The University of Michigan Medical System uses RFID technology to track medical supplies
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University of Michigan Health System (UMHS)
The University of Michigan Medical System (UMHS), with 6 facilities and 60 operating rooms, uses an RFID tracking system to take the first step in tracking assets, medical equipment and laboratory items, and realize management automation. The RFID system is provided by Mobile Aspects, which enables the hospital to track the whereabouts of the medical tissue items during the surgical operation, which patient the item was used for, or the medical staff who took the item, the refrigerated items, and the time outside the cold storage is recorded.
With this data, hospitals can provide better records for regulatory agencies, including stored human, animal, and synthetic tissues and items used in surgical procedures. The RFID system can also reduce waste, because the staff members take the items from the storage room are recorded, and they are responsible.
The hospital stores as many as 190 items of different tissues, including skin and bone fragments, some of which are worth as much as US$10,000. All items have an expiration date. After the expiration date, the hospital must dispose of the unused items. These organizations are managed in the adult surgery area of the hospital. Previously employees stored items in different locations, distributed in 26 operating rooms. Nursing staff manually record the information on paper, and every time they take out an item from the storage room, record the item for whom it is used, and if the item is returned unused, register again. Although the items are very expensive, the hospital cannot lock them in a cabinet, because nursing staff need to be able to obtain items easily and quickly at any time of the day. Normally, all items of various sizes and different are taken out, especially in surgical operations, so that the surgeon can choose the best instrument during the operation and complete the operation smoothly. The unused tissue items are then returned to the storage room.
Patricia Silverman, the business system leader of the operating room of the hospital, said, “All of this greatly wastes the time of medical staff, and sometimes there is no detailed record of the organization’s entry and exit.”
Silverman said that the Mobile Aspects system brings multiple benefits. Not only the whereabouts of the organized items tracked by the RFID system, but also the cabinets, freezers and refrigerator doors are locked until the worker scans the tag and selects the corresponding patient, showing which medical staff took which items and which patients used them These items, thereby reducing the loss or waste of tissue items.
Each tissue item is attached with (HF) passive RFID tags, provided by Texas Instruments, with a frequency of 13.56 MHz and conforming to the ISO 15693 standard. The RFID tag is attached to the bottom of the carton or plastic bag of the packaging organization. The hospital prints out the serial number of the item. Mobile Aspects software, running on the server in the hospital, contains the unique RFID code of each item tag, and the corresponding item serial number and batch number, description, expiration time, temperature requirements and other data.
These items were then placed in three interconnected cabinets, refrigerators or freezers, two of which were equipped with RFID technology. Every two main cabinets have a high-frequency RFID reader installed on the shelf, and a high-frequency RFID reader installed outside the cabinet to track items from the refrigerator or freezer, and the auxiliary cabinet (the auxiliary cabinet does not have a reader) In or out. The system obtains information from the reader by the computer and transmits it to the Mobile Aspects software of the hospital’s back-end system. It also manages the locking unit and a separate low frequency (LF) reader to scan the staff number card, each card contains The HID125 kHz RFID tag complies with the air interface protocol.
When the nurse needs a certain tissue item, he/she scans its proximity card on the central reader for the first time. The list of patients undergoing surgery on that day is displayed on the touch screen display, and the nurse selects which patient uses a certain tissue item. Then the storage door is automatically unlocked. When the cabinet, refrigerator or freezer door is closed, it will automatically lock. The reader on the shelf inside the cabinet obtains the ID codes of the items in the internal organization. The Mobile Aspects software determines which ID codes are no longer in the cabinet, and then searches for related items, patient and nurse information. When any items are returned, they are placed in the auxiliary cabinet, refrigerator or freezer. Since there is no reader in the freezer or refrigerator, the staff need to use an external high-frequency RFID reader to read the tag of the item no matter when the item is taken away or returned.
Bryan Christianson, Vice President of Marketing at Mobile Aspects said, “About 18 months ago, Mobile Aspects developed a technology called iRISecure to manage the surgical department. The system is also used in Boston Children’s Hospital and in the United States. In other hospitals.”
Mobile Aspects provided three cabinets for the University of Michigan, with specifications of 7 feet high, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet deep to store items at room temperature. Gino N. Iasella, Head of Product Development at Mobile Aspects, said, “Medical staff need to know not only the number of items on hand, but also the trends of the items. The software enables the hospital to report which patient an item is used for and take it away. And the staff returning the items. It’s clear at a glance when the unused items are returned and which items are about to expire. The software also enables the hospital to track the items used daily and re-purchase these items.”
Christianson said, “The RFID system reminds the hospital to use it before the item expires, demonstrating the benefits of the technology.” According to Silverman, the system has reduced the cost of the surgical unit within three weeks of deployment, and achieved Hospital staff improve work efficiency. In the past, organizational objects could easily disappear. Now, with the deployment of the Mobile Aspects RFID system, the staff who took and returned the items have detailed records. There is a trace of the item.
Silverman pointed out that the RFID technology still has some flaws. Since the readers on the shelves cannot work normally at such low temperatures in refrigerators and freezers, the items can only be scanned by external RFID readers. Moreover, RFID tags are also a problem, and the reading effect is not good when they are attached to the metal sheet (foil). If the item is placed upside down in the cabinet, it is not easy to read. In order to make the reading smooth, the hospital initially adhered a cardboard to the article, and then attached the label to the surface of the cardboard.
Silverman said the hospital plans to deploy RFID systems to all other surgical fields for asset tracking. However, environmental requirements such as active RFID tags and radio frequency technology make this solution more challenging.
About Mobile Aspects
Mobile Aspects is a medical technology supplier based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which specializes in providing a complete set of medical resource management solutions, automating the tracking of supplies, assets, medicines and patients through the One System of CARE solution. The foundation of these technologies is the Intelligent Radio Frequency Identification System Security (iRISecure), which is the industry’s leading patient protection tracking system using RFID technology. With this innovative technology, clinicians and other healthcare providers can manage the resources used in the medical process without manual labor. For more information, please visit: www.mobileaspects.com.
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