The Health Care RFID Blog

A recent in-depth study conducted by Cummings, Anderson and Kaye indicates a 1% rise in hand hygiene compliance (HHC) equals a $39K savings for the hospital. Models were set up to simulate several occurrences of hand-hygiene noncompliance by a single healthcare worker. According to the article, “Hand Hygiene Noncompliance and the Cost of Hospital-Acquired Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infection”, Hand hygiene noncompliance events are associated with significant attributable hospital costs. Minimal improvements in compliance lead to substantial savings. The study used two different models:

1.       Events of noncompliance with patients of an unknown MRSA status (results: associated with 42 MRSA infections (Cost resulting in nearly $1,000,000 in cost to the hospital)

2.       Events with a known MRSA patient followed by events of an unknown MRSA patient (results: associated with 980 MRSA infections)(Cost resulting in nearly $22,000,000 in cost to the hospital)

The cost savings involved with an HHC solution are immense. With the data collected by Cummings, Anderson and Kaye and an analysis of their findings by a partner of DCC below are the conclusions that have been discovered:

·         1% increase in HHC = $200 savings per bed / year; 100% HHC = nearly $10k savings per bed / year

·         A conservative 25% increase in HHC should equate to $5k per bed / year or $1M total for a 200 bed hospital

·         Assume 500k CCM beds in the US times $10k per bed / year = $5B / year CMS problem.

o     The Hi-Tech act “hopes” that EMRs will save $1.7B per year over 10 years

o     A 25% HHC increase would result in $2.5B savings per year (forever)

o    $2.5B is a 50% GREATER savings than Hi-Tech and saves 50,000 lives per year forever

RFID and RTLS technology has the ability to track each and every occurrence within a facility whether compliant or noncompliant. The HHC solution uses sensors in soap dispensing units that have the ability to read staff badges in real time in an effort to monitor each and every interaction with the patient. If a staff member is noncompliant one or more of the below actions can be taken:

·         Automatic email to a supervisor

·         Audible message in the room

·         VoIP “please wash hands”

·         Send message to handheld devices

·         Specific actions possible as requested

This solution is highly customizable and can be configured to work with each individual organizations needs. The HHC solution offered by DCC is highly reliable, affordable and beneficial to healthcare organizations seeking to improve care, reduce costs and minimize risks. “This is an example of how innovative technologies are transforming the way we deliver care. Everyone is a stakeholder,” Farida Ali, DCC CEO.

As HIMSS10 came to a close today there was a lot of buzz involving new technologies that can achieve measurable value and help improve care, reduce costs and minimize risks in the industry. Hospitals and other healthcare organizations are in major need of achieving “real” ROI from the software and hardware tools that they will be implementing in an effort to reach their 2015 goal for compliance. It is important for organizations to look at implementing the right technologies that can help them sustain ROI over time.

Patient tracking seemed to be a major buzz at HIMSS10. Patient tracking is a more unique solution than asset tracking in that it involves moving assets. (Patients) A patient tracking solution consists of granularity and a much faster refresh rate than an asset tracking solution. If a quick refresh rate and a high level of granularity are absent then the patients will be out of sight before the appropriate staff is notified. Dynamic Computer Corporation offers a variety of solutions using RFID (Radio frequency identification) and RTLS (real-time location systems) technologies that can automatically update location and status information of patients in as little as 3-second intervals. Healthcare organizations have options when implementing RTLS and RFID systems into their infrastructure. There are both wired and Wi-Fi technologies available to implement a successful patient tracking solution. Wi-Fi solutions use Wi-Fi-enabled tags that interact and communicate with access points within a building to define their location over an existing 802.11 wireless infrastructure. Wired solutions use IR (infrared) and RFID technologies that communicate to determine the ultimate location of a patient in real-time. Much like a wireless access point, wired solutions can either use IR and/or RF antennas to communicate with a tag in real time as a patient moves about the facility.

Another topic buzzing around HIMSS10 was how to get smaller hospitals and healthcare organizations on board with implementing EHRs. Data standardization is extremely important and will need to be clearly defined and seamless in order for the industry as a whole to achieve meaningful use objectives. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as we all know, includes $19 billion in grants and loans available to healthcare organizations in an effort to aid in implementing an infrastructure and processes to improve care, reduce costs and minimize risks. Along with funding comes choosing the right solution for each individual organizations needs. Smaller clinics with less staff will have a problem keeping up with manual data entry processes. RFID and RTLS solutions can eliminate the need for manual entry and let the staff focus on providing quality patient care and sustaining financial stability and compliance with standardization.

With emerging technologies come advantages and disadvantages. It is important to determine what individual requirements fit your organizations needs when evaluating each solution. Dynamic has the ability to customize a solution that will not only take into consideration your current pains but will also help you plan for your future needs.

In the last few days there has been a lot of talk in the health care industry surrounding President Obama’s most recent health care proposal.  The year-long effort, and the fourth proposal, is focused on making health care more affordable, making health insurers more accountable, expanding healthcare coverage to all Americans and making the health system sustainable. A large portion of the proposal focuses on reforming health care insurance—designed to reduce the cost of healthcare for patients.  Moreover, Title III of the proposal, “Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Health Care,” includes incentivizing doctors, nurses and hospitals to improve care and reduce unnecessary errors that harm patients.

While the government focuses on roping in costs and incentives to improve patient care, what are healthcare providers doing to help meet these objectives?

Some of the most costly healthcare issues are healthcare acquired infections (HAIs). Annually, HAIs are estimated to affect more than 1.7 million patients, kill 99,000 patients, and cost between $35 billion and $45 billion. Under the new federal reimbursement policy, payment for care required as a result of HAIs will no longer be approved, making prevention urgently important to the bottom line. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HAIs are a top 10 cause of death in America.

One of the simplest ways HAIs can be prevented is by medical personnel properly washing their hands. 

While Washington works on the insurance issues, health care providers are looking to health information technology (HIT), including RFID solutions, to help reduce cost, minimize risks and improve patient care now.  One of the best ways to prevent HAIs is hand-washing, and one of the easiest ways to ensure compliance is to back it with technology.

The hand-hygiene solution provided by Dynamic, built on Versus’ IR-RF technology, consists of badges, ceiling sensors and soap/sanitizer dispensers retrofitted with sensors. When a person dispenses soap or sanitizer, the sensor reads the ID badge and timestamps the occurrence.  If a badged person approaches a patient prior to handwashing, the system alerts the individual audibly. The information is stored in a database for reporting and is easily integrated with other systems.

The system effectively addresses hand-hygiene compliance by automatically capturing hand-washing data in the background, 24-7. It alerts staff on compliance in real time, allowing hospitals to prevent adverse events before they occur. The system tracks who washed their hands and when. 

Other RFID and RTLS solutions, such as patient tracking, medication tracking and lab tracking can help bring down the costs of healthcare by ensuring costly errors are not made. Let Washington worry about insurance reform and healthcare providers can focus on how to reduce costs, minimize risks and most important, improve patient care with HIT.

Do You Know How Your Organization Can Get a Piece of the Pie?

On Friday, Feb. 12, the White House announced nearly $1 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds designated for healthcare providers to use toward the implementation of health information technology (HIT) and to train thousands of workers for healthcare jobs. According to an article in HealthLeaders Media, these funds are expected to help make HIT available to more than 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and to support the training of thousands of people for careers in healthcare and HIT. Of the $1 billion allocated for this initiative, $750 million is set aside in grant awards that will help enable more healthcare providers to have access to HIT and help facilitate healthcare providers’ adoption of electronic health records (EHRs).

With HIMSS 2010 right around the corner, funding will certainly be top of mind for healthcare providers looking at thousands of different HIT options. Do you know how to go about getting these funds for your organization? Do you know the types of HIT implementations that are eligible to receive these funds?

It’s somewhat ironic that so many exciting – and cost-saving – technologies are available to serve the health care industry, including advanced RFID and RTLS solutions, but in these economic times many health systems have been forced to cut technology investments. The White House announcement provides more opportunity for health care organizations to go beyond EMR implementation and look for additional HIT that will help drive efficiencies and ultimately improve patient care. Because the RFID/RTLS technology solutions that Dynamic Computer provides can greatly reduce costs, minimize risks and improve patient care, many of our prospects are eligible for these grants, but likely not aware of the guidelines.

In a past blog post we introduced our partnership with IMGrants, a funding research program offered by Ingram Micro to qualified resellers.  This relationship affords us the ability to help you identify, apply for and maximize federal funds, including those that are a result of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, as well as state and foundation grant sources for projects. IMGrants is helping us connect healthcare providers with the money they need to improve their bottom lines and delivery of service.

Through our IMGrants partnership we can help you answer your key questions about obtaining grants and the types of HIT eligible for the more than $750 million in new grant funds. We will be at HIMSS10 (booth 2920)and encourage you to stop by to learn more about how Dynamic can help your organization through this dramatic change in the healthcare industry.

HIMSS and ASQ announce 16 “Stories of Success!” case studies

HIMSS and ASQ (American Society for Quality) recently announced the selection of 16 real-world and peer-reviewed case studies that have been selected as Stories of Success! Introduced in October 2009, the Stories of Success! case-study program showcases outstanding accomplishments in the adoption and use of information technology to achieve improved patient safety, quality, effectiveness and efficiency. The call for case studies highlights the fulfillment of the national priorities established by the National Priorities Partnership (NPP) and The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG).  Is your healthcare organization a success story?

Designed to emphasize the link between improvements in healthcare quality and patient safety and health IT, HIMSS and ASQ chose those who are using IT every day and could identify how technology helps support the six priorities of the National Priorities Partnership and the Joint Commission’s national patient safety goals and priorities.

What are the everyday IT applications that are enabling these healthcare organizations to be recognized as a success story? For one organization, it’s RFID. A few weeks ago we highlighted how RFID can help healthcare providers meet the National Patient Safety Goals in our blog post, “What will JCAHO’s National Patient Safety Goals inspire you to do?” These Success Stories! further emphasize how RFID directly improves patient care by minimizing risks and reducing costs.

What RFID solution would benefit your organization the most? A systems integrator can help you identify where you can reap the most benefits and address the areas that need the most work. As featured in the RFID case study, it is important to start with a targeted area when implementing an RFID solution and identifying what the challenges are and how they can be met before rolling out system wide. Make your organization a success story with RFID!

With the deadline quickly approaching for the implementation of electronic medical records (EMRs), one of the biggest concerns for physicians continues to be the amount of data EMRs require them to enter. Physicians, especially those who may not be particularly “tech savvy,” fear that the extensive data that will need to be entered will slow down the medical charting process.

In a recent guest blog post on KevinMD.com, Dr. Edwin Leap, an emergency physician in South Carolina, highlights frustration that both he and many other physicians are expressing about EMRs, primarily in regard to charting and improving patient care. Because EMRs offer the capability of holding so much information, beyond that of traditional charts, more data entry is required and can be time consuming if entered manually. While the industry as a whole can see the benefits of EMRs at the end of the day, if the process becomes too cumbersome, will it fail?

EMR data entry can be simplified by implementing RFID and RTLS systems alongside EMRs and creating interoperability. With RFID and RTLS working hand-in-hand with EMRs, a change or pause in work flow is not required in order to enter and share patient information, nor will it add extra duties to staff and clinicians. At Dynamic, we agree with physicians in that manual data entry is time consuming. Beyond taking valuable time away from the patients, manual data entry is expensive and prone to many of the same types of human errors found in paper records.

Another benefit to pairing the two technologies is accuracy, which is critical to EMR success. Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) obtained through RFID solutions is accurate without requiring human intervention and seamlessly integrates with EMR systems. This addresses another concern Dr. Leap expressed in his posting, that he spends even more time confirming documentation from nurses and other staff are consistent and entered correctly.

A third benefit to using RFID and RTLS with EMRs is real-time updates. Most EMRs are accessible through Web browsers. Delivering information into the record immediately means that individual patient and facility summary data are available both through EMR systems and through the AIDC system dashboards. These executive dashboards allow clinicians to make informed decisions based upon the most current patient and facility data.

While EMRs require more information than traditional charts do, the result is better patient care if done correctly. While it still may be challenging for physicians who are not open to using the new technology, solutions are available to help make the process less tedious, allowing for doctors to be doctors and nurses to be nurses. Consider RFID and RTLS a form of a personal data capture assistant!

Can using a checklist help prevent infections and even deaths? According to Dr. Atul Gawande, author of, “The Checklist Manifesto: How to get things right,” implementing a checklist in healthcare for undertakings as large as surgery can help prevent healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) and therefore reduce the number of patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) because of infections and even prevent deaths. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HAIs account for about 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths each year and annual costs to U.S. hospitals (adjusted for inflation) range from $28.4 -$33.8 billion to $35.7-$45 billion.

A recent New York Times article appropriately titled, “A hospital how-to guide that mother would love,” gives great background on how Dr. Gawande’s book came to be.  Dr. Peter Pronovost, a critical care specialist at Johns Hopkins medical center in Baltimore borrowed the concept of using a checklist from the aviation industry. He began by first having physicians use it for inserting central lines to prevent subsequent infections and after discovering its great success, applied the same concept to other situations in the ICU, achieving similar results.

Following Dr. Pronovost’s lead, Dr. Gawande launched his own study along with a team of public health experts and surgeons and applied a very similar 19-point checklist to test whether  it would improve surgical care. The eight hospitals involved in the study saw the rate of major postsurgical complications drop by 36 percent in the six months after the checklist was introduced; deaths fell by 47 percent.   

While the results obtained in Dr. Gawande’s study are impressive and prove a very critical point, is the traditional checklist too fundamental? With cutting edge technology at our fingertips, that can go above and beyond reminding healthcare providers of steps to take when administering care, why stop at the checklist? 

Healthcare providers work in incredibly fast paced environments and missing vital steps, such as washing their hands, can lead to HAIs and even deaths. RFID can be viewed as the evolution of a checklist and embraced by the healthcare community as a ‘next generation’ best practice.  For example, the Dynamic hand-hygiene solution serves as an advanced form of a checklist, reminding care givers to wash their hands by not only tracking that they in fact did, but administering an audible signal if they fail to do so before approaching a patient. In addition, RFID applications for patient identification, error reduction at point of care, medications management, and asset and employee tracking ‘check the box’ with every move a provider, patient or asset makes. And, in addition to utilizing RFID as a means to more precise healthcare ‘to do’ management, the RFID is driven by a chain of data conversion events – each one a checkbox in and of itself – resulting in more intelligent and actionable information than a static checklist allows. If Dr. Gawande’s implementation of a checklist helped prevent so many HAIs and save so many lives, imagine what an RFID-enhanced checklist could do!

Meeting the JCAHO National Patient Safety Goals is no small task for any healthcare provider. Knowing JCAHO can call any day to inform you that it will audit your facility seems to be a constant fear in the industry. The JCAHO certification is an absolute MUST to be considered a reputable healthcare provider that provides a safe environment for both patients and staff. The National Patient Safety Goals serve as a scorecard for JCAHO. Healthcare providers must prove they are benchmarking toward these goals and demonstrate the steps they are taking to ensure they meet them in a timely manner.

So where do you start? Looking at a list of eight major initiatives can be intimidating. It is important to take a holistic approach to meeting these goals, not just simply checking them off a list as individual tasks.  At the end of the day, it is essentially one goal: creating an environment that is safe.

Here are a few steps you can take when tackling the 2010 NPSG:

1.       Get in front of it.

•  Don’t wait to receive the call from JCAHO that they may be there any day. Start taking the steps now to achieve these goals.

2.       Identify a strategic third-party partner to help you evaluate the situation.

• Technology is playing a bigger and bigger role in meeting the requirements. Working with a systems integrator like Dynamic can help you identify solutions that meet your needs, within your budget, and can work together to achieve interoperability.

3.       Identify where your strengths and weaknesses are.

• Do a complete site survey. Not everything can be fixed at once and this will help identify what areas need to have the most focus and what areas are working well already.

4.       Evaluate what changes will work for your hospital’s culture.

•  No matter what solutions you implement, if it does not align with your organization’s culture, it will not be adopted. For example, as part of Dynamic’s site survey process, we observe how the staff interacts, where they go to do certain tasks, among other indicators, to help us identify what RFID and RTLS solutions would be appropriate.

5.       Implement changes in phases.

• Dynamic never recommends rolling out a technology solution enterprise-wide. Integrate the solution in the area that needs it most and evaluate the pros and cons so that the solution can be perfected before it is deployed throughout the organization.

As healthcare reform continues to be debated, the role of health information technology continues to evolve alongside it. Hospitals are expected, now more than ever, to meet a growing list of requirements and hot button issues including compliance with various regulatory organizations and federal legislation such as HIPAA, Medicare and Medicaid; and the creation of comprehensive electronic medical records (EMR) and legal health records (LHR). Above all else, the objective on which every member of the health care community must place the most emphasis is increasing patient safety. Today’s healthcare providers are held more accountable and required to provide an environment that improves, and in no circumstance compromises, patients’ health. This, of all mandates, is the one that should not be viewed as ‘policy’…for the dedicated healthcare institution; it is the inspiration for doing what it does.

To help the healthcare industry maintain focus, on January 1 the 2010 National Patient Goals went into effect. Issued by The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO or the Joint Commission), an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, the NPSGs were established to help accredited organizations address specific areas of concern in regards to patient safety. Half of the 2010 National Patient Safety Goals are directly applicable to healthcare organizations like yours, and those goals are as follows:

Goal 1 – Improve the accuracy of patient identification.

Goal 2 – Improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers.

Goal 3 – Improve the safety of using medications.

Goal 7 – Reduce the risk of health care–associated infections.

Goal 8 – Accurately and completely reconcile medications across the continuum

Goal 9 – Reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls.

Goal 14 – Prevent health care–associated pressure ulcers

Goal 15 – The organization identifies safety risks inherent in its patient population.

Are these your organization’s goals? If so, how do you plan on achieving them? Dynamic works with healthcare providers every day to integrate RFID solutions that address several and sometimes all of JCAHO’s stated goals. We work hard to stay in front of industry issues and enlist technology partners that can help our customers address them head on – which is why we don’t feel like we need to ‘catch up’ to these goals each year. In fact, it feels a bit as though they’re catching up to us.

The industry is undergoing significant changes in a short period of time. However, there’s a difference between ‘knowing’ the trends, and ‘understanding’ them, the latter, which requires context and an action plan for applying them to one’s business. The paired adoption of EMR and RFID/RTLS systems holds the highest potential for reducing costs, minimizing risks and improving patient care, and it is this understanding that can drive the industry toward a truly interoperable model.

No surprise, then, that pairing the adoption of an EMR system with RTLS/RFID solutions helps to address many of the top trends identified in the Healthcare Technology Online above.

·         One way RFID can work efficiently with EMRs is to eliminate the need to manually enter data into the system. A change or pause in work flow is not required in order to enter and share patient information, nor will it add extra duties to staff and clinicians. Manual data entry is time consuming, expensive and prone to many of the same types of human error as found in paper records.

·         A second benefit to pairing the two technologies is accuracy, which is critical to EMR success. Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) obtained through use of RFID solutions is accurate without requiring human intervention and seamlessly integrates with EMR systems. The best systems are accurate 100 percent of the time, with no missed events and no false positives, and they accept information in real time.

·         A third benefit is real-time updates. Most EMRs are accessible through Web browsers. Delivering information into the record immediately means that individual patient and facility summary data are available both through EMR systems and through the AIDC system dashboards. These executive dashboards allow clinicians to make informed decisions based upon the most-current patient and facility data.

As staff and budgets continue to be slashed throughout the sector, HIT is not just important – it is paramount in order to do more – and better — with less. By staying ahead of industry trends and working with the best-in-class vendors, Dynamic is able to provide cutting-edge technology and precise solutions to help healthcare providers meet both predicted – and unpredictable — challenges on the horizon  in the year ahead.