Guide to achieving real-time tracking and visibility in healthcare

Understanding real-time tracking and real time visibility in healthcare sector

Real-time tracking refers to the continuous monitoring of critical assets, personnel, and processes as they occur without delay. In healthcare settings, this includes knowing the exact location and status of medical equipment, patient movement, staff availability, and inventory levels.

Real-time visibility provides decision-makers with a comprehensive, up-to-date view of operations. It allows hospitals and healthcare networks to detect bottlenecks, predict resource constraints, and respond proactively rather than reactively.

Together, these capabilities enable healthcare organisations to:

• Enhance patient safety
• Improve response times
• Optimise resource efficiency
• Maintain regulatory compliance
• Improve cross sector operational efficiency

Having established the critical importance of real-time tracking and visibility in National Healthcare Services (NHS) and healthcare system as a whole, the next step is its implementation. But how do we monitor what truly matters?

The foundation lies in identifying the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of healthcare system that matter most. By selecting high-impact KPIs or metrics and integrating them into a centralised digital dashboard, healthcare teams can enable seamless tracking, faster decision-making, effective strategic planning and continuous performance improvements.

In this blog let’s delve into which KPIs are most relevant for healthcare sector and NHS—and how real-time visibility into these metrics directly contributes to better operational efficiency, patient care, and strategic agility.

Making data work for healthcare; KPIs for real-time tracking and visibility

What is a Healthcare KPI?

Healthcare KPIs are key performance indicators that are measurable performance values that help both healthcare organisations and patients to assess how effectively they are achieving strategic and operational goals. These healthcare quality metrics span clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, financial health, and satisfaction across all stakeholders.

Why KPIs matters in care?

“KPIs play a critical role in evaluating, planning, and controlling through information support, clarity, and decision-making support for managers. They help hospital managers create action plans, facilitate daily operational decisions, and provide a roadmap linked to long-term success factors”.

- Victor, S., and Farooq A.''Dashboard visualisation for healthcare performance management: balanced scorecard metrics.'' Asia Pac J Health Manage. 2021;16(2):28–38.

Healthcare dashboard: 15 essential KPIs you need to assess and how it helps in real time

Operational healthcare indicators

1. Bed occupancy rate- Measures the percentage of hospital beds currently in use or within a time frame.

➜ How it helps- monitor capacity, patient flow and facility utilisation in real time

2. Admission rate-Tracks the number of patients admitted over a specific period.

➜ How it helps -Forecast demand, revenue and allocate resources accordingly

3. Emergency room (ER)/ patient wait time-Average time patients wait before being seen in the ER provider or healthcare staff.

➜ How it helps -Critical for assessing responsiveness and resource allocation

4. Staff-to-patient ratio- Compares the number of healthcare staff to patients. If lower the staff patient ratio better the compliance.

➜ How it helps -Ensures safe staffing levels and balanced workloads

5. Equipment uptime-Measures how often critical medical equipment is available and functional regularly and during emergency.

➜ How it helps -Supports operational continuity and patient safety (PSIRF) on demand

6. ER duration of treatment- Time from ER admission to first medical intervention.

➜ How it helps - Indicates responsiveness and emergency care efficiency

7. Training completion rate for staff- Percentage of employees who complete required training.

➜ How it helps-Ensures readiness, safety, and regulatory compliance

Clinical healthcare indicators

8. Average length of stay (ALOS)-Tracks how long patients stay in the hospital on average.

➜ How it helps -Indicates efficiency of care and discharge processes in real time

9. Mortality rate-Tracks the number of patient deaths relative to admissions.

➜ How it helps- Used to assess clinical outcomes and quality of care

10. Follow-up compliance rate- Evaluates how many discharged patients complete recommended follow-ups and how healthcare providers deal with.

➜ How it helps -Indicates continuity of care and long-term outcomes

11. Medication error rate (ER)-Tracks the frequency of incorrect medication, dosage, administration due to lake of training or workload.

➜ How it helps-Vital for patient safety and clinical accuracy instantaneously

12. Patient satisfaction rate- how patients feel about their care experience.

➜ How it helps -Influences service quality, reputation, and retention continuously

13. Readmission rate-Percentage of patients readmitted within a set period after discharge.

➜ How it helps -Reflects quality, healthcare equity and effectiveness of treatment plans. If readmission is high, it means quality of healthcare is low

Financial healthcare indicators

14. Insurance claim processing/ denial time-Average time taken to health insurance plan to process or deny insurance claims. Lesser the denial the better healthcare system performs, as they don’t want to bother about financial constraints.

➜ How it helps- Impacts cash flow, financial performance and affordable health insurance

15. Net profit margin – Measures the percentage of total revenue that remains as profit after all expenses are deducted.

➜ How it helps – calculate operating margin, financial health, out of pocket expenditure (OOPE), operational efficiency, and long-term sustainability. A higher operating margin suggests better cost control and strong revenue generation across services

Build a centralised digital dashboard with healthcare BSC

Once KPIs are defined, the next step is integrating them into a centralised digital healthcare BSC dashboard rather than manual or paper reports.

A Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic management framework that helps organisations translate their vision and strategy into measurable objectives across multiple dimensions, not just financial performance.

This healthcare balanced scorecard offers: Live data feeds from clinical systems, IoT devices, and operational platforms, customisable views for different roles like nurses, administrators, executives for easy management, automated alerts for sudden breaches and errors, historical analytics for trend analysis and forecasting.

Such dashboards empower healthcare teams to detect inefficiencies, respond to emergencies, and maintain compliance in real time.

Enabling real-time healthcare visibility with Data Point Balanced Scorecard

Our product, Data Point- the advanced Balanced Scorecard software by LTS, steps in as a game-changing tool for hospitals and care networks.

🔹Customisable dashboards

• Tailor views for clinical, operational, and financial KPIs
• Enables each department to monitor the metrics that matter most to them

🔹Real-time analysis

• Instantly updates performance indicators for optimisation as data flows in
• Supports fast decision-making and timely interventions in patient care

🔹Automated reporting

• Generates scheduled and on-demand reports automatically
• Saves admin time and ensures consistent reporting accuracy

🔹Data integration

• Seamlessly connects to EHRs, finance tools, and other systems
• Delivers a unified view of performance across the organisation

🔹Strategy mapping

• Visualises the link between goals, initiatives, and key metrics
• Strengthens alignment between lean daily operations and strategic planning

🔹Alerts and notifications

• Flags deviations from target metrics with real-time alerts
• Enables proactive management of performance issues or risks

🔹Role-based access

• Provides secure, customised access for leaders, clinicians, and staff
• Ensures privacy and focuses users on their relevant data areas

🔹Continuous improvement tools

• Includes feedback loops and historical trend analysis
• Promotes a culture of learning, adaptability, and sustained improvement

How it supports real-time tracking in healthcare system?

• Tracks patient centred goals like patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes, staff efficiency, and resource utilisation as they happen
• Enables early detection of safety events like medication errors or hospital-acquired infections
• Monitors wait times, discharge processes, and cost per patient to optimise care delivery
• Provides live KPI monitoring and management that help teams respond quickly and make informed decisions
• Empower your team through cross-departmental collaboration
• Use accurate data to guide your decision-making process focusing on security and data privacy
• Plan healthcare strategy by understanding its unique challenges for continuous improvement

Real-time tracking and visibility in healthcare are essential to improving patient safety, reducing response times, and optimising operational performance. By leveraging key healthcare KPIs, healthcare providers gain instant, data-driven insights into every aspect of care delivery. A smart, digital solution like the Data Point Balanced Scorecard empowers hospitals and NHS networks with live dashboards, automated alerts, and strategic KPI alignment. It not only strengthens decision-making but also supports continuous improvement and regulatory compliance. Invest in real-time healthcare visibility today to drive efficiency, quality, and better outcomes.

FAQs

1. What is a real-time tracking system in healthcare?

Real-time tracking in healthcare means constantly monitoring patients, staff, equipment, or resources as things happen—using tech like sensors or tags to get instant updates that help improve safety, speed, and decision-making.

2. What are real-time clinical indicators?

Real-time clinical indicators are live health metrics such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, or blood pressure used to assess patient status and guide immediate care decisions.

3. What are the benefits of real-time data in the healthcare sector?

Real-time data improves patient safety, enables faster clinical decisions, enhances care coordination, reduces costs, and supports predictive analytics.

4. Which are the best devices for monitoring health?

Top devices include smartwatches, ECG monitors and pulse oximeters. The best choice depends on your health goals and required metrics.

5. What is a Real-Time Location System (RTLS)?

RTLS is a system that tracks the location of people or objects in real time within a defined space using wireless technologies like RFID, Bluetooth, or UWB.

6. What is PSIRF?

PSIRF (Patient Safety Incident Response Framework) is an NHS approach to investigating patient safety incidents, focusing on learning, system improvement, and compassionate engagement.

7. What is a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) device?

A Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) device is a tool that collects a patient’s health data like heart rate, blood pressure, or glucose levels, and sends it to their doctor or care team without needing an in-person visit. It helps track health from home, making care more continuous and convenient.

8. What is the most reliable source for healthcare information?

Trusted sources include peer-reviewed journals, government health agencies (e.g., WHO, CDC), and accredited medical institutions.

9. What are the methods used to collect health-related data?

Common methods include electronic health records (EHRs), wearable devices, surveys, lab tests, imaging, software and mobile health apps.

10. Which analytics is best for healthcare?

Predictive analytics, AI-driven diagnostics, and real-time dashboards are widely used to improve outcomes, resource allocation, and operational efficiency. Because prevention is better than cure.