Intelligent Asset Tracking used in Hospital

Nov. 9, 2007 - PRLog -- Hilversum, Netherlands

Tergooi hospital, a 330 000 sq-ft medical center in northern Holland, has adopted a Wi-Fi based tracking infrastructure that is assisting them in locating infusion pumps. Installed and integrated by Ship2Save, an RFID solution provider, in collaboration with École Polytechnique, a Montreal based University; the system uses Aeroscout asset tags to monitor movement and usage of intravenous pumps across various locations in the hospital.

John Brakenhoff, Manager of the Technical Department at Tergooi Hospital, sees a considerable value in medical equipment tracking at the hospital. Mr. Brakenhoff says that: " Medical equipment such as infusion pumps, ECG (Electro Cardiogram) machines, and hospital beds, have to be efficiently allocated to departments so that patients can receive proper and prompt care. As medical personnel receive an influx of patients they need to have immediate access to these items. The asset tracking system we’ve installed provides staff with the ability to dynamically locate assets that are not in use."

Tags that are attached to the infusion pumps transmit information to wireless access points throughout the hospital, this information is then forwarded to a location engine platform for analysis. The calculated location is then plotted to a graphical interface that nurses and hospital management use to find available pumps on the hospital floor plan. "Asset tracking using the 802.11 [wireless] platform allows organizations to enable asset visibility on their existing telecommunication networks. In a hospital setting, wireless networks are commonly used to provide mobility to doctors and nurses using laptops, personal digital assistances, or otherwise. Now this same infrastructure can be used to provide wireless smart asset management." adds Sam Falsafi, Director of Business Integration and RFID Strategy at Ship2Save. With wireless technologies such as RFID becoming more prevalent across the world today, mobile computing devices are uniting enterprise communication and enabling a level of inter-organization interaction previoulsy unseen.

Peter Wijntjes, Chairman of Facility Management Netherlands, a not-for-profit organization that drives process and technology adoption of maintenance and support activities for Dutch companies, sees this technology as "Enabling dynamic management of organizational processes". Working in cooperation with Linda Castro, PhD candidate at the Ecole Polytechnique, the two are studying this deployment to understand how intelligent products can help organizations to develop more efficient asset management activities. Their work will prove to be a important stepping stone for driving understanding of next-generation asset management systems in the workplace . The Tergooi deployment is seen as a "Exemplary example of a multi-organizational effort in deploying a smart asset tracking system within the Healthcare Industry, that will serve as a catalyst for future adoptions across North America and Europe", by Konrad Konarski, Director of Alliances at Ship2Save.

About Ship2Save
Ship2Save is one of the industry leaders in cost effective RFID Solutions and is a founding member of the Canadian Microsoft RFID Council, a member of the Microsoft Global RFID Council, an EPCGlobal Canada Strategic Council Member, a CompTIA RFID+™ Cornerstone Committee Member, and a member of Texas Instruments Tag-It™ Team. Ship2Save's unique product lines, flexible and proficient software, business development models, and distinctive deployment services, offer customers cost effective and high quality solutions for their logistic needs. For more information, visit www.ship2save.com.


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