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A hospital in Victoria, Australia uses an RFID real-time location system to track the movement of patients in the hospital, monitor the temperature of medicines, and improve employee safety.
Bendigo Health is the largest hospital in Victoria. It first launched this Wi-Fi-based real-time positioning solution in July 2010 to manage the flow of patients in surgical wards. Last month, the hospital extended this system to temperature monitoring of medicines and blood; and planned to implement an employee safety system for hospitals and nurses in January 2011.
This system uses AeroScout’s RFID tags and RTLS software and runs on a standard Wi-Fi network.
According to Phil Coppin, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Operations Manager of Bendigo Health, the hospital initially hoped to obtain real-time visibility into the utilization of departments and staff in the perioperative area (from the patient’s hospitalization for surgery to postoperative discharge). Process up to 10,000 surgical procedures.
Bendigo Health’s local ICT partner, Integrating Technology, recommended AeroScout and its Patient Flow solution to the hospital, mainly considering AeroScout’s outstanding achievements in the hospital field, especially in Australia.
When arriving in the operating room, each patient is assigned an AeroScout tag to provide the patient’s location and movement information, so that the hospital staff can ensure that the various surgical steps start on time and the patient’s reasonable care.
“This system tracks the entire process of patients in the perioperative area, collecting important data from the registration area to the waiting area, from the operation area to the anesthesia area,” Coppin said, “helps us understand the flow and utilization of personnel and resources in the area, and improve efficiency. We have already seen results in this regard.”
The AeroScout Patient Flow system operates on Bendigo Health’s existing Cisco unified wireless network, which means that hospitals do not need to purchase, install and maintain a set of independent RFID readers, and wireless network access points can be used as RFID readers.
Patient Flow Solution
This system uses AeroScout T2 active tags, complies with 802.11 standards, and operates at 2.4 GHz. The information is transmitted from the tag to AeroScout’s MobileView software via the Wi-Fi network, and all employees can log in to the software on the computer.
The successful launch of this system paved the way for further application of the system, and then the hospital began to consider the temperature monitoring program, Coppin said, studying the possibility of application. Refrigerators and freezers in hospitals usually store important medicines, such as blood and medicines. The temperature of these drugs must be continuously monitored and recorded at specific intervals to ensure that the temperature of the drugs remains within an acceptable range. Currently, this task is performed manually by employees, which is very time-consuming.
“In order to meet the requirements of regular temperature monitoring and prevent waste caused by drug deterioration, we have been looking for a real-time temperature monitoring program,” Coppin said. In the end, the hospital chose to install AeroScout’s T5a active temperature-sensing Wi-Fi tags in refrigerators and freezers.
Employees carry AeroScout T2u active tags with them and use Wi-Fi (compliant with 802.11 standards, 2.4 GHz) and ultrasonic technology (40 kHz) to determine their location. In the event of an emergency, employees can use the call button on the label to notify colleagues. The real-time location of the person who needs assistance is sent along with the alarm, thereby improving the safety of hospital staff and improving the quality of patient care.
The hospital also plans to use this system to track high-value equipment, monitor the location of patients, and automatically import this information into the patient management system.
The successful application of Bendigo Health-the largest hospital in Victoria-demonstrates the importance and scope of use of the RTLS system in the hospital industry.
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