The Health Care RFID Blog

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.

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.

It’s that time when sages come out of the woodwork to take all the surprise out of the year ahead, and tell us what is going to occur. Whether in technology, health care, economics or fashion trends, you’re sure to read an article or two about what’s on the horizon for your industry or an area of interest. How often, though, are those predictions something you already know?  For the astute business leader or consumer, regardless of sector, many of these forecasts reiterate (albeit in one tidy list)  the growing body of evidence proving a ‘trend’ that they’ve already read, heard and talked about over the last 12 months.

Despite this, it is admittedly invigorating when the passionate, third-party endorsement of ‘something-to-watch’ actually validates what you already do.  Separate surveys conducted by Healthcare IT News and ABI point, respectively, to continued focus in 2010 on a truly integrated medical records system and RFID as a streamlining technology in the health care setting.  While these ideas are obviously not news, that doesn’t mean we don’t sit up and take notice when our – or our customers’ — businesses become the focal point of industry buzz.

According to Healthcare IT News survey results published in an article this month, the push under the federal stimulus package to encourage the adoption of EHRs received the most votes as the top 2009 HIT trend likely to continue to have the most impact in 2010. The push received 30 percent of the vote among a list of eight choices, with growing concern over privacy and security placing second (with 15% of the vote).

It stands to reason that if EHRs are going to be on even more tips-of-tongues in 2010 than in 2009, that the discussion around data integrity increases in volume, too. An EHR system is only as good as the quality of information that goes into it. Typical EHR protocols assume a world where end-users log on to web-based applications and type data or, in some cases, scan barcodes, then confirm and enter…all which bring ‘human’ and ‘error’ together more often than necessary, in light of RFID data collection solutions.   

So, how do we get the ‘buzz’ in 2010 focused on solutions to these challenges, rather than the challenges, themselves?

Let’s start with the Advance for Health Information Executives Dec. 14^th article that cites recent ABI research calling out three RFID ‘hot spots’ for 2010. Of these three hot spots, Dynamic has consistently been at the forefront of integrating two of them into our health care customers systems –  and they just so happen to address key driving factors in the EHR debate, improved patient care and cost savings:

·         Hot Spot 1 - Asset tracking and management: The ABI research mirrors what Dynamic knows; that RFID shows particular applicability to medical assets tracking. Using RFID technology eliminates time wasted searching for supplies and equipment, allowing nurses and doctors to focus on patients. In context of EHRs, this application of RFID can complement efforts to improve quality, safety, efficiency and care coordination within an enterprise.

·         Hot Spot 2 - Active RFID-based solutions: Active RFID, including real-time location systems (RTLS), is expected to have solid growth in a number of vertical markets, including health care, according to the research. With efficiencies and resulting cost savings central to the argument for EHRs, health care organizations should exercise due diligence and explore complementary technologies that can drive further efficiencies.  Leading edge hospitals across the nation have already saved millions of dollars in equipment and labor costs by instituting a real-time view into where and with who their precious assets are.

We don’t need 2010 trends research to tell us that EHRs will be a conversation piece in the year ahead, but it is interesting that these two independent pieces of research – when viewed side-by-side – corroborate the Dynamic RFID solutions value proposition. We take pride in helping our health care customers get in front of emerging industry issues by closely monitoring their organizations and how our RFID solutions can support their patient care and business objectives…all year long.