British healthcare organization adopts RFID technology to respond to emergencies
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St. Andrew’s Healthcare (St. Andrew’s), the largest non-profit mental health service provider in the UK, has implemented a real-time location system (RTLS) based on RFID technology to enable staff to send alerts and guide them to find appropriate personnel to respond to emergencies .
St. Andrew’s includes four districts, Northampton, Essex, Mansfield and Birmingham. There are multiple buildings in each area to treat these mental patients, brain injury and neurological disorders. This organization has about 3,000 staff. When a dangerous situation or emergency occurs, such as a personal attack or a fire, they need to be able to alert colleagues in the area quickly.
Previously, employees used a set of infrared systems. When there was a situation, they pressed a button on the badge to make the device emit an infrared signal, indicating that there was an emergency. The signal is received by infrared sensors and then forwarded to every control panel installed in this building. The control panel emits an audible alarm and displays text explaining the location of the alarm. When hearing such an alarm, the staff rushed to the control panel to determine where help is needed.
However, this infrared system needs to have no line of sight between the badge and the sensor, otherwise, the alarm will not be triggered. In addition, employees may fall into position when they press the alarm button, so the answering machine does not know who called and why, and the person receiving the call has no way to let the person who raised the alarm know that they are responding to the call. In addition, harsh alarms (triggered 160 to 200 times a month) can adversely affect the hearing and psychology of staff and patients. In some cases, frequent sirens disturbed some patients.
Therefore, Paul Kirkpatrick, IT manager of this organization, said that about 18 months ago, St. Andrew’s, through its technology partner Comtact, began looking for another solution. During this period, the British government legislature is discussing the possibility of installing real-time positioning systems in healthcare institutions. St. Andrew’s intends to be the first to deploy this system.
Kirkpatrick explained: “We talked to Motorola and other manufacturers.” In the end, St. Andrew’s chose Motorola’s Wi-Fi routers, Ekahau’s tags and software to determine where the alarm was raised, and then forwarded the alarm. To the corresponding staff. Although other wireless equipment companies also provide real-time positioning system solutions, St. Andrew’s chose Motorola’s system, mainly considering that Motorola can provide greater accuracy. A mesh network is established through the access points that transmit data, and combined with Ekahau’s positioning engine software, the location of the tag is determined by the signal strength data sent from multiple access points. This solution also provides a self-repair function to prevent data transmission to the next access point if one of the access points fails.
In the building, St. Andrew’s installed dozens of Motorola Wi-Fi access points, which can be connected to the computer system in the building without the need for an Ethernet cable connection. They formed their own wireless mesh network, used the Wi-Fi protocol to communicate with each other, and finally communicate with the computer network in the building. The access point at the edge of the wireless mesh network is powered by Ethernet using POE and functions as a wireless access point gateway.
Using the Motorola system, employees first show their ID badge when changing shifts, which contains an independent passive RFID tag, which acts as a contactless card. Once the ID number of the badge tag is read, the staff at the door scans the serial number of the barcode on the back of the Ekahau RTLS tag attached to the lanyard. In Ekahau’s vision software system (resident in St. Andrew’s database), the barcode number, the employee’s badge tag ID number, and the unique ID number programmed into the RTLS tag are linked together. Some employees were not issued Ekahau tags, such as ward managers, they received a Wi-Fi-based VoIP call provided by Ascom. The device is like an Ekahau tag, which periodically sends out a unique ID signal corresponding to the patient’s identity.
If an employee needs urgent assistance when changing shifts, just press the button labeled on the rope or use an Ascom phone. The tag then sends an emergency signal, which is received by an average of three to four Wi-Fi access points nearby. If the employee who issued the alarm is moving, then based on the signal strength received by nearby nodes, the employee’s location will continue to be tracked. If a Wi-Fi router is not working properly, the mesh network will forward the transmission to the next router.
The Wi-Fi access point sends the ID number and emergency status of the tag or phone, together with the signal strength and the ID number of the access point itself, to the Ekahau positioning engine software to determine the location of the employee tag. Ekahau’s vision software then sent the alert to the badges or handheld devices of other staff near the accident site. The alarm displayed text on the display of the Ascom phone and the Ekahau tag, indicating which person triggered the alarm in which room.
The system was first tested in the Juvenile Ward in Northampton for six weeks. After that, the system was installed in the new area of Mansfield, which only opened last month. St. Andrew’s has installed 250 access points in the entire Mansfield building and 90 access points in the juvenile ward. Two of the wards have currently installed systems and the other six are currently being installed. Another 350 Wi-Fi access points have been installed in the new William Wake House in Northampton, which is scheduled to open in December 2010.
Kirkpatrick said that so far, staff have reported that they prefer RFID systems to infrared systems because RFID systems provide greater security, and they don’t hear the harsh sirens all over the building as in the past. This system can also be used to identify the nature of emergencies so that alerts can be sent to employees who have been trained to respond to certain types of emergencies. For example, press a button once to represent a personal attack, press twice to represent a fire, and then get the corresponding help.
Kirkpatrick said: “As we become more mature in using the system, we will look for other opportunities, including the possibility of using Ekahau tags to control the opening and closing of door locks. In the juvenile ward, the system can be used if needed. Let the children enjoy the transmission of classroom teaching in their own wards. Moreover, St. Andrew’s hopes to use this system for self-service in the staff canteen. The organization also hopes to use this solution to provide a record of each employee triggering an alarm In order to provide appropriate training, for example, some employees may press the button several times when the alarm is triggered, and further training is required.”
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