U.S. Grady Hospital uses RFID technology to increase the utilization rate of operating rooms
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Grady Health System, a healthcare provider in Atlanta, USA, installed a real-time location system (RTLS) a year ago, increasing the utilization rate of the hospital’s 16 operating rooms by 23%.
The positioning system, provided by CenTrak and PeriOptimum, can inform the Grady Health System operating room of each patient’s condition during the operation-when the patient entered the operating room, when the operation was completed, and how long it would take for the patient to recover after surgery . The hospital uses this information to provide staff and family members with updates on the patient’s condition, and uses this information to identify bottlenecks to improve the operating room’s own surgical procedures, explained Ari Naim, President and CEO of CenTrak.
The company’s InTouchCare system has a battery-powered 900 MHz RFID tag that receives infrared signals from transmitters and sensors to determine which room a person is in. Then this tag sends the ID number and location information to the RFID reader, and the reader sends the data to the hospital’s back-end system.
Hakan M. Ilkin, head of process improvement at Grady Health System, said that the environment of the surgical service department is complex and changes every second. The patient has to go through many stages before and after surgery, including anesthesia, surgery, postoperative and recovery. Each category includes many subcategories, such as when to start surgery and when to start sewing. When staff transfer patients from one place to another, sometimes the transfer is delayed because they are summoned to prepare for the operation of the next patient.
Ilkin said that initially, Grady Health System installed this system to answer the most basic question: “Where is the patient?” But beyond that, the hospital wants to learn more about its efficiency and areas that need to be improved. The hospital not only wants to know the location of the patient, but also wants to know where the patient is during the operation and how long it will take to prepare for the next patient. By knowing where the patient is in the operation, the hospital can remind its staff what the next step is and when to start the next step. For example, attendants can be told when they can clean the operating room or assist the patient in moving to another room, while the service staff can clean the operating room and prepare for the next patient. Grady installed this system in December 2008.
The CenTrak system and the infrared RFID tag clipped to the patient’s drip rack are provided to the operating room when the patient enters the operating room. The staff enters the ID number of the tag into the RealView surgery real-time positioning system software provided by PeriOptimum, thereby connecting the patient with the tag during the hospital process. The label has three buttons. In each position, the button corresponds to the procedures at different stages of the operation. For example, the procedures at different stages may include surgery, sutures, and preparation for delivery to the recovery room.
Each operating room has an infrared transmitter that emits a unique ID number. When the tag enters an operating room and detects infrared transmission, it obtains the ID number, and then transmits a 900 MHz RFID signal together with the ID number of the transmitter and the tag to an RFID monitor (RFID RF Express Note : Nearly 40 RFID monitors have been installed throughout the department). The data of the reader is sent to the back-end server, and PeriOptimum software obtains the information and compiles it so that it can be viewed on the personal computer and on the 8 large-screen displays installed in the key areas of the department, so that the staff and visitors You can monitor the progress of a particular patient.
Initially, the hospital used 100 tags on patients. Ilkin said: “We have been able to collect data and use it to improve the bottleneck in the operation.” For example, he said, the utilization rate of the operating room during the day has risen from 65% before the system was installed to 80% now. (This figure refers to the ratio of the time patients use the operating room, not the time ratio of cleaning the operating room or waiting to prepare the operating room for another operation). “We are very satisfied with the progress we have made.”
The hospital stated that it intends to use the same type of tag for asset tracking in the next few weeks.
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