Portuguese healthcare company adopts RFID to improve response speed and track assets
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Espirito Santo Saúde, a healthcare company with 17 offices in Portugal, has adopted an RFID-based real-time location system (RTLS) to increase the speed of its emergency response and used this system to track assets, enabling staff in two of the offices And patients can get timely help in case of emergency. The system was installed by Unisys and includes Ekahau badges and call buttons installed on the wall, which can send alarms through the company’s existing Wi-Fi system.
“Simplicity” is the company’s priority. The company wants a solution that can be installed quickly and can send and receive emergency alerts wirelessly. David Vieira, director of IT and communications infrastructure at Espirito Santo Saúde, said that the second challenge for the hospital is positioning. Not only locate the room from which the alarm was sent, but also locate assets that are difficult for employees to find. This new real-time positioning system solves these two problems at the same time.
Fifteen of the 17 office locations are hospitals, the other two provide assisted living services, and Wi-Fi infrastructure is installed at both locations. The purpose of installing Wi-Fi infrastructure in Casas da Cidade, which assists the elderly, is to notify the staff as soon as possible in case of emergency. Another Hospital da Luz, which provides emergency care, has installed call buttons in public areas and private rooms to seek help in an emergency.
Espirito Santo Saúde began to cooperate with Unisys in 2007 to find a suitable positioning system. Dinis Fernandes, Unisys’ national director of global outsourcing and infrastructure services, said: “After gaining a deeper understanding of the related applications of this technology, the company conducted two tests in 2008.” He explained that Casas da Cidade and The goal of Hospital da Luz is to shorten the time it takes for people or patients in hospitals to call for help and employees to arrive to solve problems. Espirito Santo Saúde hopes that through a system, mobile residents or patients can call for nurses anytime and anywhere in the office building, and the staff can also see emergency notifications anytime and anywhere in the office building.
When the real-time location system was installed in 2009, Casas da Cidade did not have a nurse call system. Vieira said that by installing this system, Espirito Santo Saúde hopes that Casas da Cidade can better protect the safety of patients. He said: “The key is to know where those older people are seeking help. Knowing the exact location can save precious time.”
Managers want to deploy a system that can be installed in a few hours, rather than spending days or even weeks to install a traditional nurse call system. Unisys has installed many Wi-Fi access points to ensure full coverage of the entire area. Then Ekahau’s wireless call buttons were installed on the walls of some public waiting areas and residential areas. Each button had a mark next to it indicating that the button could be pressed in an emergency.
Once the button is pressed, the tag in the device transmits the ID number to the access point, and the data is transmitted to the Ekahau Vision web-based software on the back-end server of Casas da Cidade. The ID number is connected to a Wi-Fi access point that receives data. The Vision software then issued an alert to about 10 nurses and doctors wearing Ekahau T301BD. The location of the specific button that made the emergency call is displayed on the LCD screen of each badge. Employees can also send alarms by pulling the emergency switch on their badges. The call button installed on the wall can be taken off the wall and installed in another place at any time. The system can immediately determine the new position of the moved button for easy operation.
Residents can also wear Ekahau T301BD badges. If they need help, they can press a button on the badge, and the unique ID number is transmitted to Wi-Fi access points covering the entire area. The ID number and the status of the alarm are also received by the Ekahau software, and then the ID number is connected to the location of the tag, and the alarm will be sent to the nurse in the form of a text message, indicating that there is an alarm and the button in which room is pressed . This information is only sent once, and the staff does not need to inform or reply to the received information.
There are 168 beds in Hospital da Luz and a similar Ekahau system was installed in early 2010. However, the patient was not issued an Ekahau T301BD badge.
Fernandes said that the lightweight Ekahau Wi-Fi badge is a better choice than mobile or Wi-Fi phones, which are heavier and not portable.
No need to reset the software, the call button installed on the wall can be moved and added at any time. For example, if a tag needs to be transferred from one public area to another, put the tag on a new wall, and the Wi-Fi system will begin to locate the tag at the new location.
Hospital da Luz also intends to use this system to track assets and begin labeling intravenous pumps, important signal monitors and other high-flow, high-value items. Vieira said that eventually, the system will be installed in other office locations. He said: “We are now in the initial stage of the project, in testing and measuring the capabilities of this technology, we are looking for new opportunities in this real-time positioning system.”
Vieira added: “Now, we are focusing on the wireless network of each new or redesigned office location, so that we can use the real-time positioning system everywhere.”
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