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At Virginia Mason Clinic, RFID Eliminates the Need to Wait
Arriving patients are sent directly to an examination room, thanks to a hybrid RF-IR system that tracks the locations of patients and staff members in real time, and improves efficiency.
By Claire Swedberg
Oct. 21, 2009—When the Virginia Mason Medical Center's clinic in Kirkland, Wash., opened its new facility in spring 2009, it was not quite like any other. This clinic, which has 20 physicians on staff treating a total of approximately 400 patients daily, turns the traditional idea of a clinic and waiting room on its head. Rather than sitting in a waiting room until an employee escorts them to an exam room, patients at Virginia Mason Kirkland go through a registration process similar to that used when checking into a hotel, and are then assigned an examination room, given directions on where to find it, and instructed to proceed immediately to that location.
To allow this process to work, the clinic is using a hybrid RFID-IR system provided by Versus Technology. The company's Enterprise VISion system enables the clinic's staff to track the locations of patients and workers, says Tom Ott, Versus Technology's national sales director, and to send alerts in real time so that staff members can adjust care according to patients' particular needs.
After registering at the desk, a patient is assigned a room and given a card indicating that room's number, as well as the section of the clinic (Mountain, Forest, Beach or Meadow) in which it can be found. Clipped to the card is a Versus battery-powered hybrid RF-IR tag. Every three seconds, the tag transmits RF and infrared signals simultaneously, both encoded with the same unique ID number. The RFID component transmits a 433 MHz RF signal, using a proprietary air-interface protocol; while the infrared component transmits a light signal imperceptible to the human eye.
The tag's ID number is input with the patient's data into the VISion software running on a back-end server. The staff can then access the software to track that individual's location throughout the facility, explains Shirl Diaz, Virginia Mason Kirkland's administrative director. The clinic has 153 Versus readers—seven of which are RFID, while 146 are infrared—installed in its ceilings throughout the facility, including both staff and patient segments of the building.
Each employee is assigned a permanent ID badge that also contains a Versus battery-powered hybrid RF-IR tag. The badge—which looks like a key fob and can clip onto the individual's clothing—transmits an ID number. Once physicians, clinical assistants or other staff members arrive for the day, the system knows where they are in the clinic at all times, and stores a record of those locations, along with a timestamp, thus allowing the medical center to locate individual personnel in real time, as well as store information related to their activities on any given day.
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Oct. 21, 2009—When the Virginia Mason Medical Center's clinic in Kirkland, Wash., opened its new facility in spring 2009, it was not quite like any other. This clinic, which has 20 physicians on staff treating a total of approximately 400 patients daily, turns the traditional idea of a clinic and waiting room on its head. Rather than sitting in a waiting room until an employee escorts them to an exam room, patients at Virginia Mason Kirkland go through a registration process similar to that used when checking into a hotel, and are then assigned an examination room, given directions on where to find it, and instructed to proceed immediately to that location.
To allow this process to work, the clinic is using a hybrid RFID-IR system provided by Versus Technology. The company's Enterprise VISion system enables the clinic's staff to track the locations of patients and workers, says Tom Ott, Versus Technology's national sales director, and to send alerts in real time so that staff members can adjust care according to patients' particular needs.
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| Shirl Diaz, VM Kirkland's administrative director |
The tag's ID number is input with the patient's data into the VISion software running on a back-end server. The staff can then access the software to track that individual's location throughout the facility, explains Shirl Diaz, Virginia Mason Kirkland's administrative director. The clinic has 153 Versus readers—seven of which are RFID, while 146 are infrared—installed in its ceilings throughout the facility, including both staff and patient segments of the building.
Each employee is assigned a permanent ID badge that also contains a Versus battery-powered hybrid RF-IR tag. The badge—which looks like a key fob and can clip onto the individual's clothing—transmits an ID number. Once physicians, clinical assistants or other staff members arrive for the day, the system knows where they are in the clinic at all times, and stores a record of those locations, along with a timestamp, thus allowing the medical center to locate individual personnel in real time, as well as store information related to their activities on any given day.
