The VA has shown a keen interest in the transformative potential of RTLS for some time. This past August, for instance, it began by rolling out the technology in seven of its hospitals in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan with help from HP and Intelligent InSites.

That deployment saw Intelligent InSites processing real-time data from nearly half a million items. The numbers were impressive: some 25,000 active RTLS tags, 94,000 passive RFID tags, 255,000 tracked surgical instruments more than 2,000 wireless temperature and humidity sensors, 63,000 expendable cardiac catheterization lab supplies – all tracking data across 4,500,000 square feet of coverage.

The VA's recognition of RTLS dovetails with its VA Innovation Initiative, which seeks to "identify, fund, and test new ideas from VA employees, academia, and the private sector" with an aim toward "improving access, quality, performance, and cost," in the words of U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

"Transforming VA into a 21st-century organization involves a commitment to many broad challenges," including the need "to stay on the cutting edge of healthcare delivery" and "to lay the foundation for safe, secure, and authentic health record interoperability," Shinseki has said. "Our health informatics initiative is a foundational component for VA’s transition from a medical model to a patient-centered model of care."

When it comes to healthcare, RTLS is still a "a young industry," Marcus Ruark, vice president of marketing at Intelligent InSites, told Healthcare IT News in an interview at HIMSS12 in Las Vegas last February. As hospitals are preoccupied with meeting meaningful use requirements, its use in the industry is still limited.

It's on the uptick, however, and the VA's example is one that many providers hope to follow.

"When we talk to commercial hospitals about what the VA is doing, they get very interested," said Ruark. "They view themselves as followers of the VA."