Hospitals use RFID to significantly reduce the cost of work clothes and laundry services and improve work efficiency
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Company Profile
St. Olavs Hospital is a large modern university hospital in Trondheim, Norway. As one of the six largest hospitals in Norway, the hospital provides medical and healthcare services to more than 650,000 residents and has the internationally leading level of medical research.
After the construction cost of 1 billion US dollars in the past few years, the hospital has developed into one of the most advanced technology-intensive hospitals of its kind in the world.
Operational data
• St. Olavis Hospital has a large area with more than 7,500 employees and approximately 1,200 hospital beds.
• The hospital has about 50,000 doctors annually, and it is the medical center with the best medical conditions in the local and even the whole country.
• The hospital uses more than 130,000 uniforms in medical and research work, including surgical gowns, white coats, and special pants.
challenge
Handling such a huge amount of work clothes (130,000 pieces) is a big problem for any hospital, and it is expensive, especially for a large-scale, comprehensive medical institution like St. Olavs Hospital.
Traditionally, work clothes are hung on hangers, which are bulky, difficult to carry and take up a lot of storage space. In addition, due to the lack of real-time management data of inventory levels, we often find that the work clothes in the inventory are not enough or even used up, which leads to the need for workers to find suitable work clothes, which makes the work unnecessary. Furthermore, employees usually have to fill out an application form for receiving work clothes in order to prevent missed collection of laundry service fees, but this will waste valuable working time, thereby reducing the efficiency of the hospital.
The technical challenge we face is to design a system that provides real-time data that is convenient for the logistics management of work clothes, and track the whole process of work clothes from the laundry room of the hospital to the locker room, then to the ward and medical staff, and finally back to the laundry room. . This tracking system must be simple and easy to use, employees can use their existing ID cards to operate, and the system must be stable enough to withstand the test of high temperature, high pressure and other harsh conditions in the washing process. Since we want to store the work clothes in piles instead of hanging them on hangers, the labels on the clothes must ensure that the clothes can be read even when they are stacked.
The new system must also provide automatic reordering of clothing when the storage of work clothes of any size is lower than the standard. In addition, it must also automatically record the use of work clothes in each ward, so that laundry fees can be accurately charged.
Finally, the system must also help hospitals significantly reduce overall costs, that is, to save storage space, but also to reduce operating expenses.
test
St. Olavis Hospital chose Texi AS, also located in Trondheim, to provide consulting and system design services based on the Texi logistics and storage room management system, which has been verified in other applications and is running well. Texi is the world’s leading supplier of electronic clothing management systems.
Texi recommended a system based on smart RFID clothing storage technology, which was developed by the company itself, and RFID tags are affixed to each piece of work clothes, which can meet all the requirements of the hospital.
In order to ensure that the tags can maintain a high reading rate even after repeated iterations during the laundry process in extremely poor conditions, and that they can be read even if they are stacked closely together during the storage process, we have conducted relevant tests.
Through the test results, Texi found that Texas Instruments (TI) RFID tags have the highest read rate and accuracy and reliability among all the tags tested, especially in the laundry process under poor conditions. The multi-reading function of TI tags enables accurate reading of multiple tags even when clothes are stacked and stored.
solution
The solution proposed by Texi AS is a complete work clothes logistics management system that uses “smart” RFID lockers and special RFID tags developed by TI. This durable plastic label (model RF-HDT-DVBB-N0, with 2kbit R/W memory) is particularly suitable for the needs of the laundry process.
At work, each piece of work clothes is equipped with an RFID transponder developed by TI. Each label is pre-programmed, has a unique identification mark, and is connected to a database that stores data about the type and size of work clothes. The cleaned clothes are put into specially designed locker rooms in order, and each locker room is equipped with a built-in RFID antenna. These smart lockers automatically “read” the chip on each piece of clothing, and accurately record the information contained in the chip (for example, 35 white coats, medium size, 59 pairs of pants, medium size, etc.). In addition, the cloakroom can also detect the increase or decrease of clothing, so the inventory status will be updated in real time in the main hospital database. If the reserve of work clothes is lower than the preset value, the reservation information will be automatically sent out through the Internet to fill the vacancies and ensure that work clothes of the appropriate model and size are always available.
The ruggedized TI label does not separate from the clothes during the entire washing process, and can withstand the test of extremely high temperature, pressure and other harsh conditions during the washing process.
TI’s tags can also read clothing tags in batches when clothing is folded and stacked, which saves space and cost significantly compared with other competing solutions that require clothing to be hung on hangers for transportation and storage.
When picking up work clothes, employees only need to use the ID card to enter the locker room to pick up the required work clothes. At this time, the RFID tag on the work clothes will immediately and automatically record the employee and the ward to which it belongs. Each locker room is clearly marked with the type of work clothes stored, so that employees can quickly find the clothes they need. After the clothes are worn, employees only need to put the clothes into any work clothes recycling bin in the hospital, and the RFID tag will be automatically read again and correctly indicate which ward has used the clothes. All these tasks are no longer necessary to fill in Paper forms are so troublesome.
Supervisors can fully understand the storage of work clothes in many locker rooms and storage rooms of the hospital at any time through the PC connected to the server, thereby improving logistics management.
Texi pointed out that the main technical challenge to achieve the above work is how to find a suitable RFID tag that can provide a higher read rate even if it is subjected to high temperature, high pressure and other harsh conditions in the laundry process.
Texi’s Vidar Kvalheim pointed out: “TI’s RFID tag provides a higher read rate than any other tested tag, and it performs well even after repeated washing cycles. It is for this reason that we chose TI’s technology. .”
Gunnar Ivansson, head of TI distributor Electrona-Sievert, pointed out: “The TI RFID tag model selected by Texi is 13.56 HF read-write type. After a comprehensive supermodel treatment, it can withstand the high temperature and high pressure test of the laundry process. Under harsh conditions, traditional There will be problems with tags, but TI’s tags can still achieve extremely high read rates.”
St. Olavis Hospital has actively participated in the development of the final solution and has installed more than 100 smart lockers in 10 different work clothes storage rooms throughout the hospital. This technology is still being further promoted in the hospital.
save costs
The hospital management expects that the adoption of this technology will reduce the cost of more than 40 million Norwegian kroner (or 6 million US dollars) in inventory space alone. With the improvement of the efficiency of data collection, the improvement of logistics management, the implementation of automated reservations and the easier and faster staff search for work clothes, it can save time. It is expected that the hospital will also save millions of crowns in operating costs.
After initial use, the hospital staff found that they could always find work clothes of the right size. The “swipe and go” operation made the whole process easier and faster, and no longer had to spend time filling out forms.
System Integrator: Texi AS
Headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, Texi AS is the world’s leading supplier of textile and clothing management systems. It has extensive experience in providing comprehensive consulting services and launching customized RFID solutions based on specific applications and customer needs. For more details, please call: +47 971 47072, or email: [email protected]
TI label technology supplier: Electrona-Sievert AB
TI RFID tags are provided by Electrona-Sievert AB in Stockholm, Sweden. This is a large-scale TI RFID product distributor with many years of service experience in the Scandinavian market.
For details, please log in: http://www.electrona.se/
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments is the world’s largest integrated manufacturer of radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder and reader systems. TI uses its advantages in the fields of high-volume semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronic packaging to lead the way in the field of RFID applications, face the future, and take the lead in opening up new markets and promoting the establishment of relevant international standards for RFID applications. For more information, please visit the following website: www.ti-rfid.com.
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