Every second is crucial in a hospital, and every piece of equipment will be an important assembly unit of the patient care chain. However, it is a daily and expensive search for critical and mobile medical equipment in hospitals all over the country. Wheelchairs, vital signs monitors, ventilators, and infusion pumps are in continual motion, and when not located, the ramifications are felt in the supply closet to the bedside of the patient.
This guide contains the answers to the main questions: why is there such a healthcare maze, and how contemporary RFID technology is a real-time map out to solve the maze, improving your efficiency, safety, and bottom line.
What Is The True Cost Of ‘Lost’ And Hard-To-Find Medical Equipment?
It is not only the price of the replacement pump that is much higher than the cost. It is a complex issue that affects your budget, your employees, and your patients.
Financial Costs: It is a costly affair that is going to cost the hospital millions of dollars to buy equipment that they already have and cannot locate. According to a study conducted by Zebra Technologies, the average nurse was found to spend at least 20% of their shift seeking supplies and equipment. This makes it unnecessary to incur rental expenses on essential equipment and bloated capital budgets to buy duplicate equipment.
Lower Staff Efficiency and Morale: Nurses and biomedical technicians who are required to become detectives are distracted from their core responsibilities. This search time will have a direct impact on staff burnout and frustration, which does not allow them to deliver prompt patient care.
Loss of Quality Patient Care: The time taken to treat is the most important expense. In cases where a patient requires a device and it is not immediately available, care may be postponed, and this may have a negative impact on the health of the patient as well as a bad experience.
Why Are Our Traditional Methods, Like Manual Logs And Barcodes, Failing?
The old system was not created to suit the dynamic, high-stakes world of a hospital today. They fail because of a number of reasons:
Manual Logs will always be retrospective: A spreadsheet or logbook is obsolete the moment it is posted. It depends on busy personnel to remember to check in and check out equipment on and off, and this may not be done due to overlooking during a hectic shift. A manual log will be virtually useless in an emergency.
Barcodes need Line of Sight: It is only possible to scan the barcode when you can see it. This is deduced by having to locate the equipment, where you must, in the beginning, ensure that you locate it. A barcode system does not see anything in a device that is concealed in a closet, in another department, or even in a curtain. They will not know where to find.
These systems give visibility of the past but do not give a real-time visibility that must be in place to run vibrant operations in the hospital.
How Does RFID Technology Provide A Real-Time Solution?
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is, in essence, an indoor GPS on your important equipment and offers visibility in real-time, which cannot be found in other systems. And a basic description of how it works is as follows:
Tagging: Each piece of medical equipment is fitted with a small and robust RFID tag. These tags are safe to be placed in the clinical environment and can be attached to other surfaces, including metal.
Reading: RFID readers are strategically erected in strategic locations such as doorways or hallways, and storage rooms. Such readers can automatically detect any tagged item that relays by without the need for a manual scan, twenty-four hours a day. Handheld readers can also be utilized by staff to do on-demand searches.
Mapping: The data entered by the readers is sent through the software in the system, which then shows the real-time (or last-seen) position of all tagged assets on a computer map of your establishment.
This provides an inventory that can be accessed live and searched, so that the staff can immediately find the nearest available IV pump or wheelchair by just clicking.
What Are The Tangible Benefits Of Implementing An RFID Tracking System?
The application of RFID does not simply consist of locating objects more efficiently, but is a process that promotes changes in the whole hospital that are quantifiable.
Dramatically Improved Asset Utilization: The average hospitals are astounded to know that the utilization rate of their equipment is only at its lowest at 40-50. With this knowledge of all the devices, you can boost that rate to 80 percent or more. This will enable you to utilize the assets that you have, and it will help you make fewer purchases.
Better Patient Outcomes and Safety: You decrease delays in treatment by making sure that the equipment is in place when and where it is needed. Moreover, the system with RTLS solution would be able to automatize maintenance and cleaning schedules to monitor when a device enters a soiled room and notify the staff when a sterilization is required, which will directly contribute to the improvement of patient safety.
Time rewarded back to your clinical staff is one of the rewards that are greatest rewards. The removal of annoying searches allows nurses and technicians to focus on high-value business, which helps them feel better and pay more attention to patients, concentrating on the core areas of their business.
Through RFID, healthcare facilities can bridge the physical and digital space by overcoming the shortcomings of manual logs and barcode scans.
FAQs
Is RFID technology safe to use around sensitive medical equipment and patients?
Yes, it is completely safe. The RFID technology being utilized by hospitals is the passive UHF RFID (the standard being marketed by the RAIN Alliance), which is very low-powered. It is non-ionizing and is unlikely to harm pacemakers, ventilators, and other delicate electronic medical equipment.
Can we start small with an RFID tracking project?
Absolutely. One of the most successful methods to start with is using a pilot program. It is possible to start with one high-value problem, which can be exemplified by the need to monitor your infusion pump fleet or your wheelchairs. This will allow you to prove the point, quantify the immediate payback (ROI) of decreased rental expenses and enhanced efficiency, and create a good business case to expand facilities wide.
How does the system help with equipment maintenance and cleaning workflows?
An RFID can be used to trace the status of an asset as well as its whereabouts. To give an example, a tagged pump can automatically switch to a state of needing cleaning when it is transferred into a particular room with the label of a soiled utility. It automates the workflow, makes sure that the necessary hygiene standards are not violated, and provides employees with adequate access to the information on which exact devices are accessible to patients.
