How One VA Facility Saved $1.63 Million by Replacing Patient Sitters with SecurTRAK PatienTRAK
By Mike Maurer, President, MGM Solutions | 35+ Years in RTLS
For hospitals and VA medical centers, keeping at-risk patients safe has traditionally meant one expensive thing: sitters. A staff member assigned to physically shadow a patient around the clock so they don’t wander, fall, or elope. It works — but the cost is enormous, and it doesn’t scale.
One of MGM’s VA clients decided to measure exactly what real-time locating could save by replacing those sitters with SecurTRAK PatienTRAK. The results make the business case for life-safety RTLS impossible to ignore.
The Numbers
The facility studied 16 at-risk patients who had previously required around-the-clock sitter coverage. Providing 24/7 coverage takes roughly 3.5 full-time-equivalent staff (FTEs) per patient once you account for shifts, breaks, and days off.
By using SecurTRAK PatienTRAK to monitor those patients in real time instead, the facility saved approximately:
- $102,000 per patient, per year
- $1.63 million in total across the 16 patients
And that figure is conservative. It was calculated using a sitter wage of just $10 per hour — the savings grow substantially with higher-paid staff. And there is no limit to the number of patients the system can monitor simultaneously. A larger at-risk population means proportionally larger savings.
Key ROI Figures
| Patients studied | 16 |
| FTEs required per patient (24/7 sitter) | 3.5 |
| Savings per patient, per year | $102,000 |
| Total annual savings | $1.63 million |
| Sitter wage used in calculation | $10/hr (conservative) |
How PatienTRAK Delivers This Without Compromising Safety
Replacing a human sitter only works if the technology is genuinely reliable — this is life-safety, not convenience. Here’s how PatienTRAK does it:
- Real-time visibility. Patient-care staff see exactly where every at-risk patient is, indoors and outdoors, on the facility’s actual AutoCAD floor plans.
- Invisible boundaries. Veteran patients move freely within their permitted areas. Staff are only alerted when a patient approaches or breaches a boundary — preserving patient dignity while maintaining protection.
- Millisecond response. When a boundary is broached, SecurTRAK’s business rules react within milliseconds — instantly locking elevators and doors, activating CCTV, and escalating to staff and, if needed, the police department.
- Whole-campus coverage. Because PatienTRAK runs on SecurTRAK’s 433 MHz RF, diffused infrared, and low-frequency exciter platform, coverage doesn’t stop at the building’s edge — patients are tracked indoors and outdoors with no dead zones.