REAL-TIME LOCATION SYSTEMS (RTLS) FOR PATIENT SAFETY, ASSET TRACKING, AND COMPLIANCE.
The Crisis of Care Logistics
Hospitals are complex, chaotic environments where life-and-death decisions depend on logistics. Yet, the average nurse spends 1 hour per shift—12% of their time—hunting for equipment. They look for IV pumps, wheelchairs, telemetry packs, and wound vacs. This is 'Hunt and Gather' medicine.
Beyond assets, the management of pharmaceuticals is fraught with risk. Manual tracking of crash carts and medication trays leads to expired drugs remaining in circulation. A single oversight can lead to a Sentinel Event.
Furthermore, patient flow is opaque. Bottlenecks in the ER or OR reduce throughput and patient satisfaction. Without data, administrators cannot optimize staffing or bed turnover.
Key Pain Points
Asset Hoarding & Loss
Because staff cannot find equipment, they hoard it in closets and ceiling tiles. Hospitals end up buying 130% of their necessary fleet, yet utilization remains below 40%. Millions of dollars sit idle.
Medication Safety
Restocking crash carts manually is error-prone. A missed expired epinephrine vial is a liability. Drug diversion (theft) is also a growing concern that manual logs cannot prevent.
Infection Control
Knowing which equipment interacted with an infectious patient is critical. Without digital contact tracing, hospitals must blanket-quarantine assets, disrupting operations.
Active & Passive RTLS
Nextwaves implements a hybrid Real-Time Location System (RTLS). We use Passive UHF RFID for high-volume consumables and low-cost assets (linen, files, meds), and Active (BLE/Wi-Fi) tracking for high-value mobile equipment.
Our 'Smart Cabinets' automatically track every vial of medication taken, updating the patient record and inventory instantly. Our ceiling-mounted arrays track the movement of beds and pumps throughout the facility, visualizing them on a digital map.
This system creates a 'Chain of Custody'. We know exactly who took the drug, for which patient, and when. We know exactly where the infusion pump is, and if it has been cleaned since its last use.
Why Nextwaves?
- Hybrid architecture (RFID + BLE + Wi-Fi) on a single platform
- Gamma-sterilization compatible tags for surgical trays
- Experience integrating with Epic and Cerner EMRs
Clinical & Financial ROI
Patient Safety
Prevent 'Never Events'. Automated checks ensure the right med, right dose, right patient.
Asset Utilization
Reduce fleet size by 20% while increasing availability. Stop buying pumps you don't need.
Staff Satisfaction
Give nurses their time back. Let them focus on care, not logistics.
Regulatory Compliance
Automated logs for The Joint Commission (TJC). Prove sterility and maintenance compliance instantly.
Deep Dive: Privacy & Security
Implementing RFID in healthcare requires strict adherence to HIPAA and GDPR. Nextwaves ensures that no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is ever stored on a tag.
The tag contains only a secure, encrypted token (Tag ID). The association between that token and the patient (e.g., 'Patient John Doe') exists only in the secure, encrypted database layer, which is air-gapped from the public internet. Our system uses Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) to ensure only authorized clinical staff can see patient-location data.
A 500-bed trama center struggled with ER throughput and chronic IV pump shortages. Nurses were reporting delays in care due to missing equipment.
The Future: The AI Hospital
RTLS is the sensory system for the AI Hospital. By feeding location data into Machine Learning models, we can predict patient deterioration based on movement patterns, optimize OR schedules dynamically, and automate discharge procedures.
We are piloting 'Smart Bed' integration where the bed itself communicates the patient's vitals and weight to the cloud via the RFID backscatter link.
Heal smarter.
Let technology handle the searching. You handle the saving.