Ask any Head of Nursing where all her OR nurses are right now, and she'll probably just laugh at you. Or ask a Materials Manager how many wheelchairs his hospital has and where they all are at the moment, and he'll no doubt think you're slightly deranged.

But bring in an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) Mobile Asset Tracking System, and you can get all the answers, accurately, in just minutes. This technology allows hospital administrators to locate a piece of portable equipment simply by clicking on a computer screen.

RFID Asset Tracking of mobile assets is just starting to be utilized by the healthcare community, but it's a technology that's sure to gain greater acceptance in the years to come. That's because it can keep real-time tabs on not just equipment, but people -- right down to the infants in the nursery.

As far as mobile equipment goes, experts say that approximately 30% of hospitals' mobile assets are not available at any given time because they are hoarded by staff members, or stored away without any record of the location -- or simply forgotten. In the past, hospital staff -- especially in larger facilities -- would waste a lot of time searching for equipment and often found themselves buying extra simply because they could not find something. Since the early 2000s, a growing number of hospitals have been using RFID Asset Tracking to better account for their mobile inventory.

According to a report by Gartner Research, Inc. entitled, "RFID Enables Sensory Network Strategies to Transform Industries," worldwide RFID spending currently amounts to $504 million and will surpass $3 billion by 2010. This technology, currently employed by 5 to 10 percent of hospitals throughout the United States, is comprised of RFID tags that emit radio signals that are captured and displayed on a computer screen. The display typically shows the hospital's floor plan, and a coordinate grid shows the location of the assets on a particular floor.

The tags indicate whether or not the equipment is in use and the software can provide the location history of the equipment. Hospital administrators can determine whether the equipment has been used frequently or infrequently. Equipment that has been idle or used marginally can then be sold, often on the Internet, in order to recover the value of the asset. A recent BearingPoint survey of 313 health care organizations found that more than 70% said that RFID would improve health care processes.


The ability to track assets can improve the bottom line

MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS

Clients can customize how signals can report information, and add new assets into the tracking system as they go along. "Many hospitals will install RTLS (real time location system) tracking for valuable devices like intravenous pumps, ventilators, EKG equipment, and then find RFID useful for other materials such as wheelchairs, personal computer carts, and PDAs," says Judson Vaughn, Marketing Manager of Eckahau, Inc. If a hospital has equipment on lease, the system can query its inventory to find which pieces are due back at the end of the month in order to avoid late fees," he adds. In the event of a product recall, hospitals could use RFID to instantly gather equipment quickly -- virtually eliminating any chance of using an outdated or defective device. The RFID system can also be programmed to sound an emergency signal or turn on emergency lighting when dangerous conditions occur.

RFID can also be used to track human beings. A person can wear a lanyard necklace or wristband containing a tag -- which typically weighs less than two ounces and measures 2.5 inches by 1 inch. RFID can be used to monitor nurses in patient-care areas. With a time-stamp feature, the tag can be used to determine when a nurse visited a specific patient's room. Many devices contain a panic button, which can be useful to keep tabs on Alzheimer's patients.

KEEP AN EYE ON BABY

"RFID, when used in the nurseries, has actually helped a lot. It helps reinforce our Manages Security Risk standard, which states hospitals and health care organizations must identify and manage all security risks by implementing security procedures that address the handling of an infant or pediatric abduction as applicable," states Susie McBeth, MT(ASCP), MS, MPH, Associate Director, Department of Standards Interpretation at JCAHO. Parents who know their child cannot be taken from the nursery without setting off an alert greatly appreciate the peace-of-mind that brings.

RFID tracking proves especially useful when family members come to visit a loved one who is hospitalized. Says Linda Laskowski-Jones, R.N., Director of Trauma, Emergency and Aeromedical Services at a nationally ranked hospital, "[Before the implementation of RFID technology], in the time it took to get information into the department's system the patient might have been moved more than once. We would send the family to a room but their mom might be in radiology getting a CT scan. Now we have a higher level of confidence that we know where patients are."

SATISFIED PATIENTS, SATISFIED DOCTORS

Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware recently implemented Versus Technologies' Amelior Tracker software. Their emergency department has been able to track 100% of patients, decrease average length of stay by 20-45 minutes and reduce patient walkouts by 24% due to faster response times. During the first flu season using automatic tracking, patient turnaround time decreased 5% despite an 8% increase in patient volume.

A pilot study about the effectiveness of RFID technologies at Brigham Young led by Michael Fraai, BWH Director of Biomedical Engineering, tracked several hundred valuable devices including external pacers, telemetry transmitters and 12-lead cables. The study reported high levels of staff satisfaction; doctors and nurses could spend more time with patients instead of foraging for equipment. Analysis showed a 50% reduction in losses of the pilot's tracked equipment.

SAFETY=LESS LIABILITY=MORE MONEY

RFID labels help enforce JCAHO -- Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations -- and HIPAA security standards. A bar coded wristband can provide two forms of identification in one easy-to-access place by encoding the patient name and identification number. Including two forms of patient ID on the wristband satisfies JCAHO National Patient Safety Goals and aids HIPAA compliance, because information encoded in a bar code instead of being shown in text satisfies HIPAA privacy requirements. The patient may be identified by encoding his or her name in the wristband, or by assigning a random, unique patient ID number that can be encoded and printed in human-readable text. This approach satisfies both JCAHO and HIPAA requirements.

By providing a record of equipment use, RFID's make it easier for accountants to determine the appreciation and depreciation of assets funded by government grant money. More accurate cost reporting makes a hospital a better candidate for future grant money.


TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF DEVICES

Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) technologies like Aeroscout, Ekahau and PanGo operate through a hospital's standard 802.11 WiFi network to provide accurate information about real-time location. Sometimes hospitals need to install more WiFi access points. RTLS uses infrastructure already in place, meaning that no additional network hardware, wiring or readers are required. The standards-based technology eliminates the high costs and long wait-time associated with the installation of a new, proprietary cable system. With lower deployment costs, hospitals can see a faster return on investment and benefit more from their existing network.

Other types of asset tracking devices, such as those manufactured by RF Post and Radianse, use a dedicated RFID network which has a frequency of 433 MHz. The advantage of this type of system is that it can track a higher quantity of assets in a shorter amount of time. One can add new devices to the system without having to worry about a drain on the network from multiple pieces of equipment talking to the same access point at the same time in busy areas such as the Intensive Care Unit and the Operating Room. A dedicated RFID network furthermore is immune from outside interferences such as those generated by construction projects. Asset tracking devices operating through RFID systems additionally have a longer battery life.

Whichever system or vendor a hospital chooses, the ability to track mobile assets will improve critical healthcare services, and can improve bottom-line results.