much more affordable.
• 6:40
  - So being in the cloud
• 6:42
  - allows us to sell the solution as a
• 6:44
  - subscription or a SaaS model, which is really
• 6:47
  - nice.
• 6:48
  - It gives our customers options
• 6:51
  - of what budget they want to pull funds
• 6:55
  - from.
• 6:56
  - A couple of other
• 6:58
  - big things that are wins for customers are
• 7:01
  - we can provide major upgrades in a matter
• 7:04
  - of minutes. We don't... You know, there isn't
• 7:06
  - all the unnecessary
• 7:07
  - planned downtime
• 7:09
  - that you do one customer to the next
• 7:12
  - when they're on prem solutions.
• 7:15
  - The cloud also gives us access to a
• 7:18
  - number of different tools, whether it be to
• 7:20
  - monitor systems,
• 7:22
  - to provide better support.
• 7:25
  - But there's just a whole host of of
• 7:27
  - tools that we now have access to
• 7:31
  - that we as a vendor can provide better
• 7:33
  - customer service
• 7:35
  - to to our customers, and they expect that.
• 7:37
  - But
• 7:38
  - more than that is being in the cloud
• 7:42
  - also gives our customers access to the data
• 7:45
  - so much easier.
• 7:46
  - So whether we are working with them to
• 7:49
  - collectively
• 7:50
  - put data through an AI tool
• 7:52
  - or utilize,
• 7:54
  - you know, internal business intelligence tools that they
• 7:57
  - might be using,
• 7:58
  - access to that data is also much easier,
• 8:01
  - which leads to to quicker outcomes for our
• 8:03
  - customers as well.
• 8:05
  - Yeah. It it sounds like between cost effectiveness,
• 8:09
  - being able to provide upgrades in minutes, as
• 8:11
  - you said, Stephanie, and then easier access to
• 8:14
  - data, definitely some some clear benefits to that
• 8:17
  - shift to the cloud.
• 8:18
  - And just building on that, when you think
• 8:21
  - about your work across health care organizations,
• 8:24
  - where are you seeing that shift to the
• 8:25
  - cloud payoff first
• 8:27
  - in outcomes like maybe throughput,
• 8:29
  - workflows, room utilization?
• 8:31
  - I'm just curious where you tend to see
• 8:33
  - results early.
• 8:34
  - Mhmm. I...
• 8:36
  - The one that stands out to me
• 8:38
  - most definitely is our patient throughput.
• 8:42
  - Just because it touches so many different avenues
• 8:45
  - that affect the hospital. Everything from patient satisfaction
• 8:49
  - scores
• 8:51
  - to staff efficiency,
• 8:52
  - being able to quickly find staff members when
• 8:55
  - a patient is ready for them, or
• 8:58
  - getting rooms turned over in a timely fashion
• 9:00
  - so that we can,
• 9:02
  - you know, get folks,
• 9:04
  - being seen by a provider
• 9:06
  - much quicker.
• 9:08
  - But one of the big drivers
• 9:10
  - for that is also the ability to help
• 9:13
  - us identify any bottlenecks
• 9:15
  - in our throughput process. And that, at the
• 9:17
  - end of the day,
• 9:19
  - directly affects our bottom line and that
• 9:22
  - we as a facility
• 9:23
  - can also see more patients in the same
• 9:26
  - amount of time, but still providing better better
• 9:29
  - patient experience that we had
• 9:32
  - in the past.
• 9:34
  - One of the other pieces that I would
• 9:36
  - talk about along that same line is we
• 9:38
  - look across the health care continuum. We see
• 9:41
  - a lot of acquisitions
• 9:42
  - and a lot of consolidations
• 9:45
  - going
• 9:46
  - on. Where the cloud provides
• 9:48
  - a lot of benefit is the ability to
• 9:50
  - consolidate systems.
• 9:52
  - We don't require facilities to rip and replace
• 9:55
  - existing systems where we might be able to
• 9:57
  - tie into them, but still giving them a
• 10:00
  - central platform,
• 10:02
  - pane of glass, alerting tool,
• 10:04
  - you know, single place for reports,
• 10:07
  - but we also set them up as we
• 10:10
  - look to the future
• 10:11
  - and we can move forward with them, you
• 10:14
  - know, deploying new systems.
• 10:16
  - But it also is just a better partnership
• 10:19
  - experience, and it's a it's a definite value
• 10:21
  - add that the cloud brings
• 10:23
  - to our customer base.
• 10:26
  - Yeah. Stephanie, appreciate you
• 10:28
  - elaborating on on some of those cloud benefits
• 10:30
  - and and where you're seeing the early wins.
• 10:33
  - And for anyone who's listening who might not
• 10:35
  - be as familiar with RTLS,
• 10:38
  - I'm wondering if you can also just walk
• 10:40
  - us through what this looks like at the
• 10:42
  - bedside,
• 10:43
  - both from a patient and a and a
• 10:45
  - staff perspective as well.
• 10:47
  - You know, how can connected location intelligence really
• 10:50
  - change the experience inside of a hospital room?
• 10:53
  - Mhmm. You know,
• 10:54
  - we use the term smart hospitals, but smart
• 10:57
  - hospitals can mean
• 10:59
  - anything to anyone, something different. It depends on
• 11:01
  - who you ask and what their initiatives
• 11:04
  - are internally and when they look at their
• 11:07
  - their clientele and where they want to go.
• 11:10
  - But ideally,
• 11:11
  - most common when we talk about smart hospitals,
• 11:13
  - the bedside
• 11:15
  - items that change are location intelligence can quickly
• 11:19
  - share with the patient and their family in
• 11:21
  - the room
• 11:22
  - who walked into the room,
• 11:24
  - what's their name, what's their role, what is,
• 11:27
  - you know, a picture of them, things that
• 11:30
  - we can put up on the screen right
• 11:31
  - away from, like, a patient engagement
• 11:34
  - experience or even if we think about digital
• 11:37
  - digital whiteboards.
• 11:39
  - Nurses can quickly find
• 11:41
  - equipment that they need without having to go
• 11:44
  - search.
• 11:45
  - There's also...
• 11:46
  - When we start tying together
• 11:49
  - different systems to a single solution,
• 11:52
  - staff also aren't spending time entering information into
• 11:56
  - multiple systems.
• 11:58
  - There's duplication of effort.
• 12:00
  - So the bedside experience
• 12:03
  - is becoming... There's more of a focus on
• 12:06
  - providing care,
• 12:08
  - being with the patients, spending time with their
• 12:10
  - family,
• 12:11
  - and streamlining
• 12:13
  - all of these systems to make them
• 12:16
  - make them work better together
• 12:18
  - is helping us provide a better experience for
• 12:20
  - our patients, which is the end goal for
• 12:22
  - everybody.
• 12:23
  - Yeah. Absolutely.
• 12:25
  - Well, I appreciate you sharing what that looks
• 12:28
  - like on the ground. Really, really helpful.
• 12:31
  - And I know earlier, we touched on,
• 12:34
  - what that shift to the cloud has meant
• 12:36
  - for data.
• 12:37
  - And I wanna talk just a little bit
• 12:39
  - more about the data component.
• 12:41
  - So as hospitals connect more systems and generate
• 12:44
  - more data as a result,
• 12:46
  - where are you seeing analytics and AI fitting
• 12:48
  - into the evolution of RTLS?
• 12:51
  - Everybody's talking about AI.
• 12:53
  - We are as well, and and we need
• 12:55
  - to be.
• 12:56
  - This is one of the areas
• 12:59
  - we talk about smart hospitals with location data,
• 13:02
  - but AI is also right at the top.
• 13:05
  - Because of the data we collect,
• 13:07
  - it's it's automatically collected. It's based on, you
• 13:11
  - know, people or things moving around a facility.
• 13:15
  - It's also data that can... We can use
• 13:17
  - with AI to help start looking at any
• 13:20
  - type of predictive analysis,
• 13:23
  - whether that's patient wait times,
• 13:26
  - staff optimization.
• 13:28
  - It could also be everything from asset utilization
• 13:32
  - and making sure that
• 13:34
  - we have supply closets that are proper... Properly
• 13:38
  - stocked at, you know, peak times.
• 13:41
  - There's really a long list
• 13:44
  - of use cases that can benefit from RTLS
• 13:48
  - and AI data.
• 13:49
  - The one though that we do tend to
• 13:51
  - talk about and think about the most is
• 13:54
  - the predictive analytics piece of it,
• 13:56
  - and that is where we can help identify
• 13:59
  - trends based on past performance
• 14:02
  - that our customers then have access to all
• 14:04
  - of that data where they may not have
• 14:06
  - in the past.
• 14:08
  - Yep.
• 14:09
  - Yeah. And interesting, Stephanie, how you said, you
• 14:11
  - know,
• 14:12
  - in this area, we have to be thinking
• 14:14
  - about AI and how it fits in.
• 14:16
  - What you just outlined
• 14:18
  - sounds like
• 14:19
  - considering it responsibly
• 14:21
  - and,
• 14:22
  - with intention really can help to kind of
• 14:25
  - move forward some of these outcomes that we're
• 14:26
  - looking for here, whether that's streamlining some of
• 14:29
  - the workflows or just making things more,
• 14:31
  - patient friendly and patient satisfactory.
• 14:34
  - So as you look out to the next
• 14:36
  - few years, I'm curious
• 14:38
  - if you can share with our listeners what
• 14:40
  - you think a smart hospital will do differently
• 14:43
  - because of location data. And what has to
• 14:45
  - be in place for hospitals to get to
• 14:47
  - that reality?
• 14:49
  - First and foremost, the technology
• 14:52
  - that's chosen has to work. We have...
• 14:56
  - And this is in any space and it's
• 14:58
  - not new as of 2026
• 15:00
  - by any means, but
• 15:01
  - there's always technology vendors that say yes to
• 15:04
  - everything, and you're only as good as the
• 15:06
  - data that you collect.
• 15:09
  - So making sure to vet and pick
• 15:12
  - the right technology vendors
• 15:14
  - that can perform,
• 15:16
  - that have good references, that actually can produce
• 15:19
  - the outcomes
• 15:21
  - that they're saying that they're going to.
• 15:23
  - Otherwise, we get in this cycle
• 15:26
  - of
• 15:27
  - technologies that didn't perform,
• 15:29
  - hospitals then become jaded, and they've already spent
• 15:32
  - money on a system that failed them once.
• 15:34
  - So it becomes
• 15:35
  - a bit of an uphill battle for for
• 15:37
  - those of us that have done this for
• 15:39
  - many, many years.
• 15:41
  - But as smart hospitals become
• 15:44
  - more popular,
• 15:46
  - a platform like we offer is going to
• 15:48
  - become vital. We talk about a hub and
• 15:51
  - spoke solution,
• 15:52
  - and our platform is the hub.
• 15:55
  - There are platforms that are definitely architected for
• 15:59
  - large transact...
• 16:00
  - Transaction
• 16:01
  - datasets,
• 16:02
  - lots of integrations
• 16:04
  - to consume data, push data out, and it's
• 16:07
  - important to make sure and really vet
• 16:10
  - those that you're picking to partner with because
• 16:13
  - it is a long term partnership.
• 16:15
  - And that's one of the reasons that when
• 16:17
  - we've done this for, oh gosh, probably close
• 16:20
  - to twenty years, the partnership that we have
• 16:22
  - with our customers become so important because we
• 16:24
  - use we use their feedback
• 16:27
  - to build our our road map for the
• 16:29
  - next three to five years to make sure
• 16:30
  - that what's on that road map
• 16:33
  - directly benefits them.
• 16:36
  - Wow. Stephanie, it's been great learning from you
• 16:38
  - today, and I can just hear the passion
• 16:40
  - that you have for this work and and
• 16:42
  - everything that you're doing at Securitas.
• 16:44
  - Before I let you go, is there anything
• 16:46
  - we haven't covered or any final thoughts that
• 16:48
  - you wanted to leave our listeners with?
• 16:50
  - The one thing that I would add is
• 16:53
  - that
• 16:54
  - I've done this, like I had mentioned, for
• 16:56
  - almost twenty years, and I don't know if
• 16:58
  - there's been a more exciting time
• 17:01
  - to be a part of RTLS.
• 17:03
  - Hardware has become more affordable and easy to
• 17:06
  - deploy.
• 17:07
  - Data sits in the cloud, making it easier
• 17:10
  - for all of our customers to access it.
• 17:13
  - RTLS platforms are are architected
• 17:16
  - correctly to be the hub
• 17:18
  - for our smart hospitals. But
• 17:20
  - while all of these things are great and
• 17:22
  - we talk about solutions and and applications,
• 17:25
  - what they ultimately
• 17:27
  - allow us to do is to provide better
• 17:30
  - care for our patients and those that matter
• 17:32
  - most,
• 17:32
  - and that's ultimately at the the heart of
• 17:35
  - everything that we do at Securitas.
• 17:37
  - So if I could leave you with anything,
• 17:39
  - that would be it, is that I do
• 17:41
  - feel
• 17:41
  - we definitely are
• 17:43
  - are at an exciting time within the RTLS
• 17:46
  - industry.
• 17:47
  - Yeah.
• 17:48
  - Well, Stephanie, thanks again for sharing with us
• 17:51
  - what exactly
• 17:52
  - this exciting time for RTLS entails
• 17:55
  - and how systems and hospitals can prepare. It's
• 17:57
  - been great learning from you today. So I
• 17:59
  - just wanna thank you again for making the
• 18:00
  - time.
• 18:01
  - Absolutely. Thanks, Erica.
• 18:03
  - And we'd also like to thank our podcast
• 18:05
  - sponsor for today, Securitas Healthcare.
• 18:08
  - Listeners, be sure to tune in to more
• 18:10
  - podcasts from Becker's by visiting our podcast page
• 18:13
  - at beckershospitalreview.com.