Addenbrooke’s adopt ‘RFID Discovery’ for asset tracking and report improvements within 8 weeks

May 24, 2012 - PRLog -- Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) has spent considerable time investigating RFID technology as a means of keeping track of 1000’s of assets around the hospital campus and selected this system as an affordable and scalable solution to meet their needs. The asset tracking project started with 900 items being fitted with the Harland Simon ‘Discovery’ radio frequency (RF) tag. Each active RF tag has a unique ID that is transmitted several times a minute and received by either a fixed or mobile handheld RF reader. Asset location data is recorded and stored on a central server and it can be interrogated from any network pc.
After only a few weeks of use the MEL users are reporting seeing immediate improvements in the accuracy of asset location data and they are experiencing a significant reduction in long term loans. They have seen benefits in being able to perform essential site audits in a fraction of the time previously taken and consequently audits are carried out on a frequent basis, helping maintain accurate loan records and meet regulatory standards.
Simon Dawkins is the Supervisor of the MEL which typically handles over 2000 equipment loans per month. Mr Dawkins comments “We have investigated a number of different RF tracking solutions over the last few years but the RFID Discovery solution suited our requirements and it didn’t require any investment to our current infrastructure.  It can operate on or off a wireless network and has a web based interface.  The system is easy to use and we have quickly adapted our work flow process to get the best out of the RFID Discovery asset tracking solution”.
Addenbrooke’s recently purchased an additional quantity of the RF tags and are discussing plans to further expand the use of the RFID Discovery system to other departments.