Smart Hospital Tracking with LOCUS: Improving Safety and Efficiency

Hospitals operate like living organisms — constantly moving, adapting, and responding. Equipment travels from room to room, staff rush between wards, and teams work around the clock to keep operations running smoothly. In such a dynamic environment, visibility is everything. Knowing where things are, who is on duty, and what has been done can make a real difference in patient care and safety.

That’s exactly what TEKTELIC’s LOCUS Solution delivers. Powered by LoRaWAN® technology, it provides hospitals with real-time location awareness of assets, people, and activities — all through a simple, low-power, and reliable network.

In this article, we’ll explore how LOCUS transforms daily hospital operations, why LoRaWAN® suits healthcare environments better than traditional systems, and what measurable value hospitals can achieve.

Curious to see how it works? Continue reading to explore real use cases, deployed solutions, and the devices that make it all possible.

What Is LOCUS?

LOCUS is TEKTELIC’s advanced location-intelligence platform for tracking assets and monitoring people across large facilities. It uses battery-powered devices that communicate through a LoRaWAN® network, sending small packets of information that help visualize movement, activity, and presence in real time.

LOCUS integrates seamlessly with a wide range of TEKTELIC trackers. Every tracker reports its position, and a gateway transfers this data securely to the cloud. Inside the LOCUS application, hospital teams can view all information on an intuitive map — seeing in real time where people and equipment are, how they move, and for how long.

With years of experience in LoRaWAN® network deployment, TEKTELIC has designed LOCUS to work both indoors and outdoors without heavy IT infrastructure or maintenance.

Wondering how LOCUS determines location in such complex buildings? Continue reading to see how it works behind the scenes.

How LOCUS Determines Location

LOCUS achieves reliable indoor positioning by combining LoRaWAN® trackers with a simple layer of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons installed across hospital areas.

In practice, small BLE beacons are placed in key points — such as patient rooms, corridors, storage areas, and entrances — roughly every 10 meters. These low-cost, battery-powered devices create an invisible indoor “map.”

Mobile trackers like SPARROW, PELICAN, or STORK detect the beacon signals and send this information via LoRaWAN® through KONA Micro or KONA Enterprise Gateways to the LOCUS platform. The system then calculates each device’s position using advanced algorithms, displaying it on a real-time map of the hospital.

This setup gives hospitals a room-level accuracy, which is more than enough to:

• Locate medical equipment quickly.
• Confirm that cleaners, nurses, or technicians completed their tasks in the right areas.
• Track movement between departments and floors.

Because BLE beacons are small, inexpensive, and require no cabling, hospitals can deploy them in days and maintain them with minimal effort. The result is complete indoor visibility without complex installations or heavy maintenance.

In short: LOCUS uses BLE beacons to define indoor spaces and LoRaWAN® to connect everything reliably — giving hospitals the coverage, precision, and simplicity they need.

Why LoRaWAN® Suits Hospitals Best

Hospitals have complex environments — thick walls, underground levels, and hundreds of rooms that make it hard for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to provide reliable coverage. LoRaWAN® changes that with a network designed for long range, low power, and deep indoor penetration.

A few key reasons LoRaWAN® stands out:

• Strong indoor coverage: Only a few gateways can cover multiple floors and even basements.
• Long battery life: Devices run for years without charging.
• Low cost: One network covers many applications with no repeaters or high-power routers.
• Secure and scalable: Encrypted communication supports thousands of devices under one system.
• Indoor + outdoor visibility: The same setup tracks assets inside wards and across hospital campuses.

Hospitals can start small — with one department or use case — and expand over time without replacing their existing network.

Ready to see how some hospitals are already applying LOCUS and LoRaWAN® every day? Continue reading to explore real-world examples and the TEKTELIC devices behind them.

Real Hospital Use Cases with LOCUS

1) Equipment and Asset Tracking

Hospitals rely on thousands of mobile devices: wheelchairs, infusion pumps, stretchers, defibrillators, and more. Locating them when needed can waste valuable time and delay care.

LOCUS, paired with SPARROW, PELICAN, or STORK trackers, provides a live overview of where every item is located. These trackers can be attached to equipment and send regular updates through KONA Micro or KONA Enterprise Gateways, ensuring reliable connectivity across the entire hospital.

With this setup, hospitals can:

• Quickly locate the nearest available equipment.
• View movement history and usage patterns.
• Receive alerts if equipment leaves its designated area.
• Reduce time wasted searching between shifts.
• Prevent unnecessary rentals or purchases.

The result? Better resource use, lower operational costs, and faster patient service.

Question to consider: How much time could your staff save each day if they could instantly locate the right equipment?

2) Staff Location and Workflow Optimization

During peak hours, it’s easy for staff to spread out across multiple floors, making coordination harder. With CHICKADEE personnel badges connected to LOCUS, hospitals can see staff distribution in real time.

This data helps supervisors balance workloads, locate available personnel quickly, and confirm attendance in restricted areas.

Hospitals using CHICKADEE and LOCUS achieve:

• Faster communication between nurses, technicians, and departments.
• Improved response times for patient requests or emergencies.
• Better staff safety through real-time visibility.
• Accurate reports on time spent in departments for auditing and planning.

All information is displayed visually — not as surveillance, but as a way to support teams in working smarter and safer.

Continue reading to see how the same solution helps optimize cleaning operations and compliance tracking.

3) Cleaning Activity Monitoring

Cleanliness and hygiene are critical in every healthcare facility. Hospitals must document when and where cleaning occurred, how long it took, and whether all zones were completed.

LOCUS, combined with CHICKADEE badges, allows supervisors to monitor cleaning staff activity automatically — without manual checklists or timecards. Each badge reports the cleaner’s presence in a specific area, tracking start and finish times for each task.

With this simple setup, hospitals can:

• Verify which areas were cleaned and when.
• Ensure high-touch zones are sanitized on schedule.
• Balance cleaning workloads across shifts.
• Generate audit-ready reports automatically.

This use case not only improves hygiene and compliance but also demonstrates accountability to patients and regulators.

Question to consider: If a health audit happens tomorrow, can you easily show where and when cleaning took place?

4) Staff Safety and Emergency Alerts

Healthcare workers often face unpredictable situations. Ensuring their safety is a top priority.

TEKTELIC’s FINCH wearable panic button integrates seamlessly with LOCUS. Staff can trigger an immediate alert with a single press, and the system displays their exact location for rapid assistance.

Benefits include:

• Instant alerts with precise location data.
• Quick response coordination.
• Peace of mind for employees working alone or at night.
• Compact, lightweight design with long battery life.

Question to consider: If an incident occurred right now, how fast could your team reach the person who needs help?

5) Geofencing and Asset Security

Hospitals lose thousands of dollars every year due to misplaced or stolen assets. LOCUS supports geofencing — defining zones where specific equipment should stay.

Using SPARROW, PELICAN, or STORK trackers, hospitals receive instant alerts when a tagged asset moves outside its assigned area or leaves the building.

This allows teams to:

• Prevent loss or unauthorized movement of medical devices.
• Track expensive assets like infusion pumps or imaging units.
• Simplify return and inventory control between departments.

6) Simplified Reporting and Insights

LOCUS turns tracking data into actionable intelligence. Instead of raw numbers, hospital teams get clear dashboards showing usage trends, cleaning coverage, or response times.

Managers can:

• Identify equipment under- or over-use.
• See time-on-task for cleaning or maintenance teams.
• Analyze response speed to incidents or patient calls.
• Export reports for audits and compliance.

These insights help optimize processes and improve decision-making across departments.

Devices Behind the Hospital Tracking Solution

Function	TEKTELIC Device	Description
Indoor Asset Tracking	SPARROW	Compact tracker for small medical equipment.
Indoor & Outdoor Asset Tracking	PELICAN, STORK	Rugged, long-life trackers for larger or mobile assets operating across facilities.
Personnel & Cleaner Tracking	CHICKADEE	Wearable badge that tracks staff location and shift presence.
Staff Safety	FINCH	Lightweight panic button enabling instant help requests from anywhere in the hospital.
Network Coverage	KONA Micro / KONA Enterprise Gateways	Provide reliable, hospital-wide LoRaWAN® connectivity.

Together, these devices create a complete location-intelligence ecosystem managed through the LOCUS application, where all data appears on one unified dashboard.

Deployment: Fast, Simple, and Scalable

A few KONA Micro or KONA Enterprise Gateways provide full building coverage, and battery-powered devices can be installed in hours, not weeks.

The typical process includes:

1. Plan coverage – identify key areas and place gateways.
2. Tag assets and personnel – attach trackers or badges.
3. Set zones and alerts in LOCUS.
4. Train users – most teams learn it in under an hour.
5. Monitor results – measure ROI within the first month.

Hospitals can start with one department and scale to an entire campus using the same network.

Why Not Just Use Wi-Fi or BLE?

Feature	LoRaWAN®	Wi-Fi Tracking	BLE-Only Tracking
Battery life (typ.)	5–10 years	Days to weeks	Weeks to a few months
Coverage range	Whole hospital with few radios	Limited to each access point	Limited to each beacon/receiver
Infrastructure density	Low (few radios + BLE beacons in key areas)	High (many APs + cabling)	Moderate–High (many beacons/receivers)
Indoor penetration	Strong (walls/basements)	Moderate	Weaker through dense walls
Scalability	High (thousands of devices)	Medium (network load & cabling constraints)	Medium (beacon density grows quickly)
Maintenance effort	Low (multi-year devices)	High (charging, firmware, AP upkeep)	Medium (battery swaps, tuning)
Cost to scale	Low (few radios; inexpensive beacons)	High (AP count + cabling + power)	Moderate (hardware + labor to densify)
Outdoor use	Supported (campus, between buildings)	Limited	Limited
Typical accuracy	Room/zone (≈2–3 m with BLE beacons)	Room/floor (varies by design)	Room-level (1–3 m with dense beacons)
TCO over 5 years	Low	High	Medium

With LoRaWAN®, hospitals achieve wide coverage, minimal upkeep, and years of uninterrupted service — all at a fraction of the cost.

Privacy and Data Security

Security is built into every level of LOCUS:

• End-to-end encryption of all communications.
• Role-based access so only authorized users view data.
• Shift-based tracking protecting staff privacy beyond work hours.
• Custom data retention policies to meet compliance needs.

Scalable Beyond Hospitals

The same LoRaWAN® and LOCUS architecture can be applied to clinics, laboratories, and rehabilitation centers. Once the network is in place, hospitals can expand use cases to include pharmaceutical cold-chain monitoring, medical-device maintenance, or asset tracking across campuses.

Final Thoughts

Hospitals don’t just need technology — they need visibility, safety, and simplicity. TEKTELIC’s LOCUS Solution, powered by LoRaWAN®, delivers:

• Real-time tracking of equipment and staff.
• Verified cleaning and workflow efficiency.
• Panic-button protection for employees.
• Long-range, low-power connectivity across entire facilities.

With devices like SPARROW, PELICAN, STORK, CHICKADEE, FINCH, and KONA Gateways, hospitals can build a unified, reliable network that grows with their needs.

If your goal is to reduce time lost searching, improve safety, and make hospital operations more transparent — LOCUS is the solution engineered to outperform and built to last.