From the May 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
The biomedical department presented to hospital leadership a choice for passive RFID universal tracking technology, which was driven by:
• Style of asset management: patient centered OPS personnel move equipment to/from the dedicated storage areas. Deployments are typically horizontal. Equipment is typically assigned to the patient care area. No equipment is typically left in the hospital’s hallways.
• Style of cleaning process: dedicated cleaning points remain on the floors. No general equipment going through centralized cleaning in the Central Sterilization Department.
• Intention to implement one universal multitasked tracking system for the equipment, accessories, patients, and care providers.
NWH investigated multiple passive RFID vendors and ultimately selected Quake Global since it demonstrated an understanding of the hospital's existing processes and was willing to build a solution around those processes instead of replacing it with a different business vision.
We were not interested in just seeing our equipment on the electronic map, we wanted to use equipment tracking data to optimize and develop related business processes, and asked Quake Global to configure a system for our needs and parameters.
There are many RTLS technologies on the market: Passive UHF; Active Wi-Fi; Infrared; Ultrasound; BLE (Bluetooth Low-Energy). Quake Global provides a variety of hardware and software products for asset monitoring, process optimization and automation.
What successful implementation looks like
Northern Westchester Hospital took advantage of its existing floor pod location system, and worked closely with Quake Global to create additional zones. Together, we developed clean equipment areas, elevator transitional areas, the main equipment depot, biomedical area, kitchen entrance, and so forth, all in the interest of gaining visibility into where equipment is or has been.
Telemetry transmitter with RFID tag
The passive RFID technology selected by NWH allows us to locate equipment or other assets within a particular zone in real time, and to use related analytics to optimize business flows.
When tagged equipment moves in/out of controlled locations, they pass RFID readers as they go, so that the RFID readers capture each tag's unique ID number and forward that information to Quake Global's software. Authorized users can then view equipment locations and know whether a medical asset has been moved to another floor, is in use, or is available for reuse, based on its location. Instant logistical decisions are accordingly made by NWH operational management.
