Why Real-Time Location Services Access Should be… Leave a comment
The challenge for most healthcare facilities is that the demand for access to RTLS technology is there, but the budget often is not. So, while these facilities know the impact RTLS technology can have on operations, productivity, loss prevention and employee and consumer satisfaction, they simply feel they cannot afford to install the traditional systems that are more widely known.
Many of today’s indoor wayfinding and tracking solutions tend to degrade in performance because they exist in hardware that must be maintained and even replaced over time. These facilities really need the software that can easily connect with their current infrastructure. They shouldn’t have to take on the additional expense of building a new, hardware-based infrastructure just for RTLS.
For wide adoption of RTLS, the infrastructure must already exist, and tags should be off-the-shelf with mainstream accessibility. The system should provide both wayfinding and indoor positioning, or “location of things” for a more complete solution.
Leveraging existing infrastructure and the right radio technology (not just WiFi or RFID but also Bluetooth low energy) allows for affordable and accurate RTLS adoption by any business, institution or facility considering indoor positioning/tracking and wayfinding solutions. It’s simply less complicated to install and manage for a service that is still highly accurate and more reliable.
Major connectivity vendors like Cisco Meraki, Aruba and Ruckus, that provide services to these facilities, are catching on and using integrated positioning engines as part of their WiFi offering.
This kind of RTLS system can:
- Provide accuracy levels equal to or greater than what is required by most cases
- Come at minimal or no additional cost as part of the connectivity solution infrastructure
- Rely on a technology that already has economies of scale such that tags are cost-effective, non-proprietary, interoperable and available from a wide range of suppliers
- Support tags to have a long batter life (e.g., 3+ years) to avoid the operational overhead of frequent battery recharge/replacement.
