Early in-house studies conducted by Shands at the University of Florida (UF&Shands), a health system operated by the University of Florida, indicates that an asset-tracking solution installed at its three facilities in Gainesville has reduced the number of hours that its emergency department staff spends searching for missing equipment by 98 percent. Shands at UF is employing an asset-management solution provided by AeroScout, a division of Stanley Healthcare Solutions, to track approximately 1,000 assets across five departments, by means of AeroScout’s battery-powered Wi-Fi RFID tags. The hospital is also in the midst of carrying out a proof-of-concept test at all three facilities, involving about 200 AeroScout temperature-sensing RFID tags.
The health-care group initially sought asset-tracking technology to help workers locate computers on wheeled carts, which they used as they met with patients, according to Brad Kowal, Shands’ director of data centers and RTLS technologies. The group looked for a system that would leverage its existing Cisco Wi-Fi-based network, and selected the AeroScout system in 2009.
At the time, Shands was in the process of constructing its new 500,000-square-foot south tower—the site for the Shands Cancer Hospital—across the street from its existing Gainesville facility, and chose to install a system at the new site for a proof-of-concept test. While the initial interest had been to track computers on wheeled carts, Kowal says, his team determined that it made more sense to first test the solution within an enclosed environment (rather than throughout an entire hospital), and thus selected the emergency department in the new south tower. In 2010, the group applied AeroScout RFID tags to defibrillators and other equipment, for a total of 250 tagged items. Each tag’s ID number was linked to that item’s description and serial number in the AeroScout MobileView software. Individuals searching for a particular piece of equipment could input its description in the software and view its location on a hospital map.
After using the system for approximately six months, Kowal’s team found that there was a 98 percent reduction in search time for missing items when the RFID tags were deployed. Hospital management then proceeded to install the technology within its north tower, as well as at a third location known as the medical plaza. The expansion occurred at the end of 2011 and early 2012, Kowal says.
Additional items were also tagged, the hospital reports, such as C-arm X-ray imaging devices, Doppler and electrocardiography (EKG) machines, scopes, stretchers and wheelchairs. AeroScout’s T3 tamper-resistant asset tags are being employed for the computers on wheels, while the basic AeroScout T2 tags are being utilized to monitor other assets, says Steffan Haithcox, Stanley Healthcare Solutions’ marketing VP. All data was then stored in the MobileView software residing on Shands’ database.
This year, Kowal says, the search began for a temperature-tracking system. In this case, although MobileView software was being used for asset management, the hospital already had a Johnson Controls building-management system, based on the BACnet automation protocol, that it wanted to continue using. The facilities’ managers had been utilizing data culled from wired sensors to monitor the temperatures within its numerous temperature-controlled areas, but hoped to employ a wireless solution that would reduce the cost of wiring. After meeting with Stanley Healthcare Solutions, Kowal says, he found that the MobileView software data could be forwarded over the BACnet system to the existing Johnson Controls software, using middleware supplied by building automation protocol gateway company FieldServer Technologies Corp.
This summer, Shands of UF began carrying out a proof-of-concept deployment using AeroScout T5 temperature tags placed in nitrogen refrigerators, as well as others installed within some rooms, in order to compare the wireless sensors’ ambient temperature readings against those of the existing wired sensors. If Shands finds that the wireless sensors work well, Kowal says, it plans to apply AeroScout’s solution to additional temperature-controlled areas within its buildings.
The T5 tags measure temperature and then forward that data via a Wi-Fi connection to the back-end system, where the MobileView software interprets that information and sends it to the Johnson Controls software, by means of the BACnet protocol. In this way, Kowal explains, the system sees the wireless sensor data in exactly the same way as it does the wired sensor data, and stores and displays the temperature readings accordingly.
“So far,” Kowal states, “the results are excellent.”
The asset-management system is now being used to track approximately 1,000 assets, with a combined value of $1.1 million, across five departments: the emergency department, pediatrics, the burn unit, radiology and the transportation department.
The transportation department has already begun using the technology to improve its operations. When a request is made for a wheelchair or a stretcher, an employee can access the MobileView system and view all items’ locations. The software is programmed to detect whether or not an asset is in use at any given moment, based on that object’s movement history, and indicate its status onscreen. In that way, the department can then determine which closest wheelchair or stretcher is available, and assign it to be retrieved.
“You can’t do these things without technology like this,” Kowal says. “We find we’re getting great benefits from it.”