Hospitals in Germany face huge challenges. The number of patients is increasing on a yearly basis. At the same time hospitals are shut down due to a lack of profitability. This is why more and more hospitals are forced to cut costs by making their processes more efficient.
New technologies can help to make that task easier. Real-time Locating Systems (RTLS) are one of those technologies. They can be used to generate real-time position information for objects and people moving within the hospital.
The thesis researches the inefficiencies within German hopsitals. Therefore a representative number of healthcare experts, doctors and nurses are interviewed on their daily work in healthcare institutions. On this basis, the work suggests, describes and evaluates five specialized Use-Cases for applying RTLS within hospitals.
“…still in many cases the everyday work in German hospitals is not process or workflow oriented. This is caused by a functional thinking of the personnel involved, which leads to inefficiencies.”
The thesis is written for NovelSense, a company specialized on sensor data analysis. The results show a potential for RTLS in German hopsitals which should be further explored in a pilot installation with partner company Siemens Healthineers.
