Revolutionizing Healthcare Safety with Innovative Solutions with Kevin Paroda, the Global Segment Manager at CenTrak

[00:00:02] Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket.

[00:00:05] Saul Marquez here at the HIMSS 2024 conference doing Insight Podcasts.

[00:00:10] Today I have the outstanding Kevin Perotta with us.

[00:00:14] He is the global segment manager at SENTAC.

[00:00:18] Welcome. Thanks, Saul. Really good to be here.

[00:00:20] Yeah, it's great to be with you, Kevin.

[00:00:21] First of all, just to kind of kick things out

[00:00:24] and get the listeners and viewers up to date.

[00:00:27] Tell us a little bit about you and tell us about SENTAC.

[00:00:30] Absolutely. So SENTAC is a company that provides real-time locating to hospitals.

[00:00:35] So I've been at SENTAC for about four and a half years.

[00:00:38] My background is in engineering and product design.

[00:00:40] So I really focus on the intersection of technology

[00:00:44] and how people use it and interact with it.

[00:00:47] Love it. And so the work you guys are doing is critical.

[00:00:50] Can you highlight maybe one or two things that health systems rely on you for?

[00:00:55] Absolutely. So with our technology and products,

[00:00:58] SENTAC is able to provide location awareness

[00:01:01] for where everything and every person is in a health care facility.

[00:01:05] So when we think about improving hospital operations,

[00:01:08] understanding where all the mobile medical equipment is at any given moment

[00:01:11] can provide really good insights to help biomedical engineers

[00:01:14] and other operations specialists really make the hospital run better.

[00:01:18] Love it. Thank you for sharing that.

[00:01:19] At the conference, we're hearing a lot of different discussions

[00:01:23] around different hot topics, AI, large language models, et cetera.

[00:01:28] So what's an insight that's risen to the top for you?

[00:01:31] And why did SENTAC decide to come to HIMSS this year?

[00:01:34] Absolutely.

[00:01:35] So one of the things that we've been aware of lately in the market,

[00:01:38] and I think that was really driven home by our time here at HIMSS,

[00:01:41] was the need to provide staffed arrest assistance to hospitals.

[00:01:45] So staffed arrest is one of SENTAC's key solutions,

[00:01:48] something we've provided the market for a long time,

[00:01:51] but have recently made some improvements to.

[00:01:53] So the idea is that if a nurse or another staff member

[00:01:56] needs help throughout their day, maybe there's an altercation.

[00:01:59] Maybe they just need someone to come and give them a hand.

[00:02:02] Our products allow them to discreetly press a button on the badge

[00:02:06] that they wear and call for help to their specific location in real time.

[00:02:10] So what's new about what we're doing this year is that we're launching

[00:02:13] for the first time a product we call BLE Multi Mode.

[00:02:16] And BLE stands for Bluetooth Low Energy.

[00:02:19] So in our industry, Bluetooth has been a buzzword for a very long time,

[00:02:23] something that customers were excited about because it offers RTLS

[00:02:27] at a lower price point than what had historically been offered in the market.

[00:02:31] However, for the past several years, what had been out there in the market

[00:02:35] wasn't necessarily meeting customers' expectations fully.

[00:02:38] So this year, SENTAC is proud to announce our what we call our

[00:02:41] Bluetooth Multi Mode strategy, BLE Multi Mode,

[00:02:44] which allows hospitals to implement Bluetooth RTLS,

[00:02:48] which has a lower price point. It's much easier to install.

[00:02:51] We use it for things like staffed arrest.

[00:02:53] So that they can very quickly implement a solution to help their staff members out.

[00:02:57] What we do differently is we also layer on additional technology

[00:03:00] on top of Bluetooth to improve the accuracy that they can get out of that solution.

[00:03:05] So when we think about some complex use cases that we provide,

[00:03:09] staffed arrest is a very important one,

[00:03:11] but one that location granularity isn't quite as important for.

[00:03:14] Complex use cases like hand hygiene, compliance monitoring,

[00:03:18] nurse call cancellation, they require additional technology.

[00:03:21] And so our multi mode approach allows us to blend the simplicity

[00:03:25] and low cost of Bluetooth with the granularity and accuracy

[00:03:28] of some of the more complex technologies that we offer.

[00:03:31] And we do this in a way that makes it very easy and scalable

[00:03:34] for a hospital to implement what they need, where they need it in their enterprise,

[00:03:39] really across the entire enterprise to get full enterprise location visibility.

[00:03:44] That's great. Well, congratulations on the launch of the new products

[00:03:48] and you're wearing it.

[00:03:49] I am. Yes. So this is our new Bluetooth multi mode staff badge.

[00:03:53] So I'll show off a few things real quick if you want to get a little closer.

[00:03:56] Yeah, sure. We'll go in to show this guy off.

[00:03:59] So this is our new staff badge product.

[00:04:01] It's got a few exciting features.

[00:04:03] It's got some buttons on the back here that are designed for staffed arrest

[00:04:07] specifically.

[00:04:08] So one of the things we've heard in the market is that if a duress alarm

[00:04:11] is triggered accidentally, it can really lower the value of that solution.

[00:04:14] Right. If you're crying wolf, it's not going to make the solution work.

[00:04:18] So these are designed so that they won't get pressed

[00:04:20] when you're just wearing it in your day job.

[00:04:22] Only if you really intentionally press the button.

[00:04:24] Another thing with RTLS that customers have given us a lot of feedback

[00:04:28] on over the years is about maintaining the batteries that are in these devices.

[00:04:32] So one of the things that we can do now for the first time

[00:04:35] is actually show the battery life of the device right on there.

[00:04:38] So you see, we light up with four lights here across the top

[00:04:41] showing four out of four battery, just like you do on a like a rechargeable

[00:04:45] battery pack that you'd use to charge your phone.

[00:04:47] So really excited about these new features, excited to bring this to market.

[00:04:50] We've got a lot of great feedback on it from hospitals throughout the conference.

[00:04:53] So we'll be launching it this coming month.

[00:04:55] So it'll be available very soon.

[00:04:57] Fantastic. Thank you for that, Kevin.

[00:04:58] Appreciate the demonstration.

[00:05:00] And for anybody watching and listening to us today,

[00:05:04] what is the best place for them to get in touch?

[00:05:06] And what call to action would you ask them to think about?

[00:05:08] So our website has a lot of great tools for getting in touch with our team.

[00:05:12] I direct people there. It's SendTrack.com.

[00:05:14] So that's C-E-N-T-R-A-K.

[00:05:17] And the call to action is really that theft arrest, like I was talking about,

[00:05:20] is really becoming a huge thing in health care.

[00:05:24] And I think every hospital knows it.

[00:05:26] And if they haven't had an incident, unfortunately,

[00:05:28] it's becoming very likely that an incident will occur.

[00:05:31] So I would encourage every hospital leader to reach out to us,

[00:05:34] have a conversation with us about how we can help your staff stay safe,

[00:05:37] because we'd love to get in there and make sure we're doing everything

[00:05:40] we can to keep our workers at their best.

[00:05:43] Kevin, thank you.

[00:05:44] And for everybody listening, you guys know we did a seven part series

[00:05:48] around workplace violence, and it's a very real thing.

[00:05:52] It's happening in our hospitals across the U.S.

[00:05:56] And it's great to hear that tools like Kevin showed us today

[00:06:01] are providing leadership, but also the providers on the floor

[00:06:04] options to ensure their safety.

[00:06:07] Kevin, appreciate you jumping on the podcast with us.

[00:06:09] Looking forward to staying in touch.

[00:06:11] Thank you so much. Great to be here.

[00:06:13] Thank you.