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Hospital RTLS Tracks Pumps' Status and Movement
If a pump leaves a patient room, for instance, it could then be moved into a holding area for the cleaning room, then into the sterile processing area, then to a clean holding area and on to another patient room. If it flows in a way that fails to meet expectations, MobileView sends an alert via e-mail or text message to members of the hospital's biomedical department. This alert is critical to the hospital, Cook says, since these types of errors—especially if they occur during shift changes—could have serious health repercussions for patients.
"The alert is great for efficiency and for patient safety," Cook states. It ensures items don't need to go through the cleaning process twice because they didn't flow properly the first time, and it could save a patient from receiving treatment from soiled equipment.
Approximately 18 months ago, the hospital installed the system's temperature-monitoring function for its coolers at all three hospitals. Each refrigerator is equipped with an AeroScout temperature-monitoring tag with a temperature sensor. After some discussion between Health First and AeroScout, it was decided that rather than having the temperature tags beacon at a rate of every 12 hours (the frequency at which the refrigerators had been checked manually prior to the system's deployment), they would be set to beacon every five minutes. If several readings outside of the acceptable temperature threshold are received, the system issues an alert.
More frequent beaconing means management can now be alerted to the problem within 10 or 15 minutes after the temperature of a particular refrigerator began to rise—either because it was faulty, or due to someone leaving the door open. That faster response time could save the hospital the cost of replacing the refrigerated contents, AeroScout indicates.
"If the refrigerator door was open a few hours, everything in it could be lost," Cook explains. "That microscopic visibility catches problems while they can still be addressed," says Steffan Haithcox, AeroScout's senior director of marketing.
To date, Health First has installed 2,500 tags to assets at the three hospitals. It now has tags on 170 refrigerator and freezer units. Since the initial installation, two years ago, the time workers spend searching for a missing infusion pump has dropped from an average of 30 minutes to just a few minutes, Haithcox says. The company is now working to improve the pumps' utilization rate, which was determined to be about 35 percent. It hopes to bring the rate up to almost twice that number, by using data from the RTLS to identify which pumps are rarely used, or where there may be delays in the cleaning process.
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"The alert is great for efficiency and for patient safety," Cook states. It ensures items don't need to go through the cleaning process twice because they didn't flow properly the first time, and it could save a patient from receiving treatment from soiled equipment.
Approximately 18 months ago, the hospital installed the system's temperature-monitoring function for its coolers at all three hospitals. Each refrigerator is equipped with an AeroScout temperature-monitoring tag with a temperature sensor. After some discussion between Health First and AeroScout, it was decided that rather than having the temperature tags beacon at a rate of every 12 hours (the frequency at which the refrigerators had been checked manually prior to the system's deployment), they would be set to beacon every five minutes. If several readings outside of the acceptable temperature threshold are received, the system issues an alert.
More frequent beaconing means management can now be alerted to the problem within 10 or 15 minutes after the temperature of a particular refrigerator began to rise—either because it was faulty, or due to someone leaving the door open. That faster response time could save the hospital the cost of replacing the refrigerated contents, AeroScout indicates.
To date, Health First has installed 2,500 tags to assets at the three hospitals. It now has tags on 170 refrigerator and freezer units. Since the initial installation, two years ago, the time workers spend searching for a missing infusion pump has dropped from an average of 30 minutes to just a few minutes, Haithcox says. The company is now working to improve the pumps' utilization rate, which was determined to be about 35 percent. It hopes to bring the rate up to almost twice that number, by using data from the RTLS to identify which pumps are rarely used, or where there may be delays in the cleaning process.
