St. Francis Interquest, a groundbreaking hospital in Colorado Springs, embodies the future of healthcare, prioritizing the quadruple aims: patient experience, population health, cost reduction, and staff well-being. Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) play a pivotal role, in streamlining care by enabling automatic logins and access to vital patient data via Epic Monitor during rounds. RTLS extends beyond tracking, offering workflow optimization, data analytics, infection control, cost reduction, compliance, and emergency response. This “hospital of the future” integrates technology to create a seamless patient experience, addressing the disjointed nature of current healthcare delivery.
The Mountain Region of CommonSpirit Health unveiled the cutting-edge St. Francis Interquest hospital in Colorado Springs on July 11, 2023, in a ground-breaking initiative to improve healthcare. This 72-bed orthopedic and spine center is a tribute to years of persistent work to revolutionize patient care by leveraging technological innovation. To advance in the four major areas of the quadruple aim—improving patient experience, enhancing population health, lowering costs, and bolstering the well-being of the healthcare team—St. Francis Interquest was designed as a “hospital of the future.” To that end, it carefully selected cutting-edge technologies.
Employing human-centered design principles, a multidisciplinary team engaged in extensive stakeholder interviews, embracing limitless possibilities throughout the design process. Among the emerging technologies, Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS) quickly emerged as a pivotal innovation poised to elevate care quality, patient satisfaction, and healthcare provider satisfaction. However, RTLS, due to its initial cost and limited adoption by healthcare providers, had not fully realized its potential.
Recent years have seen a transformative shift, as the cost of RTLS technology has decreased, and healthcare systems have grown increasingly imaginative in their utilization of tracking sensors. To delve into the myriad ways in which this “hospital of the future” incorporates RTLS, Healthcare IT News engaged Dr. Valerie McKinnis, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Mountain Region CommonSpirit Health, a 20-hospital health system headquartered in Colorado.
Q: To begin, could you elucidate what you mean by a “hospital of the future” concerning St. Francis Interquest?
A: The concept of a “hospital of the future” revolves around the next generation of healthcare, where transformative technologies are harnessed to realize the promise of the quadruple aim. This approach seeks to enhance patient experience, improve the health of the population we serve, and reduce costs, all while promoting the well-being of our healthcare team. It recognizes the challenges posed by the evolving landscape of healthcare, especially in the wake of the pandemic, and aims to leverage technology to create a seamless care experience for our patients.
Presently, healthcare delivery in most hospitals across the country often feels disjointed. Patients may encounter various disconnected aspects of care. The goal of a “hospital of the future” is to utilize technology to unify and synchronize the various facets of patient care.
Q: RTLS may not be considered a glamorous technology. What sets RTLS apart and makes it vital to your “hospital of the future” initiative?
A: As a practicing physician and hospitalist, I frequently witness the substantial time healthcare staff, including nurses, physicians, and ancillary personnel, spend searching for both people and equipment. When envisioning a “hospital of the future,” we recognized that resolving this fundamental issue was paramount. It’s a pervasive challenge observed in virtually every hospital setting.
Efficiently locating our staff and equipment was clear to us as essential for improving patient care, streamlining operations, and enhancing the efficiency of care delivery within our hospital. RTLS emerged as a key solution, offering benefits beyond mere location tracking. It encompassed workflow optimization, data analytics, infection control, cost reduction through enhanced visibility, compliance and accreditation adherence, and efficient emergency response.
From the outset, we viewed RTLS as an enabling technology that would seamlessly integrate with other technologies in our environment, contributing to a holistic, next-generation patient experience.
Q: Let’s delve into three specific uses of RTLS. First, RTLS-enabled Epic Monitor authorization and login. Can you elaborate on how this technology is applied and the advantages it provides that were not easily achievable otherwise?
A: Implementing RTLS for Epic Monitor authorization and login was one of our most exciting innovations in the “hospital of the future.” My perspective as a clinician certainly influences my enthusiasm, as I spend my days navigating an abundance of information while striving to dedicate meaningful time with patients at their bedside.
We began by reimagining the traditional rounding experience, which often involved multiple healthcare team members using various devices and sometimes turning away from the patient. Our objective was to create a more connected and efficient rounding process.
We transformed Epic Monitor into a high-yield clinician rounding tool, incorporating essential clinical data, such as vital signs, laboratory results, medication orders, and radiology studies, all accessible on a dedicated screen at the patient’s bedside with drill-down capabilities.
Our goal was to provide clinicians, upon entering a patient’s room, immediate access to crucial patient data during rounds, eliminating the need to log into a computer. We were mindful of patient privacy, so we didn’t display this data on the patient’s monitor throughout the day. Instead, we aimed for a high-impact rounding activity.
To achieve this, we implemented RTLS-enabled authorization, ensuring automatic login for clinicians as they entered a patient’s room. When a clinician enters a room with their RTLS-enabled hospital badge, it triggers the Epic Monitor to switch to the clinician view, offering real-time access to vital patient information. This approach allowed me, as a physician, to focus entirely on the patient during rounds, engaging them in their care without the distraction of logging into multiple devices.
Upon entering the room, all the patient information I needed magically appeared on the patient’s monitor, streamlining the care process and improving the overall patient experience.
