RFID Synergy at a Netherlands Hospital
The University of Amsterdam's Academic Medical Centre worked with a group of partners to test three RFID applications simultaneously.
By Rhea Wessel
Aug. 27, 2007—In an effort to reduce costs and improve patient safety and services, numerous hospitals and medical centers have been piloting and deploying radio frequency identification technologies to track high-value assets, patients, medical records, blood products and beds. While many health-care facilities are realizing a return on their investment, some experts believe the biggest benefits will come when an RFID infrastructure can be used to support several applications simultaneously, and when data can be combined to improve inefficiencies and automate processes.
To test for synergies among individual pilots, the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) at the University of Amsterdam—in cooperation with Capgemini of the Netherlands and several hardware and software vendors—combined three RFID projects into one ambitious mega-trial: tracking and tracing medical equipment in the operating room, monitoring the movements of patients and staff in and around the OR, and tracking and tracing blood products. The project received financial support from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
The three-pilot project, managed by Patrick Jansen, a consultant in the health-care practice at Capgemini's Utrecht office, was defined and developed in five stages over a five month-period, beginning in October 2005. The trial ran from July 2006 to February 2007, and was rolled out in three phases: first the patient- and staff-tracking pilot, followed a month later by the medical equipment-tracking trial, andthe blood-tracking portion six weeks after that. By December 2006, all three pilots were running simultaneously.
Aug. 27, 2007—In an effort to reduce costs and improve patient safety and services, numerous hospitals and medical centers have been piloting and deploying radio frequency identification technologies to track high-value assets, patients, medical records, blood products and beds. While many health-care facilities are realizing a return on their investment, some experts believe the biggest benefits will come when an RFID infrastructure can be used to support several applications simultaneously, and when data can be combined to improve inefficiencies and automate processes.
To test for synergies among individual pilots, the Academic Medical Centre (AMC) at the University of Amsterdam—in cooperation with Capgemini of the Netherlands and several hardware and software vendors—combined three RFID projects into one ambitious mega-trial: tracking and tracing medical equipment in the operating room, monitoring the movements of patients and staff in and around the OR, and tracking and tracing blood products. The project received financial support from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
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| Hospitals and medical centers are using RFID technology to track blood products and other high-value assets. |
The three-pilot project, managed by Patrick Jansen, a consultant in the health-care practice at Capgemini's Utrecht office, was defined and developed in five stages over a five month-period, beginning in October 2005. The trial ran from July 2006 to February 2007, and was rolled out in three phases: first the patient- and staff-tracking pilot, followed a month later by the medical equipment-tracking trial, andthe blood-tracking portion six weeks after that. By December 2006, all three pilots were running simultaneously.
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