The Health Care RFID Blog

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.

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.

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!

The problem with a recent Washington Post headline declaring “Electronic medical records not seen as a cure-all,” is its flawed premise. While EMRs (electronic medical records) will improve safety and prevent errors among other benefits, they are not a defining solution for creating a leaner, faster health care industry…in fact, nothing is.

Hospitals must manage multiple business processes, just like any other business. This includes management of patient records, medical equipment, medication administration, tracking of lab samples and of patients from admission to discharge. Of all these processes, EMRs have been under the microscope due to the federal stimulus package mandates;  related dialogue about technology that meets the package’s still uncertain ‘meaningful use’ objectives; and reports that some physicians are frustrated with EMRs because the technology is disrupting their daily workflow.

What has not been discussed as publicly is RFID, a radio frequency-driven infrastructure that tracks workflow and elevates EMRs beyond data entry to precise data capture.  Health care organizations with foresight have installed these location and sensing technologies to track patient flow, clinical staff, and critical equipment in real time, and with great success and minimal disruption.  Far from the productivity-drain physicians have reported from EMRs, RFID in the health care setting:

• gives you back the time you previously used to determine room, bed, or equipment availability.
• enables health care providers to see more patients in less time.
• eliminates patient waiting and increases the availability of staff and resources.
• improving patient safety by identifying and eliminating sources of infection.

Absolutely, the time is now for digitized healthcare. And, yes, your health care institution should implement EMRs. But you are missing out on significant cost and risk reductions and improved patient care if you have focused solely on the EMR imperative and failed to consider how RFID can integrate with EMR and achieve meaningful-use outcomes, too. 

Henry Tenarvitz, addressing the GDAHC audience

Henry Tenarvitz, Chief Intellectual Property Officer of Versus Technology, was one of the three speakers at the Greater Detroit Area Health Council Coffee & Controversy session yesterday. The topic was “Meaningful use beyond EMRs: Health IT trends to improve quality and patient safety.”

Ternarvitz spoke about hospitals using RTLS solutions for improving quality, safety, and efficiency. He explained that the data provided by real-time locating technology results in significant cost savings and improvements in patient care.

Tenarvitz demonstrated how with Versus’ system, hospitals use infrared-radio frequency (IR-RF)-enabled staff, patient & equipment tags to know exactly where people and assets are located with 99.9% accuracy. The system then marries this real-time data with a set of business rules to automatically update electronic systems with key information.

Below, two screenshots Tenarvitz showed the audience demonstrate how the information can be viewed by staff (these are only two of the several key views). The first shows an electronic greaseboard with the most current patient status information.

Versus E-Greaseboard

The second shows a color-coded floorplan view, which shows staff the status of rooms and facilities at a glance. Both of these views are automatically updated using passively collected data from the IR-RF tags.

Versus Floorplan View, showing color-coded room status

The following is a list of outcomes Tenarvitz reported from Versus’ case studies.

• Increased the number of patient care rooms by 150% without adding staff.
• Decreased ED wait times by over 60 minutes or more.
• Automated room turnover based on patient discharge and “room clean” status.
• Decreased room cleaning times to 24.6 minutes.
• Increased bed capacity by 25% with enhanced patient flow.
• Eliminated clinic waiting rooms, automated staff communication.
• Reduced phone calls by 75% creating quieter healing environments.
• Decreased equipment search time from 2 hrs. to <5 min.
• Decreased annual property loss from $1.5M to $40K.
• Alleviated equipment hoarding and nurse frustrations regarding equipment availability.
• Reduced the number of miles nurses log during their shifts by a ½ mile.
• Identified staff requiring prophylaxis after short, forgotten interactions with infectious patients.
• Increase hand washing tracking/compliance
• Increased Efficiency/Communication/Safety
• Automated 3rd Party Systems (E-greaseboards, reporting, Pyxis Medication Units)

The two case studies that were discussed in detail were St. Joseph Hospital (PeaceHealth) in Bellingham, WA. and the St. Louis VA Medical Center in St. Louis MO.

Contact us to learn more about these case studies, or to learn about Versus’ RTLS solutions for process improvement.

Dynamic Computer Corporation is an authorized systems integrator of Versus Technology RTLS solutions.

Wednesday, Oct. 14 (tomorrow) morning from 7:30 - 9:30 am, Dynamic Computer Corporation is sponsoring a Coffee & Controversy session with the Greater Detroit Area Health Council at the Skyline Club in Southfield, Mich. The topic is “Meaningful Use Beyond EMRs: Health IT Trends to Improve Quality and Patient Safety.”

Download the event flyer with speaker information here.

To register now, go to www.gdahc.org or www.regonline.com/OctCoffee

Lowering the number of yearly HAIs is a top priority of most health care providers and in doing so will not only lower health care costs but save lives. Technology is available today to track people and objects in real time and can be used to lower HAIs by knowing who may have come in contact with an infected patient. Health care is looking for ways to monitor whether individual staff members are compiling to hospital policy by washing their hands in a patient room.

Solutions for monitoring staff hand washing upon entering & exiting a patient room are being sought after by health care providers.  Research shows that to achieve over a 60% staff compliance rate a hospital most track who is and is not complying with a hospitals procedure. Research also shows that a tracking system MUST be over 98% accurate in identifying individual staff members AS THEY wash their hands to allow hospitals to institute staff behavior modification procedures.

Systems that allow false positives will fail, poor performance IS a defect. Most Wi-Fi based RTLS systems are not accurate enough to allow this type of behavior monitoring.  They have too many false positives in identifying staff to an individual patient room and can NOT associate staff with certainty to actually washing their hands before moving to examining the patient.

With the recent announcement and initiatives by the Obama administration to lower health care costs while improving patient care though the use of IT technology, monitoring staff hand washing is a GREAT area to invest your resources. Patients WILL seek out providers that can show that their staff is regularly following hand washing procedures and by doing so have significantly lowered their annual HAI rate.

If you would like to learn more about preventing HAIs through the monitoring of staff hand washing please use the contact information below.

Ralph Wagner
RFID Solutions Manager
rwagner@dcc-online.com
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