Medical Center Set to Grow With RFID

The system can be set to transmit an alert if an item enters the wrong area. For example, if a medical device that cannot be washed is brought to a laundry area, staff members can receive an alert. In the case of a manufacturer recall, hospital workers could quickly find all specific devices that need to be recalled, saving hours of time otherwise spent looking for items that could be spread throughout the facility.

When SOMC first started exploring RFID a decade ago as a means of automatically tracking its high-value assets, the hospital found that a system large enough to meet its needs would have cost about $750,000—an expense it could not justify. But after re-examining the technology in late 2006, it found the cost had dropped 40 percent, to roughly $400,000. That convinced the hospital to take another look.

In August 2007, Radianse installed receivers and SOMC began tagging items. Employees started receiving training in September 2007, and the necessary hardware and software was fully installed in October. Even before training, Malone says, staff members were learning the Radianse system on their own, locating wheelchairs and other items without leaving their PCs.

The 220-bed hospital is building a two-tower expansion with 102 patient suites, surgery departments and a cardiac care tower. It plans to outfit the new expansion with enough receivers to track tagged assets throughout the area. In the future, Malone says, SOMC intends to expand the system to include patient tracking, though it has not yet decided when that will occur. It also intends to integrate the system with its own office management, including billing.

"We're very happy—it's a neat thing," Malone says. With the RFID system, he adds, the staff has that much more connection to each other and their assets. "We're a small-world community here," he states.

Other hospitals that have deployed the Radianse platform include the Providence Health Center in Waco, Texas (see Providence Health Center Calls Its RFID System an 'Eye-Opener'), and St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Ala., (see RFID Frees Up Patient Beds).