The Health Care RFID Blog

With the H1N1 epidemic last year and flu season returning healthcare organizations will need to be prepared. With several outbreaks happening within hospitals it is important for healthcare workers to abide by the guidelines set by the CDC in regards to proper hand-hygiene practices.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) and Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) have the ability to not only monitor the compliance of hand-hygiene but also have the ability to aid in reminding the staff to wash their hands in high stress situations. An RFID hand-hygiene solution offers a simple tool that follows the guidelines set forth by the CDC.

With Medicare and Medicaid cutting back reimbursements in regards to patient re-admittance, due to the growing number of Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs), healthcare organizations will have to take extra measures to prevent the spread of influenza this fall.

Is your organization ready to combat the flu season?

On Tuesday the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) issued the “final rule” outlining the guidelines and standards of a successful EMR implementation. The leader of these efforts, David Blumenthal, MD, National Coordinator for HIT, stated that the rule is primarily intended to address financial barriers and benefits of implementing an electronic medical record (EMR) system.

With this rule came incentives for physicians and hospitals, extending some flexibility in criteria required to qualify for the billions in federal funding made available with the meaningful use initiative. In regards to flexibility, a “core” plan has been set. All healthcare professionals and hospitals will be required to reach a “core” set of mandatory objectives and then will have the liberty to pick and choose five additional objectives from a supplementary group. With the achievement levels and quality measures reduced, it will be much easier for physicians and healthcare organizations to gain access to grant funding for their IT projects. The goal here is to get everyone onboard quickly so that when more sophisticated uses of electronic records become available it will be easier to adapt. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be rewarding users of EMRs with monetary incentive payments made available through the 2009 economic stimulus funds.

Dr. Don Berwick, head of the CMS, mentioned that properly modernized healthcare can bring tremendous benefits to improving the quality of care and workflow processes creating a much smother shift while also reducing costs. Healthcare organizations staff and patients will all benefit with modern HIT in terms of improving safety, care, transparency while also reducing costs.

Kathleen Sebelius, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, noted that the standards of the rule have been designed to work for all healthcare organizations large and small and that having better health information can save lives. The main concept of this rule is to improve the quality of care while keeping down costs. President Obama has a goal to have an electronic record for all Americans in 2014.

With the healthcare industry in the spotlight; state, local and federal agencies have been spending the past year focusing on finding cutting edge technologies that will aid in improving care, reducing costs and minimizing risks.

Efficiency is going to be the key to improving the bottom line. A great place for an organization to start maximizing efficiencies would be to improve visibility. Using automated interactive electronic monitoring with RFID and RTLS technologies can greatly improve visibility. The image below is a snapshot of a unit map that is set up to refresh every 3 seconds.

Scenario

A patient in the emergency room is being discharged; the nurse (blue box) needs to locate a wheelchair (red boxes) which should be kept in the ”medical equipment storage” room. The nurse would then travel to the ”medical equipment storage” room and find that there is not a wheelchair present. At this point the nurse may end-up trying to locate the chair for several minutes. With an RFID/RTLS system in place the nurse can visit a central station (green box) and identify the location of the wheelchairs throughout the facility in real time. This process would then eliminate the time wasted and improve efficiency.

Snapshot of Unit Map

Visibility is a great place for healthcare organizations to start their quest to eliminating unnecessary steps and the costs associated with the time lost from taking the steps.  Using RFID and RTLS technology is the easiest way to make sure that every “trip” someone makes results in the procurement of the physical asset being sought.

Setting standards throughout the industry and within the individual organizations will prove to be a solution to maximizing efficiencies and reducing unnecessary costs.

The Journal of the American Medical Association has been covering the topic of infection control practices heavily over the past several months. In an article posted recently, Infection Control Practices in Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs), it was reported that a couple of ASCs in the Nevada area were directly tied to the largest healthcare associated infection (HAI) breakout linked with hepatitis C in the nation’s history. Kevin B. O’Reilly, an amednews writer, noted recently that a 28-count criminal indictment was filed against the staff members involved in this breakout.

The Center for Disease Controls (CDC) infection control hand hygiene guidelines observation tool was used to conduct an inspection of ASCs nationwide. After the initial random inspections the ASCs that displayed extremely noncompliant practices faced reinspection. 68% of the facilities had a reported lapse in their infection control practices with 19% associated to poor hand-hygiene after the reinspection. The study flirts with the idea that millions of patients as well as healthcare workers across the United States are potentially at a high risk of contracting an HAI every year.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be limiting financial reimbursement to hospitals for patients that have been readmitted within 30 days after discharge. With these restrictions being made healthcare workers will need to comply with all standard prevention procedures in order to help maintain the financial status of the organization. If an outbreak occurs like the outbreak in Nevada the healthcare organization involved will have no chance of surviving the financial ramifications. With more people projected to go through the system, Medicare reimbursements falling and no funds available for expansion what will healthcare organizations do in an effort to prevent HAIs?

How do “you” plan to account for the people that need your service when:

• Medicare reimbursements are falling?
• more people are projected to go through the system?
• no funds are available for expansion?

Why is it that in a high-tech environment low-tech is abundant? Some critics argue that Health Information Technology (HIT) has become stagnant as technology moves forward. In an article published by the Harvard Business Review, Has the U.S. Health Technology Sector Run Out of Gas?, writer Jeff Goldsmith says, “Today, our medical technology sector seems to have become mired in a lengthening period of creative menopause which not only threatens its economic foundations, but its global leadership position.”

The innovation behind EMRs has seemed to have stalled, why? Experts might say that this is happening due to the high industry failure rate (30-40%). With the 2015 goal for full implementation of EMRs the manufacturers of these systems will need to come up with a seamless solution. Changing the culture of any business is difficult for professionals that have been doing things the same way for a period of time. In order for any industry to change their operations a system will need to be tailored to fit the specific needs of each individual entity in order to have everyone on board.

In an article written by Stephen J. Dubner titled, “Is this the answer to Hospital-Acquired Infections?” , he mentions that it has been 10 years since first talks about the HAI (Hospital Acquired Infections) problem that the healthcare industry is now faced with and that in that ten years the problem has not gotten any better. But whose fault is it?

Many people like to place the blame on doctors, but in reality all healthcare workers should be held accountable. Trying to hold a single person and/or group accountable for something that is not tracked is impossible. Healthcare organizations need to start taking advantage of technologies that can aid in improving hand-hygiene compliance. Singling out one group, which will constantly be changing, will only be a temporary fix. Why not use technology as a tool to improve procedures?

Hospitals and other healthcare organizations should start implementing these new technologies in an effort to help change old habits and adopt new ones. Using technology to help mold a new culture within the healthcare industry would be a great start to improving the number of HAI incidents reported.

Now that the HAI problem has become visible to the public, hospitals, clinics and other healthcare organizations will need to start taking actions in an effort to improve compliance. RFID (radio frequency identification) and RTLS (real-time location systems) solutions have the ability to track compliance in real-time holding each healthcare worker accountable for themselves. Although there may be other variables involved in contracting nosocomial infections, improving hand-hygiene practices would show a significant increase in the annual improvement rate.

As we all know proper hand hygiene in hospitals is an essential part in the prevention of hospital acquired infections (HAIs). Some physicians say that the use of gloves promotes poor hand washing practice within the organization. What are your thoughts?

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.