Ekahau to enable advanced patient tracking solution in Belgian hospital

Ekahau Inc., a leading provider of Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), has announced that Herentals Hospital has selected Ekahau's Real Time Location System (RTLS) to track patients through its operating room complex.

In the first phase of operations, leading Belgian networking and security integrator, Quantum ICT, has installed the Ekahau Real Time Location. This includes the Ekahau Positioning Engine server software, along with the Ekahau suite of applications, Ekahau Tracker and Ekahau Finder. Added to this are Ekahau T301 tags which will be attached to patients, to track them through the operating room complex from registration to their return to the ward.

Technical Manager for Quantum ICT, Gert De Haes explained that the Ekahau RTLS had been smoothly integrated into the hospital's existing Aruba Wi-Fi network and SAP system to enable full access to patient data and time stamping. He continued that following successful completion of Phase 1 of the Ekahau RTLS integration in October, the plan is to ramp up the system to include a further 800 to 1000 tags in a two-year timeframe to also include tracking valuable medical equipment.

Speaking about Phase 1 of the project, De Haes explained "The ability to integrate RTLS with the hospital's SAP and to enable time stamping is a very important feature of this installation. Time stamping allows the hospital to create statistical data about patient throughput and the time taken for various operations - this increases accountability and transparency for Herentals Hospital which receives its funding in large part from the municipality."

IT manager at Herentals Hospital added: "We are very pleased to adopt the Ekahau RTLS solution and believe that it will add a significant new layer of information and support to complement our patient care. Precision tracking of patients through the operating theatre will enable more efficient throughput and better use of existing resources, which is essential to the running of any modern hospital."