Compare Campus-Wide RTLS Systems
Two questions separate the field. After the door alarm, can the system still show you where the person is — outside the building, on your map? And can it tell you the instant a badge is removed or its battery dies — anywhere, not only at a door?
Most patient-tracking and staff-safety systems answer “no” to both. They were built around a door, a Wi-Fi network, or a single technology — so their coverage ends exactly where the risk keeps going (the stairwell, the courtyard, the parking lot), and they go blind the moment a patient takes the badge off. SecurTRAK was engineered the other way: continuous location indoors and outdoors, with instant tamper and low-battery alerts from anywhere on the campus, on one infrastructure, for every life-safety use a campus has.
Here’s how the approaches actually compare.
The comparison, by approach
Capabilities vary by vendor and configuration; confirm specifics with each vendor. The columns describe common technology approaches, not any single product.
| Capability | SecurTRAK (MGM) | Door-only wander alarms | Wi-Fi / BLE RTLS | Single-technology (IR-only or RF-only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous outdoor / campus coverage | Yes — 433 MHz active RFID carries building-wide and across grounds | No — alerts at a monitored door; no location beyond it | Limited — tied to access-point placement; outdoors is typically a gap | IR-only: no; RF-only: partial, not room-certain |
| Instant tamper & low-battery alerts, floor-wide | Yes — a removed or cut badge, or a dying battery, alerts staff immediately from anywhere on the campus | No — a removed or dead badge is invisible until (if) the patient reaches a monitored door | Only where the tag has live coverage; gaps and battery drain are common | Varies |
| How location is determined | Proof: diffused infrared for the room + 433 MHz for reach + LF at chokepoints | Presence at a door, not a location | Inference from signal strength (a zone/probability) | Depends: IR is proof indoors; RF/Wi-Fi is inference |
| Room- and bed-level certainty | Yes — infrared can’t pass through walls, so a reported room is a fact | No | Usually not — “somewhere on that wing” | IR-only: yes indoors; RF-only: no |
| Network it runs on | Dedicated, hardwired life-safety network | Varies | Shared hospital Wi-Fi | Varies |
| During a Wi-Fi / IT outage | Unaffected — alerts don’t touch shared Wi-Fi | Varies | At risk — rides the network that’s down | At risk if Wi-Fi-based |
| Building response (doors lock, elevators hold, CCTV, Nurse Call) | Yes — integrates with systems you already own | Typically alarm only | Varies | Varies |
| Multiple uses on one infrastructure (elopement, staff duress, infant, co-location) | Yes — one network, one map, one console; a single tag covers its wearer’s use, indoors and out | No — single purpose | Sometimes, same Wi-Fi limits apply | No |
| Battery / charging | Tag battery lasts a minimum of two years, field-replaceable | Varies | Often frequent charging | Varies |
Why the differences matter
A door alarm is a starting line, not a finish line. Door-only wander systems do one thing well — they sound when a tagged patient reaches a monitored exit. But an elopement is a moving event. The moment the patient is past the door, a door-only system is blind. SecurTRAK keeps locating that patient — across the lobby, the courtyard, the parking lot — because the same tag reports the whole way.
The badge that isn’t there is the one that gets out. Most successful elopements don’t happen at a monitored door. They happen because the patient removed their badge, or the battery died, somewhere the door-only system can’t see — and they simply walked out an unwatched exit. Door-only wander alarms can’t warn you: they only detect a tag at a covered door, so a removed or dead badge is invisible to them until it’s too late — and since patients are away from a door the vast majority of the time, that is exactly when it matters most. SecurTRAK flags a tamper (badge removed or cut) or a low battery instantly, from anywhere on the campus, so staff can re-band the patient or swap the badge before they ever reach an exit. That closes the precise gap behind the wrongful-death cases and multimillion-dollar liability that door-only systems leave open.
“Probably” is the most expensive word in an emergency. Wi-Fi and BLE systems estimate position by comparing signal strengths, which produces a zone and a probability. For a missing patient or a staff member in distress, a probability buys a search area, not an answer. Diffused infrared can’t pass through walls, so when SecurTRAK says Room 214, the person is in Room 214 — a fact, not an estimate.
Life-safety shouldn’t share a lane with email and charting. When location rides on the hospital’s shared Wi-Fi, it inherits that network’s worst day — the outage, the maintenance window, the dead zone — at the worst possible moment. SecurTRAK runs on a dedicated, hardwired life-safety network, which is one reason it has held 99.8% uptime since 2019.
One infrastructure, every use. Elopement prevention, wireless staff duress, infant security, and behavioral-health co-location alerting run on the same network, the same map, and the same console — indoors and outdoors. The alternative is stitching together separate single-purpose systems, each with its own screen and its own seam right where the highest-risk handoff happens.
The building responds, it doesn’t just beep. Because SecurTRAK integrates with the systems a hospital already owns, an alert can lock a door, hold an elevator, call up the right CCTV camera, and reach staff through Nurse Call — a coordinated response measured in seconds.
Proven where the stakes are highest
MGM Solutions has delivered patient-tracking systems in hospitals since 1993 and real-time locating systems in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers since 2002 — 40+ VA projects as prime contractor, with VA TRM-approved software and the highest level of VA background-investigation clearance. As an SBA-certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), MGM lets buyers work directly with the engineers who design, build, and install the system — no call centers, no resellers. MGM is a CVE-certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SAM UEI: MJWBAKSGRK81, CAGE: 1S3X7), registered in SAM.gov and eligible for SDVOSB set-aside and sole-source awards.
The eight questions to ask any vendor — including us
- After a door alarm, can you show the person’s live location outside the building, on your map?
- Are tamper and low-battery notifications sent to staff instantly from anywhere on the floor — or only when a badged patient or asset is near a covered exit?
- Is outdoor coverage the same tag and console as indoor — or a separate add-on staff must remember under stress?
- What exactly happens to alerts during a Wi-Fi or IT outage, or a maintenance window?
- Is your room-level location certain, or inferred from signal strength?
- When an alert fires, can the building respond — doors locking, elevators holding, cameras called up, Nurse Call notified?
- Can one infrastructure carry elopement prevention, staff duress, and infant security — or is each a separate purchase and network?
- How many campus-wide — not single-building — deployments can you actually reference, and how long have they run?
We publish these because we’re comfortable with our answers. Hold whoever you evaluate to the same eight.
See the difference on your own campus
Talk to the engineers who build and install SecurTRAK — not a call center.
- Email: sales@mgm-solutions.com
- Call: (856) 371-3764
- Watch it in action: youtube.com/@SecurTRAK
Frequently asked questions
What happens if a patient removes their badge or the battery dies?
SecurTRAK alerts staff instantly, from anywhere on the campus, the moment a badge is tampered with (removed or cut) or a battery runs low — wherever it happens. Door-only systems can’t see a removed or dead badge until it reaches a monitored exit, which is the gap most elopements slip through.
Does SecurTRAK work outdoors, or just inside the building?
Both, on one system. A 433 MHz active RFID backbone carries the same tag across parking lots, courtyards, and grounds, while diffused infrared gives room-level certainty indoors.
How is SecurTRAK different from a Wi-Fi-based RTLS?
Wi-Fi and BLE systems infer position from signal strength and ride shared hospital Wi-Fi. SecurTRAK determines location by proof (infrared for the room, 433 MHz for reach, low-frequency exciters at chokepoints) on a dedicated life-safety network that a Wi-Fi outage can’t silence.
Can one system handle elopement, staff duress, and infant security?
Yes — the same network, map, and console cover all of them indoors and outdoors, plus behavioral-health co-location alerting and instant tamper and low-battery alerts everywhere, on a single infrastructure.
What happens to alerts during a network outage?
SecurTRAK’s alerts run on a dedicated, hardwired life-safety network rather than shared Wi-Fi, so an IT outage or maintenance window doesn’t take the system down — one reason it has maintained 99.8% uptime since 2019.