Hospitals can reduce emergency room waiting times, increase capacity, and improve caregiver effectiveness with help from an RFID-based ''Enterprise Patient Care Visibility System'' that manages beds and patient throughput, according to system supplier Awarix.

     According to Gary York, co-founder of Awarix, capacity and diversion issues have become a big problem for hospitals - and a serious safety issue for patients. As a result, Awarix developed its system to help hospitals improve throughput and capacity without having to add physical space to a facility. 116.30.145.87 This article is copyright 2006 UsingRFID.com.

At-a-glance patient status
     This system uses a "visual utility" platform and RFID tags and readers to provide real-time information on patient location, room status, and various clinical events. All authorised hospital employees, including clinicians, managers and environmental services staff, can immediately access patient information by glancing at electronic patient care communication whiteboards, which are placed at various points throughout the hospital.

     By presenting a graphic representation of the hospital''s floor plan, clinicians and other users can determine exactly what is happening with patients simply by glancing at the whiteboards. RFID technology and geospatial visual technologies are integrated with existing clinical systems to create this synthesized single view of patient status.

Medical care efficiency 
     Early adopters of the system report favourable results. In less than six months from installation, the company says that hospitals using the system have reported significant revenue increases, patient volume increments of more than 12%, bed turn-around rate improvements of up to 19%, and some have eliminated emergency department diversions.

     And the benefits actually reach far beyond those statistics, according to Cindy Williams, R.N., chief nursing officer at St. Vincent''s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, USA: "The system provides significant patient care benefits by communicating physician orders, results and medication availability without having to log in to a computer."

     Hospitals can integrate Awarix with existing phone-based legacy bed management and hospitality applications, or they can completely replace existing systems.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                Extract From Using RFID