Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) guidance
This guidance was last reviewed and updated in March 2025. Any reference made to policies, standards and regulations were believed accurate at the time of writing.
It is the responsibility of the reader to check that any application of this guidance conforms to the latest relevant regulatory standards, policies and requirements.
If you are unfamiliar with Real Time Location Systems and their potential benefits and applications in healthcare, including greater efficiency and improved staff experience through asset tagging, supporting patients through real time wayfinding around hospitals and automating inventory and pharmacy management, we recommend you find out more by first reading our Introduction to Real Time Location Systems.
Real Time Location Systems report
This content is taken from an independent report into real time location systems in the NHS, commissioned by the Future Connectivity programme and produced by Qolcom Ltd. This report was produced following the selection of a supplier via an open tender procurement process run according to PCR2015 during 2023. Under the terms of the contract between NHS England and the supplier in question, the intellectual property rights (IPR) of the report and any associated material sits solely with NHS England who reserve the right to adapt and amend the published version of the report.
Any enquiries on the content of the report should be directed to [email protected].
The content is supplier agnostic which means we do not endorse any specific companies, innovations, or approaches. Any mention of, or link to, a specific supplier or product is not an endorsement from the Future Connectivity programme or NHS England and is for illustrative purposes only.
For clarity any recommendations made in this report are those of the report author and do not necessarily represent an endorsement, policy, or requirement from NHS England.
The report's purpose is to build understanding of the potential benefits of Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) technologies to support NHS and Integrated Care Board (ICB) partner organisations in understanding if an RTLS solution would be beneficial in their care settings.
Case studies
Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Mid Cheshire NHS Trust have been working with their medical engineering department to introduce an RTLS solution. Expensive medical assets, such as infusion pumps, are tracked around the treatment centre and theatres.
Read the Implementing a Real Time Location Service for medical device tracking - Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust case study.
Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust have implemented RTLS to support both asset management and patient flow by integrating with their Electronic Health Record (EHR) system.
Read the Implementing Real Time Location System (RTLS) for asset tracking and capacity management case study.
Last edited: 30 May 2025 4:33 pm