Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / The Strategic Value of RTLS in Healthcare: From Point Solutions to Enterprise Intelligence

Transcript

The Strategic Value of RTLS in Healthcare: From Point Solutions to Enterprise Intelligence · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - Hi, everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's
• 0:02
  - Healthcare. Thanks so much for tuning in to
• 0:04
  - the Becker's Healthcare podcast series. It's fantastic to
• 0:07
  - have you today. I'm so excited to have
• 0:09
  - Bill McCarthy with me. He's the president of
• 0:11
  - Securitas Healthcare. And Stephanie Anderson, she's the vice
• 0:14
  - president of cloud and platform strategy there. Bill
• 0:16
  - and Stephanie have spent their combined thirty years
• 0:19
  - of experience helping health care organizations use technology
• 0:22
  - to improve safety operational efficiency
• 0:25
  - and the patient
• 0:26
  - experience. Today, we'll explore
• 0:28
  - how RTLS is evolving from a collection of
• 0:30
  - point solutions into a source of enterprise wide
• 0:34
  - operational
• 0:34
  - intelligence. Bill and Stephanie, so fantastic to have
• 0:37
  - you both. Welcome.
• 0:39
  - Lucas, it's great to be here. Truly appreciate
• 0:42
  - you having us on today. We're excited to,
• 0:44
  - to discuss a lot more about RTL Labs
• 0:46
  - over the next half hour or so.
• 0:49
  - Yes. Lucas, thank you very much. I echo
• 0:51
  - Bill's comments and, very much looking forward to
• 0:54
  - it.
• 0:55
  - Yeah. It's great to have you both. I
• 0:56
  - I was doing some research around RTLS here
• 0:59
  - before our podcast episode over the last couple
• 1:01
  - of days. And it's so interesting to think
• 1:03
  - about the fact that this has been around,
• 1:04
  - you know, since since the the late nineties
• 1:08
  - into the early two thousands, mostly focused on
• 1:10
  - asset tracking. But this is something that's been
• 1:13
  - around
• 1:13
  - for a a long time. It's been there.
• 1:16
  - But
• 1:17
  - I feel like today that conversation is changing
• 1:20
  - quite a bit. And and, Bill, I'll start
• 1:22
  - off with you. How would you describe the
• 1:25
  - role RTLS
• 1:27
  - plays today,
• 1:28
  - and what's driving that renewed interest, those conversations
• 1:32
  - that we're having now with health system leaders?
• 1:36
  - Sure. I mean, if you think about RTLS
• 1:38
  - today, it's it's kind of got to where
• 1:40
  - it's at now by being a point solution.
• 1:42
  - And I think where it's going
• 1:44
  - is really about
• 1:46
  - helping people find what's in their physical environment
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  - right now. We have financial records. We have
• 1:51
  - patient records.
• 1:53
  - The next step of the evolution is really
• 1:55
  - finding out
• 1:56
  - where your things and people are in your
• 1:58
  - physical environment. And there's a number of different
• 2:00
  - ways to get there. I truly believe as
• 2:02
  - we look out into the future, RTLS is
• 2:04
  - gonna be a connective tissue that kind of
• 2:06
  - brings all of this together.
• 2:09
  - Stephanie, from where you're sitting to again, you're
• 2:12
  - you're sitting at the enablement piece of this,
• 2:14
  - enabling this technology. Right?
• 2:17
  - How do you see this? Right? What's what
• 2:19
  - are the conversations that you're having with leaders?
• 2:21
  - What's driving this renewed interest?
• 2:24
  - I think one of the key things moving
• 2:26
  - forward is going to be a true platform
• 2:28
  - approach and a platform offering,
• 2:30
  - and RTLS is a key piece of that.
• 2:33
  - We sit in the middle of so many
• 2:35
  - disparate systems
• 2:37
  - collecting data from all aspects of,
• 2:41
  - you know, of of the facilities
• 2:42
  - themselves.
• 2:43
  - But it also comes back to we've seen
• 2:46
  - a lot of interest in the patient experience.
• 2:49
  - The last couple of years, it really there
• 2:51
  - has been a focus around that and that's
• 2:53
  - not going to change. And so door to
• 2:54
  - door,
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  - where are our patients spending time? They have
• 2:58
  - a lot of options.
• 3:00
  - And so where are they going that is,
• 3:02
  - you know, efficiently seeing them in a timely
• 3:05
  - manner
• 3:06
  - that they feel they're getting the best care
• 3:08
  - as well. And so a
• 3:11
  - platform that can provide all of that information
• 3:13
  - across the board,
• 3:14
  - not only to the staff that's providing the
• 3:16
  - care, but to leadership as they look at
• 3:19
  - providing
• 3:20
  - the best the best experience for their patients,
• 3:23
  - alleviating
• 3:24
  - bottlenecks, and getting them, move through the process
• 3:28
  - quickly, but with the right care.
• 3:31
  - I love that you mentioned the right care
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  - because, again, at the end of the day,
• 3:34
  - we're enabling patient care, we're enabling better patient
• 3:36
  - care and for organizations to be able to
• 3:38
  - provide
• 3:40
  - access and better care for their communities, which
• 3:42
  - is so crucial.
• 3:44
  - Bill, from from your experience,
• 3:46
  - where you're at today and from what you've
• 3:48
  - seen in the past, right, what are some
• 3:51
  - of those friction points from those some of
• 3:53
  - those operational friction points today
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  - where that new approach when we're talking about
• 3:58
  - RTLS
• 4:00
  - really makes a difference when we're adding that
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  - platform approach?
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  - Well, I I I think about Stephanie hit
• 4:06
  - on earlier, but but it really is about
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  - the patient experience. So if you think of
• 4:09
  - where we're at today,
• 4:11
  - let's start with staff safety and how RTLS
• 4:14
  - can truly help in terms of staff safety.
• 4:16
  - If you think about,
• 4:18
  - what's going on with
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  - nursing burnout,
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  - resource constraints constraints in hospitals,
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  - and how RTLS can truly
• 4:27
  - unlock all these capabilities, it's not just about
• 4:30
  - necessarily one point solution. It's about really bringing
• 4:32
  - all these together and having better visibility
• 4:35
  - into everything that's going on operationally in your
• 4:37
  - landscape in in your in your hospital landscape,
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  - I should say. Whether that's connecting where an
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  - asset is at a particular time to where
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  - to where a staff member is, to the
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  - patient that needs that level of care. It's
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  - about bringing all of these solutions together, Stephanie
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  - mentioned,
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  - integrating everything together and be able to really
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  - operationalize
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  - where your stuff is and where it needs
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  - to be at that right time to provide
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  - the right type of patient care. And I
• 5:00
  - think we're on the cusp of truly unlocking
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  - that throughout the health care landscape over the
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  - next decade.
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  - Stephanie,
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  - what when we're doing this right, right, when
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  - we're going from, you know, the single use
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  - case to saying, okay. Now it's a we're
• 5:13
  - we're taking a platform approach, right, an enterprise
• 5:16
  - platform approach. What changes for health systems when
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  - they're doing this, when they're start thinking about
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  - RTLS as an enterprise platform rather than just
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  - that point solution?
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  - Yeah.
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  - Specifically, the the cloud and AI,
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  - and
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  - those are big drivers that work hand in
• 5:36
  - hand. And what I mean by that is
• 5:39
  - when you are deployed specifically in the cloud,
• 5:42
  - the access to data becomes so much easier
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  - regardless of what that data is.
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  - You have easier and quicker access to that
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  - to help you provide outcomes.
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  - Now you might use AI for those outcomes
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  - or you might use some other tools, but
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  - AI is what everyone is talking about. So
• 5:58
  - it's why I bring it up specifically.
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  - But RTLS
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  - provides
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  - data that is automatically collected. It's not manipulated
• 6:07
  - data. It isn't something that we're manually entering.
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  - So when we think about providing outcomes from
• 6:13
  - an AI tool,
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  - RTLS is a great resource
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  - for that data
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  - to help us provide outcomes
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  - that, you know, that we're not being able
• 6:24
  - to manipulate or massage or touch.
• 6:27
  - And AI is what we're going to start
• 6:30
  - using and talking about a lot more in
• 6:32
  - health care of
• 6:33
  - identifying trends.
• 6:35
  - How do we provide better care? Where are
• 6:38
  - we seeing
• 6:39
  - equipment used that we didn't know about? Different
• 6:42
  - things like that. But when we look at
• 6:44
  - deploying across an enterprise and right sizing our
• 6:47
  - equipment, utilizing our staff so there isn't burnout,
• 6:51
  - providing the best patient experience,
• 6:54
  - the cloud and utilizing AI tools like that
• 6:56
  - are going to help us do it the
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  - most efficiently.
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  - I'm glad that you mentioned that because I
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  - think, again, there's a trickle down effect too
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  - that happens across the organization. It doesn't just
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  - impact one department. It doesn't just impact one
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  - specialty. It trickles down across the operational piece
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  - of this. And and, Bill, Stephanie gets one
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  - point for mentioning the MAGIC
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  - acronym. Right? It's a bonus point for for
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  - being the AI first here.
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  - When you're thinking about the technology
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  - capabilities, Bill,
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  - what are what needs to be in place?
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  - Right? What organizational
• 7:28
  - and and technology
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  - capabilities need to be in place for this
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  - to be successful?
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  - Lucas, that that's the million dollar question right
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  - now that we run into a lot. And
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  - when it when it's done right,
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  - truly,
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  - there's a readiness that takes place at the
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  - executive sponsorship level. It's typically not one single
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  - department that's using RTLS for one single use
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  - case. It's how everything kind of talks to
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  - one another. And I think that really comes
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  - when we talk about readiness,
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  - I truly believe it starts with executive sponsorship.
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  - And what RTLF can really bring together, and
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  - Stephanie hit on it just a couple of
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  - moments ago, but the data really starts to
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  - stack when you have interconnected platforms.
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  - That's when the the value creation you really
• 8:11
  - start to see with with our clients and
• 8:12
  - the feedback we get from our end users
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  - is when it's all talking to one another
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  - as opposed to just
• 8:18
  - being in a single department where
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  - where is my where are my assets at
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  - at this particular
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  - time? But that executive sponsorship brings it all
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  - together. And when we've seen RTLS truly deployed
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  - and the value creation
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  - being extracted all the way down to the
• 8:34
  - patient level, it's really when you have that
• 8:36
  - level of commitment. And then there's investment behind
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  - it. There's the people that are focused on
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  - maximizing value. And then there is truly the
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  - unlock that happens. But I believe it starts
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  - with the fact that sponsorship. You get also
• 8:47
  - a bonus point for mentioning my other favorite
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  - buzzword, change management, which is certainly so crucial
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  - in this process, having to do that as
• 8:54
  - you've just described.
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  - Stephanie,
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  - same question for you with a little bit
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  - of a different angle here too from what
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  - Bill just mentioned. But, again, we we talk
• 9:02
  - about the ROI of this. Right? We talk
• 9:04
  - about the impact on the organization
• 9:06
  - beyond those labor savings that you've just touched
• 9:09
  - on or or asset tracking in and of
• 9:11
  - itself for you from where you sit? Where
• 9:14
  - does the broader enterprise ROI emerge for this,
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  - Stephanie?
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  - I think there's a few ways and a
• 9:20
  - few a few areas. The customers that reap
• 9:23
  - the biggest rewards
• 9:25
  - are those not only that leadership buy buys
• 9:28
  - into it, but they think outside of the
• 9:30
  - box.
• 9:31
  - And they think about how to utilize the
• 9:33
  - data
• 9:35
  - in ways that aren't basic asset tracking,
• 9:38
  - aren't basic temperature monitoring.
• 9:41
  - Our best customers are the ones that are
• 9:43
  - coming up with the new use cases that
• 9:45
  - call us
• 9:47
  - with the what if scenarios.
• 9:49
  - And those are the ones also that have
• 9:52
  - internal departments
• 9:54
  - coming to them asking for tags to manage
• 9:56
  - their equipment, wanting to tag those temperature devices,
• 10:00
  - wanting to do patient workflow in their units
• 10:03
  - because they hear everybody else talking about it.
• 10:06
  - And so when they start to think, like
• 10:08
  - I said, outside of the box
• 10:11
  - and start to form those partnerships with groups
• 10:14
  - not only within the facility but outside of
• 10:17
  - the facility,
• 10:18
  - whether it be rental equipment, whether they be
• 10:21
  - the fire department sounds odd, but
• 10:24
  - there is one of our largest customers that
• 10:26
  - there's an area
• 10:28
  - throughout, within their ED equipment cannot be.
• 10:31
  - And when the fire department stops by to
• 10:33
  - do their checks, they get dinged.
• 10:36
  - So they very quickly
• 10:38
  - set up a rule within their system that
• 10:40
  - equipment can never be here.
• 10:42
  - Now that went away. Right? So they don't
• 10:44
  - have those conversations
• 10:46
  - anymore.
• 10:47
  - So those are the biggest wins, our customers
• 10:50
  - that think outside of the box
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  - on how to use the technology
• 10:54
  - in new ways to to benefit them.
• 10:57
  - Bill, is that something that that you would
• 10:58
  - echo as well? I am I'm assuming you
• 11:00
  - were having those conversations too about just just
• 11:02
  - taking the leap. Right? Being able to think
• 11:04
  - about, okay. What can we do better?
• 11:06
  - Yeah. I I I think when when you
• 11:08
  - think with
• 11:09
  - when you start the thought process of what
• 11:11
  - RTLS can do within your health system and
• 11:13
  - you start with the outcomes, as Stephanie
• 11:15
  - talked about, I think then a creativity starts
• 11:18
  - to truly unlock what can be achieved.
• 11:20
  - I also believe that as you look at
• 11:21
  - as you look at what value RTLS can
• 11:24
  - bring,
• 11:25
  - it's difficult, but at times, you can't look
• 11:27
  - at it in any particular budget cycle. I
• 11:29
  - think there has to be a long term
• 11:31
  - lens that's taken into account. Stephanie discussed it
• 11:33
  - earlier on,
• 11:34
  - the implementation of cloud platforms and how AI
• 11:37
  - is gonna be embedded into the platform in
• 11:39
  - the future. And if if you look out
• 11:41
  - over the next decade and you start to
• 11:43
  - think about what's coming and who can integrate
• 11:46
  - with,
• 11:47
  - what different use cases, how can you bring
• 11:49
  - all this information together? I think
• 11:51
  - one of the really important things to look
• 11:53
  - outside of just any particular budget cycle, which
• 11:55
  - is, by the way, really difficult in any
• 11:57
  - any role within a hospital. Right? You have
• 11:59
  - budgets. You have to stay within your budgets.
• 12:00
  - We all work in budgets.
• 12:02
  - But to really imagine
• 12:04
  - what our RTLS can unlock, I think then
• 12:06
  - the imagination starts to run wild. And as
• 12:08
  - Stephanie just mentioned,
• 12:10
  - use cases kind of come to us. And
• 12:12
  - then it's incumbent upon us as vendor to
• 12:14
  - help you and your health system unlock the
• 12:16
  - value.
• 12:18
  - Stephanie, for for the leaders that are listening
• 12:21
  - right now, and you've mentioned again, taking the
• 12:23
  - leap and being able to have those conversations
• 12:24
  - is certainly
• 12:26
  - a big part of this conversation in in
• 12:28
  - driving this in the next couple of years.
• 12:30
  - What's the biggest mindset shift you want leaders
• 12:34
  - to take, you encourage them to take as
• 12:37
  - they're thinking about, as they are evaluating
• 12:39
  - RTLS over the next few years? Mhmm. What
• 12:42
  - problem is are they looking to solve?
• 12:45
  - Yeah. Because it isn't just you know, I
• 12:47
  - I don't mean to beat this drum.
• 12:49
  - It's not just about asset tracking. So what
• 12:52
  - are the problems they're looking to solve? I
• 12:53
  - will tell you at a call earlier today,
• 12:56
  - they are looking to deploy patient workflow. And
• 12:58
  - I asked them, what are you looking to
• 13:00
  - what what are the issues? What's the value
• 13:03
  - add for you? What's the goal? They know.
• 13:05
  - They rattled it off. And so those are
• 13:08
  - the things to start thinking about
• 13:11
  - as we think about long term. What are
• 13:13
  - the problems you're looking to solve? What are
• 13:15
  - the systems you're looking to combine?
• 13:17
  - What's the value to you?
• 13:20
  - Not only so we make sure they see
• 13:22
  - it, but we as a vendor recognize their
• 13:24
  - goals and we march towards that with them,
• 13:27
  - making it a true partnership
• 13:30
  - with all of our customers. And as we
• 13:32
  - think big picture
• 13:33
  - for any, you know, opportunities that we're working
• 13:36
  - on, that's what it's about is having that
• 13:38
  - strategic relationship with them
• 13:41
  - that they understand our roadmap, but they're a
• 13:43
  - part of building our roadmap as well.
• 13:46
  - So glad you mentioned that. The why is
• 13:48
  - so important. Why are we trying to solve
• 13:50
  - this? And then we can get to the
• 13:51
  - how are we trying to solve this, which
• 13:53
  - is so crucial. Bill, same question for you.
• 13:56
  - What's that one big mindset shift you want
• 13:58
  - leaders to think about as they're evaluating this?
• 14:01
  - As you look at RTLS, I think RTLS
• 14:04
  - can truly bridge the physical to the digital
• 14:07
  - environment. And how those two two can talk
• 14:09
  - together, I think that is the one thing
• 14:10
  - to always keep in mind because there's
• 14:12
  - a massive level on the unlock that is
• 14:14
  - yet to be reached across the market. Yeah.
• 14:17
  - Bill and Stephanie, it's so fantastic to have
• 14:19
  - you both on. Thank you so much for
• 14:21
  - taking some time for us here. We also
• 14:23
  - want to thank Securus Healthcare for bringing us
• 14:25
  - together for this wonderful conversation. Thank you again
• 14:27
  - for being here. You can tune in to
• 14:29
  - more podcasts from Beckers Healthcare by visiting our
• 14:32
  - podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.