By Jill Gambon

Apr. 26, 2010—PinnacleHealth, a health-care system in central Pennsylvania, had an ongoing problem: Wheelchairs in its Harrisburg Hospital were never where they were supposed to be. Not only did this mean patients often had lengthy waits before being transported, but there was also an unfortunate ripple effect: Discharges were delayed, rooms couldn't be cleaned promptly and readied for incoming patients, and security guards, nurses and other employees frequently had to stop what they were doing to search for an available wheelchair.

George Morley, the organization's director of biomedical engineering, saw a way to solve the problem. Harrisburg Hospital was using an RFID-based real-time locating system (RTLS) from Radianse to track patients, and Morley thought it could be expanded to track wheelchairs, as well as IV pumps, crash carts, stethoscopes and other critical equipment. But despite the hospital's successful deployment of the patient-tracking system, Morley's initial funding request was turned down. Hospital management wasn't convinced the investment was worthwhile. "Some people thought RFID was just a toy," Morley says.

Photo: iStockphoto

Undeterred, he spent the next several months continuing to accumulate data on how much money and time was being lost due to missing equipment. He also spent hours talking to other staff members and listening to their stories on the subject. Then, armed with a compelling business case, he presented his proposal to hospital executives, describing the problems and explaining the potential benefits of tagging and tracking medical gear. This time, he secured funding for the project.