VHA OrganizationLargest direct care healthcare system in U.S.

q 8.3M+ Veterans cared for each year

q 170+ Medical Centers

q 1400 Other Facilities

q $5.6B+ of Medical Technology

1

"The information contained herein shall not be construed as an endorsement of any product

by the U.S. Government."

RTLS OverloadA Theoretical Deployment Example

Solutions◦ Mobile Assets – Active Wi-Fi + IR◦ Immobile Assets – Passive UHF◦ Cath Lab Supplies - Passive HF◦ Instruments - 2D Barcodes◦ OR Staff/Patients – Active 900MHz + Ultrasound◦ Hand Hygiene Staff – Active 433MHz + LF◦ Long Term Care – Ultra Wide Band

Issues◦ Redundant◦ Costly◦ Interactions difficult

2

Lack of Interoperability

3

EXAMPLE Conceptual Model

Hand Hygiene Staff Tags IR / 433MHz Hand Hygiene Application

& Location Engine

Purchase #1: Vendor A RTLS Hand Hygiene Niche

Clinical Workflow

Tags

IR / 900MHz

Location Engine Clinical Workflow Application

Purchase #2: Vendor B RTLS Clinical Workflow

VA High-Level Technical GoalsBest Laid Plans

1. Same system nationwide

2. Single comprehensive system for all use cases

3. Leverage existing infrastructure when possible

4. Open standards

5. Modular architecture

6. Allow for innovation

4

Applications

RTLS Active Tag

Here it is!

Base Asset Tracking (AT) Cath Lab Supply Management (CL)

Temperature Monitoring (TM)

Sterile Processing

Workflow (SPW)

Developing Emergency Dept Workflow (EDW) Hand Hygiene (HH)

Patient Elopement and Wandering

(PEW) Surgical

Workflow (SW)

5

VA RTLS OverviewRTLS Infrastructure VA-wide Dec 2012 – Dec 2017

6

A

B

RoomNodeBetter Even BetterGood

Accuracy/PrecisionClose Only Counts in… horseshoes?

Location, Location, Location… Status?

7

Pump

Patient Room Dirty UtilityClean UtilityPump RTLS Status

Available

In Use

Dirty

A101 A102 A103

IEEE Location Services for Healthcare

1. Create Common Framework§ Conceptual Information Model§ Formal and Systematic Terminology

2. Build Standards on the Framework§ Embedded LS into Medical Devices§ Hospital Infrastructure Coverage§ Hardware Management§ Etc.

8

Common

Framework

Std A

Std B

Std C

Std D

Std E

Std F