Grady Hospital Improves Surgical Dept. Efficiency

The CenTrak system comes with an IR-RFID tag that is clipped onto a patient's intravenous (IV) pole as he or she enters the surgical department and is first administered the IV. Workers enter that tag's ID number into RealView perioperative RTLS software provided by PeriOptimum, thereby linking the patient to that tag throughout his or her time at the hospital. The tag comes with three buttons. In each location, the buttons correspond with different stages of procedure—in surgery, for instance, the stages may include beginning surgical cutting, suturing and preparing to be sent to recovery.

Each OR has an infrared transmitter that emits a unique ID number. When a tag enters a room and detects an IR transmission, it captures that ID number and then transmits a 900 MHz RFID signal with the ID numbers of the emitter and the tag to one of approximately 40 RFID monitors installed throughout the department. The reader data is sent to a back-end server, where PeriOptimum software captures that information and interprets it, then makes it available to view on PCs, as well as on eight large-screen monitors installed in key areas throughout the department, at which staff members and visitors can keep an eye on a particular patient's progress.

Initially, the hospital has been utilizing 100 tags for patients. "We have been able to gather data and use it to do performance improvement in bottlenecks," Ilkin states. For example, he says, the daytime utilization of the operating rooms is now at 80 percent—up from 65 percent, before the system was installed. (That figure indicates the percentage of time that an OR is being used by a patient, as opposed to being cleaned or awaiting another procedure.) "We're very happy with the progress we've had."

Over the next few weeks, the hospital indicates, it intends to begin using the same types of tags for asset tracking.