The first thing IT leaders at hospitals and health systems need to do today is fix the “boring stuff” – inefficiencies in patient flow, staff coordination and equipment management are responsible for significant waste, advised Philipp von Gilsa, CEO of Kontakt.io, a vendor of a care orchestration platform that combines AI-powered real-time location services and fully managed IoT infrastructure as a service. The company is in Booth 2250 at HIMSS25.

“For example, delays in room turnover lead to bed shortages, misplaced assets result in unnecessary capital expenditures, and fragmented processes force clinicians to spend time on phone calls instead of patient care,” he explained. “By unifying RTLS data with the EHR and leveraging AI, hospitals can better orchestrate care and resources throughout the patient journey, ensuring the right patient, staff and equipment are in the right place at the right time.

Make hospital operations proactive

“Second, anticipate ‘agentic orchestration’ beyond static dashboards and manual processes,” he continued. “The key to reducing waste is not just tracking assets or collecting more data. It’s using automation and AI-driven insights to make hospital operations proactive instead of reactive.”

Instead of manually coordinating bed assignments, discharges and equipment availability, hospitals should integrate AI-powered automation to continuously optimize patient flow, reduce wait times and maximize capacity, he added.

“RTLS provides real-time visibility into every resource in the hospital, while agentic AI orchestrates care delivery, helping staff focus on bedside care,” von Gilsa said. “By leveraging agentic AI to proactively predict demands and align resources just-in-time with staff and patient needs, hospital leaders can significantly cut waste, unlock capacity, improve financial performance, and, most important, enhance the quality of care for patients.”

Like many executives surrounding HIMSS25, he sees artificial intelligence as the technology dominating the conference and exhibition. And he has thoughts on the subject.

“AI will be critical to the future of hospitals because it enables healthcare organizations to operate more efficiently, reduce costs and improve patient care at scale,” he said. “AI can analyze vast amounts of data from electronic health records, real-time hospital operations and historical trends to optimize resource allocation, predict patient needs and automate time-consuming administrative tasks.

“From reducing length of stay through predictive discharge planning to enhancing workforce productivity by dynamically assigning tasks, AI helps hospitals maximize their existing capacity without adding unnecessary expenses.,” he continued.

The combination of AI and RTLS

On a more personal note, RTLS powered by AI will be transformative for hospitals beyond providing real-time visibility into the movement of patients, staff and equipment, ultimately leading to better resource utilization and cost savings, he added.

“Hospitals today lose millions of dollars due to misplaced assets, inefficient workflows and avoidable delays that impact both financial performance and patient outcomes,” he explained. “AI-powered RTLS eliminates these inefficiencies. And financially, it helps hospitals reduce unnecessary capital expenditures; operationally, it enhances care coordination; and for patients, it means shorter wait times, faster admissions and a smoother overall hospital experience.”

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Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

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