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When Manipal Hospital began planning to deploy RFID technology to make its hospital more efficient, the hospital was already planning to adopt a unique method of multi-stage deployment. Unlike asset tracking, the hospital chose a small, very useful solution: managing the porters who transport patients, paperwork, or consumables. Manipal Hospital Group CIO Nandkishor Dhomne said that with the RTLS system, the hospital’s porter response time has been reduced from 30 to 40 minutes in the past to 5 or 6 minutes.
The handling management system is provided by Icegen Computing, using Icegen software on the hospital server, Ekahau active WiFi RFID badge and RTLS software to interpret the WiFi signal sent by the badge and calculate the location. The task of porters is to move patients, medications and documents in wheelchairs and beds in the hospital. The RTLS scheme is designed to manage porter scheduling, thereby reducing the time nurses spend on waiting.
(If the nurse needs the porter to perform a specific task, he only needs to open the Porter Tracking software of Icegen and press the request button)
Manipal Hospital is the third largest medical group in India, with 13 hospitals in total and 3 more under construction. The Bangalore branch of Manipal Hospital has 14 floors and can serve 2,000 patients every day. According to Dhomne, porters usually receive 1,000 to 1,500 requests to move patients a day. In the past, patients had to wait 30 to 40 minutes after the nurse made a request. During this period, the nurse usually needs to make a few calls to confirm when the porter will come to pick up the patient. This process is usually frustrating and inefficient.
So when Dhomne met with Icegen CEO Anand Surana, he began to suggest that hospitals need to use RFID technology to track movers. He recalled: “I said at the time, let us do some small things, but things that can have a big impact.”
(When the porter is assigned to a task, the badge will show the task-related information. Then, the porter will press the badge button to indicate that it has understood the request)
The hospital currently has 690 Aruba WiFi connection points deployed. Therefore, Icegen provides a system that combines its own software and the Ekahau badge. Each porter is distributed a badge that can emit a unique ID number. If the nurse needs a porter, when the porter is assigned to a task, the badge will display information about the task. Then, the porter union presses the badge button to indicate that it has understood the request.
After the Icegen software receives the request information and the nurse’s location information, it will automatically assign porters. The system will search for porters around the nurse based on the badge information.
After arriving at the destination, the porter can press the second button on the badge to indicate that the requirements have been met. If the task is not completed within the expected time, the manager will receive a warning message.
Surana compared the process with Uber, saying that the system improves efficiency.
Icegen software can also send warning messages to porter administrators when unauthorized actions occur.
Dhomne said that since the system went into effect last spring, the hospital found that the response time for each request has been shortened by 30 minutes. In this way, nurses can spend more time on nursing.
Icegen software also provides a dashboard to display analytical information, such as the number of orders, the time it takes for each employee to complete the order, etc. This information will help the hospital judge the performance of porters.
As the hospital received many benefits from the RFID system, the hospital began to tag some other assets, including high-value mobile devices such as wheelchairs. In the future, all hospitals in the group will use RTLS technology.
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