From the May 2023 issue of DOTmed Equipment Classifieds magazine
Outsourced Equipment Distribution Coupled with Real-Time Location Services Creates Efficiencies, Savings
Before Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California began its partnership with Vizzia in 2010, its investments in movable medical equipment (MME) were being eroded by a number of issues. A substantial portion of its MME supply went missing on an annual basis, which created a variety of challenges, from wasted time trying to track down equipment to preventable rental and purchasing expenses.
A state-of-the art, 504-bed acute care facility, Mission has been recognized as a Best Hospital in the Los Angeles Metro area by U.S. News & World Report and is the only Level II trauma hospital in the area. The hospital provides specialized pediatric care through Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), a 48-bed facility that operates on the hospital’s fifth floor.
Dual Approach: RTLS and Outsourced Equipment Distribution
Mission’s facilities team conducted due diligence into MME management solutions and selected Vizzia in 2010 for its unique combination of real-time location system (RTLS) asset management and on-site 24/7 equipment distribution team.
The RTLS technology allows equipment location accuracy down to the room — in real time — and then pairs that data with analytics and recommendations Mission staff use to optimize equipment utilization. Vizzia’s on-site and well-trained team monitors equipment, generates reports for hospital staff, supports MME management functions, and increases the efficiency of Mission’s biomed personnel by cleaning and re-distributing equipment after use and maintenance.
At the beginning of the engagement, Vizzia worked with Mission staff to install hundreds of sensors and tag more than a thousand pieces of MME. The system went live seven weeks after the hardware arrived and immediately saved hundreds of hours in nursing time spent hunting for equipment — increasing time nurses could spend with patients, as well as nurse job satisfaction.
Certainty-Based RTLS Pinpoints Exact Location of All Tagged Equipment
Asset management using RTLS relies on sensors placed throughout the hospital that detect the tags affixed to each piece of equipment. Vizzia offers a fully-managed combination of hardware, software and ongoing support. Advanced analytics and actionable data are via Vizzia’s InVIEW℠ platform. Francesco Petruzzella, Director of Biomedical Engineering at Providence Mission Hospital says, “InVIEW is a very powerful data analytics tool with a clean and intuitive user interface."
The platform collects real-time data from various sources, such as patient tracking systems, medical equipment, and environmental sensors. This data is then aggregated and processed to provide meaningful insights and enable a number of benefits:
• Virtually eliminates lost, misplaced and stolen equipment.
• Exact location of any tagged equipment determined within seconds.
• Alerts ensure procedures are followed and inventory is maintained.
• Knowing equipment location supports improvements to process flow and supports decision making on equipment utilization.
• Rental module eliminates need to pay rental and replacement fees on lost or stolen, untagged equipment.
The Benefits of a 12-year RTLS Partnership
Since 2010, Mission and Vizzia have continued to work closely to ensure MME inventory is where it needs to be and that it’s in the condition necessary to support excellent patient care.
The incidence of lost or stolen equipment decreased from 14% to 0% in the first year of implementation, and monthly expenses for MME rentals decreased from $20,000+ to $1,000. These savings continue to accrue to this day.
Eva Esmaeili, CHOC’s NICU Manager, describes Vizzia’s asset management technology and services as “a win for our nursing staff by reducing the number of items that had to be manually tracked daily and/or per shift.” Nurse satisfaction at Mission increased by 50% in year one of the engagement.
At the end of that year, benefits of the Mission-Vizzia partnership added up to more than $600,000 in cost savings. In the decade plus since, those savings have compounded to allow Mission to save millions of dollars.
