RFID cabinet helps Saint Joseph Hospital to purchase equipment accurately and in batches
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The Saint Joseph Hospital in Atlanta used a set of RFID systems provided by WaveMark to change its purchase and management of cardiovascular catheterization and electrophysiology (EP) laboratory equipment, thereby reducing equipment costs. This system includes 18 RFID cabinets and readers installed in the cardiovascular department where the RFID cabinets are located, so that the hospital can know the number of equipment on hand and ordered in real time, and receive alerts when the equipment needs to be restocked or is about to reach the expiration date. . With this information, hospitals can order equipment in batches instead of individually, thereby saving a lot of costs.
The hospital began to seek such a system in the spring of 2009. There are several problems with the existing system. John Franke, director of cardiovascular services at Saint Joseph, said that the staff must go to each shelf and count the equipment one by one, otherwise it is difficult to understand the specific situation of the inventory. Because this task is too labor-intensive and time-consuming for busy employees, the hospital has to estimate the inventory based on the number of equipment used by the patient, and assume that the equipment that is not used is stored on the cabinet shelf, but this estimation Ways often go wrong.
Another major issue is the way in which cardiovascular equipment is ordered. Traditionally, hospitals order equipment in small quantities when needed. However, Franke said, this method is much more expensive than buying in large quantities-this is like buying a week at a convenience store and a month at a wholesale store. Commodities, the prices of the two methods are completely different. The hospital hopes to change the previous small order to bulk purchase, thereby saving equipment costs. However, the hospital has never had a history of bulk purchase, because it is not easy to obtain a clear and accurate inventory quantity to ensure that there is no accumulation of excessive inventory (equipment has an expiration time). Moreover, it is difficult for hospitals to predict the required time and frequency of use of the equipment. “If we want to change the way we buy, we need to have an inventory management system to track equipment,” Franke said. In the end, the hospital chose WaveMark’s RFID solution.
WaveMark installed 5 sets, 5 sets and 8 RFID cabinets in the EP laboratory, catheterization laboratory and each procedure room of the hospital. Each cabinet contains a 13.56 MHz reader that meets the ISO 15693 standard, and an antenna is installed on each shelf. Each room where the cabinet is located is also equipped with an independent RFID reader (used by employees to take out the device and record the application and patients), which is connected to a computer and touch screen. The hospital also set up an RFID labeling base station to correspond the RFID tag ID number with the received equipment.
When the cardiovascular device arrives, the staff uses a reader to scan the barcode of the product package, and then read the ID code of the WaveMark RFID tag, and the tag corresponds to the device and its description, such as the expiration date. The staff then sticks the RFID tag on the product and puts it in the cabinet. When the item is placed on the shelf of the cabinet, the embedded RFID reader reads the tag, and its unique ID code is sent to the WaveMark WEB server via a cable connection at a rate of once every 18 minutes.
When an employee needs to take out a piece of equipment from the cabinet, he or she walks to the independent reader in the room, enters the identity data of himself and the patient that will be used, and then reads the ID code of the tag, explained by Lisa Stepp, the hospital’s cardiovascular service project manager say. The staff can then view a dashboard indicating the equipment currently on each shelf. If the device is taken away, the cabinet reader can no longer read its unique ID code, and the system upgrades the device status to be used by a certain patient. If the employee fails to enter his or patient identity data, or the device is taken away without authentication, the WaveMark reader sends an alert to the back-end server, and the relevant person receives a text or email notification. The dashboard then shows that the item has been lost. On the other hand, after the equipment is returned to the cabinet, the system updates its information, indicating that it is idle again and can be used for other patients.
The system was officially launched on August 1, 2009. The hospital can receive an alert when the inventory level reaches a predetermined minimum, and check the shelf inventory in real time. By integrating WaveMark server data with the hospital ordering system, hospitals can order directly through WaveMark software.
With this system, the hospital can accurately charge patients based on the use of the equipment, purchase new equipment at the right time, track the expiration date of the equipment, and also know when the equipment can be purchased in bulk, and when the inventory level of a certain equipment is low enough When buying in bulk, the system sends a letter to the management. At the same time, Franke said, the system avoids the need to store too much equipment for emergencies, and achieves a substantial reduction in equipment costs.
Chuck Naylor, the hospital’s cardiovascular inventory and financial manager, said that he now uses this system every day to confirm which equipment is used and which needs to be reordered. He then placed an order through the WaveMark system, and the data was sent directly to the Saint Joseph procurement system. “Now I only need to sit in front of the computer, and in a few minutes, I can understand which equipment needs to be ordered and place an order.” Naylor also uses this system to track the equipment that is about to expire. When the equipment reaches the expiration time, it will receive an alert or customize the search. .
Initially, WaveMark will label approximately 3.500 pieces of equipment. Currently, according to the company’s marketing director Colleen Terry, Saint Joseph plans to apply the label to any new products.
In the future, the hospital also plans to label low-cost items, saving the time that employees may have to manually fill in SKU codes or other usage data.
The hospital pays for the services of the cabinet, the reader, and the WaveMark server on a monthly basis.
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