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After the construction is completed, Denmark’s New University Hospital (DNU) will become the largest hospital of its kind in the Nordic region, capable of treating 100,000 inpatients and 900,000 outpatients each year. DNU will deploy an automated system to manage its large number of assets and personnel. Currently, the project has been completed a quarter and is expected to be completed in 2019. RFID project deployment is in the first phase.
DNU management predicts that personnel and asset management in large hospitals will be a difficult task for many departments. By attaching UHF RFID tags to equipment and distributing wearable tags to staff and patients, DNU management expects that this task will be simplified. In September 2013, DNU began to install the RFID project. After the project is deployed, the tags will be marked on 350,000 assets and personnel (including 9,500 employees), and 2,500 Zebra Technologies FX7500 fixed readers will be installed for reading. The company claims that this will be the world’s largest hospital RFID tracking deployment.
(DNU staff will check the equipment and personnel location on the screen)
DNU Hospital will be an extension of the existing Aarhus University Hospital (AUH), which will connect four hospitals with a new area of 250,000 square meters and an existing facility area of 160,000 square meters. The hospital will have a total built-up area of 1.2 million square meters, 700 parking spaces and 2 helipads.
If the RFID solution provided by the Lyngsoe system runs smoothly, the hospital expects that the solution will reduce the time employees spend on assets, patients and personnel searching. At the same time, the system will also provide reminders for equipment maintenance, maintenance, replacement and room cleaning. By analyzing where delays occur, the system will also be used to optimize workflow and reduce waste caused by lost items.
With the addition of new facilities, the existing Aarhus University Hospital is still in operation, and DNU will also establish some new departments after completion. At present, the logistics department of the original facility, the central warehouse is using RFID readers to track the movement of tagged items. Next year, a new emergency department and related support departments will also be created. These departments will also install RFID readers. After completion, DNU will have more than 100 buildings.
At present, the RFID system of DNU’s equipment and consumables receiving area, internal distribution center, main aisle, some selected wards and operation areas has been installed. The hospital marked a total of 1,000 hospital beds, 74 three-wheeled carts, 94 pieces of medical equipment, 7,000 pieces of uniforms, mobile phones, notebooks, paintings, sculptures and other assets.
Henrik Stilling, IT architect of DNU, said that the first phase of the RFID project is to determine the feasibility of large-scale installations. At the same time, the system also uses tracking tags to mark assets in areas where infrastructure has been installed. DNU also installed screens in the facility for staff to check the location of the equipment. In the future, these screens will also show the status of the patient. In addition, some employees also wear wearable RFID tags for positioning.
The RFID pilot project carried out at its sister hospital Horsens Hospital will also provide a reference for the development and research of RFID systems. The hospital is using RFID to track personnel in the emergency department.
In DNU, when receiving equipment and hospital beds, the staff will attach EPC Gen 2 passive UHF RFID tags and transport them to the distribution center warehouse and the hospital. RFID readers are installed in different locations in the hospital to read the data. The Live Logistics software provided by Lyngsoe collects these data and binds the recently inquired area information to the tag ID. When the label moves to another area, the label location information will be updated. Then, Lyngsoe software sends the data to EPCIS software. EPCIS software provides a dashboard that shows the location of items. In the future, the software will also display the location of employees and patients.
In the initial deployment phase, DNU uses EPC Gen 2 passive tags and readers to track equipment, trolleys, hospital beds and other equipment. In the next stage, staff will wear RFID badges for positioning. He said: “The hospital will strictly protect the privacy of location information. Historical location data will not be open. Patient tracking will also be carried out in the near future. The first step will be to track Alzheimer’s patients.”
(In the future, DNU hospital beds will be equipped with active sensors and status tags (Lyngsoe’s DT40) to facilitate maintenance and cleaning work)
DNU uses a total of 20 passive EPC Gen 2 UHF tags of different manufacturers and models, and is constantly looking for new tags to eliminate old tags. Initially, the hospital used Omni-ID IQ400 EU, Smartrac Frog 3D, GAO RFID 116010, 116035, Xerafy Cargo Trak, Alien Technology ALN9640 and RC9003 tags. Stilling said: “Some other models are still being tested. We have not yet decided on the model of equipment used by the personnel.”
Most DNU readers are installed in the aisle, usually using 2 antennas to determine the direction of the object’s movement. The system can also receive location data from WiFi and GPS devices. Stilling said: “This is a very flexible tracking system, and RFID is the core of the system.”
An early direction of the system is to use RFID tags worn on patients to remind clean-up staff that the operation has been completed. In addition, RFID systems will be used to track sterile products, which can usually only be stored for a few days. Currently, this feature is in small-scale testing.
Stilling said that another main application scenario is automatic reminders when consumables arrive at their destination. In this way, employees know that they have learned this information. However, DNU has not yet determined the exact deployment time.
In addition, DNU is testing active 433 MHz RFID tags compatible with ISO 18000-7 and WiFi standards. In the future, all hospital beds will be equipped with active sensors and status tags to facilitate maintenance and cleaning.
(Exclusive manuscript of rfid world network, please indicate the source author for reprinting!)
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