From RTLS pilots to Enterprise-

Wide Implementation: Some Lessons

Learned

Veterans Health Administration (VHA)Enterprise-Wide Deployment of RTLSPatients• 9 Million Veterans

Facilities• 21 VISNs

– 152 Hospitals– 1400 Ancillary: CBOCs, CLCs,

Doms, Vet Centers• 7 CMOPs (Consolidated Mail

Outpatient Pharmacies)• Over 120 million square feet

Equipment• More than 3 million assets to be

tracked• Managing over $5.6 Billion

Dollars of Medical Technology

…the largest direct health care system in America

VA RTLS Organization

National• VHA RTLS Project Management Office• VA RTLS IT Team• Technology Acquisition Center (TAC)• VHA RTLS Committee and

Workgroups

VISN• VISN RTLS Manager• Steering Committees and

Workgroups

Facility• Facility POC• Steering Committees and

Workgroups

VA RTLSPutting infrastructure in place to enable improved quality and efficiencies

Veterans Affairs Initial Applications

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

TemperatureMonitoring (TM)

Sterile ProcessingWorkflow (SPW)

Instrument Tracking System

(ITS)

Lessons Learned

Strong Steering Committees are Essential• Executive Leadership – Co-Chairs VISN

execs• Representative from each facility • Multidisciplinary Review and Input

Steer is an action verb• Charter should reflect the actions of the

Committee• Agenda should include votes for decision,

e.g., level of standardization, funding approval, etc.

• May need to interact via email in order to provide timely oversight of the project

• Experiment with the meeting content until you find the right level of detail to keep the Steering Committee engaged

Lessons LearnedPeople – Steering Committees

Education of Key Stakeholders• Clarify Objectives• Demystify Technology• Document Processes / Map Workflows• Focus on Optimization and Removing Waste• Ask Partners for Demonstrations• Encourage Communication from Existing

Implementations

Lessons LearnedPeople – Communication & Education

Lessons LearnedPeople - Sites

• Site Champion necessary• Designate a Facility Point of Contact

responsible for coordinating all installation activities

• Every facility has its own culture• Will organize accordingly• Ensure the facility leadership knows what needs

to happen• Steering Committee periodically reports to the

Executive Leadership Council

Lessons LearnedTechnology

• Adherence to proper location and method for attaching tags

• Planning / funding for infrastructure enhancements • Ensure use case critical areas are included in

implementation (ex. Biomedical Engineering, Warehouse)

• Wiring (power drops) and Wi-Fi must be planned

Lessons LearnedTechnology

• Surprisingly large number of refrigerators are difficult to find for clinical users – locating adds value

• Temperature standardization can be difficult• Value of monitoring often not seen by clinical

user• Fully integrated, single system is needed

– More intertwined functionality between end user and administrators than Asset Tracking

– Data model compatibility

• Accurate Inventory Needed for Configuration Planning

• Construction May Be Needed• Hanging Tag Design Improvements• Optimized Supply Inventory Preparation• Reduction in Required Inventory

Lessons LearnedProcess (Cath Lab)

Lessons LearnedProcess (SPW)

• Medical Center needs to provide expertise for properly identifying the Instruments

• Marking Locations Must Be Standardized• Importance of Quality Control in Marking Process• Significant learning curve for new tray assembly process

Lessons LearnedData

• Accurate/up-to-date CAD drawings• Clean Engineering Space File early• Data Standardization required for analytics• Tools being developed jointly between VA and HP to aid in

cleaning up data

AEMS/MERS Eng Space

Physical Space

CAD Drawings

RTLS Space= = =

Thank You – Questions?