Locating People and Items in Hospitals in Real-Time using RFID

SECTOR UPDATE - Synergic Technologies

The problem
Finding people and equipment quickly directly saves lives in acute care hospitals. This is why RFID, which has been around for 40 years, is extensively used in hospitals and medical supply chains overseas. It has however been hard to establish in New Zealand for 2 reasons:

1. RFID options have historically been bespoke and very expensive, so was only pursued by the largest organisations in very narrow use-cases. Organisations were limited to the functionality of existing RFID based applications (e.g. for asset management, sterilisation, laundry), resulting in an expensive proliferation of applications. Alternately they had to build and support their own RFID applications to accommodate their workflow.
2. RFID is not like other IT technologies in that it requires electronics engineering skills with a specific focus on RFID and needs to be designed for 100% readability. A default IT approach will fail to deliver results that meets the organisation’s needs. The necessary skills were scarce in NZ.
   

Changes in both technology and economics means RFID is now more accessible and relevant for all businesses. Zebra, the global leader in location technologies, has resolved these challenges through the availability of their rules engine that can automate general location-based workflow when integrated with existing systems. The software is called MotionWorks Enterprise (MWE) and is available through their certified business partner in NZ, Synergic Technologies.

Use Case
The top 5 technology priorities identified in a recent survey, Zebra Global Healthcare Vision Study Report, of 500 hospital leaders within the clinical, IT and procurement disciplines are:
1.  Medication tracking
2.  Patient throughput
3.  Nursing workflows
4.  Inventory management
5.  Asset tracking

RFID technologies provide the real-time location information necessary to achieve all these outcomes. The business case typically offers a return on investment measured in months, rather than years.

The broader hospital use cases revolve around:

People

• Finding clinicians and patients quickly
• Optimising utilisation and reducing wait times
• Alerting on breaches of containment or quarantine conditions
• Managing fatigue in clinicians
• Identification of patients

Devices

• Locating Emergency Equipment
• Asset Management - locate, e.g. wheelchairs, IV pumps; loss prevention (theft, accidental disposal); resource planning e.g. beds, linen; lifecycle management
• Extracorporeal Devices (process automation, time reduction - 1 min i.o. 1 hour while maintaining 100% accuracy)
• Sterilised equipment (status and planning)

Inventory

• Rapid Stock Takes
• Planning (Inventory reduction is possible due to reliable location and utilisation data)

Laboratory Samples

• Service Level / Exception Management
• Identification Accuracy
• Tracking for Workflow Improvement and Escalations

Medication

• Improved controls over restricted drugs
• Supply planning

Digital Record (accuracy and automation)

• Compliance
• Deep analytics required for Insights
• Prerequisite for future AI based solutions

This list is not comprehensive. During the Covid pandemic, hospitals used RFID to monitor for proximity and the appropriate use of sanitisation stations. Any workflow that is dependent on presence, location and identification can be automated using RFID.

To understand the elements of an RFID solution better, refer to Locating People and Items in Hospitals in Real-Time using RFID | Synergic Technologies.

Getting Started
The challenges we face in NZ are not too dissimilar to those already resolved by the big health organisations overseas. Even though the scale and specifics are different, we can fortunately leverage Zebra’s experience, resources and relationships to shortcut the solutioning process and ensure an accurate budget and a successful outcome.

Synergic Technology work closely with Zebra’s global RFID team, are certified by them as RFID implementations specialists and already have active RFID deployments in the NZ healthcare sector. Talk to us to qualify the use case you have in mind. We can quickly provide a demonstration, conceptual design, business case and suggested steps.

Source: Synergic Technologies media release

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