Our previous blog about the growing use of 3D location in the healthcare industry focused on the use of the technology to quickly and accurately locate doctors and other medical staff, even in high-rise hospitals, and efficiently get them to patients in need. A less mission-critical, but still important, use case is the tagging and tracking of high-value medical equipment, the subject focus of my recent guest article in Fierce Healthcare.
One of the key contributors to healthcare costs is the investment in state-of-the-art medical equipment, which helps to improve patient outcomes, but is expensive and liable to being misplaced or stolen. This not only costs hospitals millions of dollars each year, but also can have a negative impact on patient care if a piece of medical technology is not in place where and when it is needed. Polaris Wireless is working with partners who offer tracking applications enabled by our 3D Location Platform to ensure that all medical equipment and other assets are always accounted for.
Take for example a portable ultrasound machine, which can retail for over $50,000. In a high-rise hospital, this equipment may be misplaced and difficult to track down. By attaching an inexpensive wireless tag that is registered with an application that utilizes our 3D technology, the hospital administrator is able to view the location of the ultrasound in real-time, anywhere in the building, down to the floor level. This innovative use case is not restricted to medical equipment, but could be deployed to monitor and track high-value assets in industries such as manufacturing, mining, and logistics. We look forward to sharing more of these examples in future blog posts.
