Kontakt.io, the industry leader in AI-powered RTLS for care operations launched a new solution that improves patient flow by automating room turnover to free up beds faster. This increases bed capacity and efficiency, empowering nurses to focus on patient care instead of administrative tasks.
Bed capacity management is a growing concern among U.S. hospitals, significantly impacting both the top and bottom lines. In Mississippi, for example, hospitals with over 250 licensed beds saw a 7.6% rise in average annual occupancy rates, from 73.1% in 2020 to 80.7% in 2024.
Kontakt.io’s Rapid Room Turnover, part of its Patient Flow solution, uses real-time location solutions (RTLS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to detect discharges in real-time. This enables hospitals to expedite room cleaning workflows, increase capacity, and drive greater bed utilization. Unnecessary wait times and extended length of stay are no longer challenges.
Several major national health systems are currently piloting the Rapid Room Turnover solution with proven results and positive feedback.
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By cutting up to 50% from the typical two-hour discharge process, a 200-bed hospital can achieve clear, rapid ROI, including:
- $1.52 million in additional annual revenue
- 4.17% increase in patient capacity
- 760 additional patients per year
The traditional discharge process relies on nurses manually updating electronic health records (EHR) to indicate a patient has been discharged and that the room is ready for cleaning. However, with their focus on patient care, nurses often face delays in notifying environmental services, stalling the discharge workflow. As a result, patient rooms frequently sit empty and idle, delaying new admissions, reducing patient satisfaction, and hindering capacity optimization and bed utilization.
To address this, Kontakt.io’s Rapid Room Turnover solution uses BLE tags to provide real-time visibility into patient movement, detecting with confidence when a patient has been physically discharged. Environmental services teams are then automatically notified to initiate room cleaning—streamlining and accelerating the discharge process without disrupting staff members’ existing workflows.
“Patient discharge—the final step in a patient’s journey—is one of the most obvious waste items in patient flow, causing operational inefficiencies such as unnecessary wait times and extended length of stay,” says Rom Eizenberg, Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Product Innovation, Kontakt.io. “The Rapid Room Turnover solution helps hospitals unlock faster ROI through greater capacity while freeing up nurses from tedious admin tasks to focus on bedside care.”
Source: PRNewswire
