Derby swaps felt tips for RFID

Derby has introduced RFID tracking of equipment.

Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has implemented a radio-frequency identification system to improve its tracking of equipment.

The trust has bought mobile PDAs with radio frequency scanners and supporting software from Harland Simon.

It is using the system to track specialty beds and infusion pumps in a proof of concept pilot, before looking to extend the system to other pieces of equipment.

The trust has a central ‘equipment library’ that holds more than 10,000 assets.

Manager Mark Cannell told eHealth Insider the asset-tracking team had been using “paper, white boards and big felt-tip pens” to keep track of equipment, which was inefficient.

“Once the device leaves the equipment library the paper tracking system stops being useful because patients move around the hospital,” Cannell said.

The new RFID system involves radio-frequency tags being placed on pieces of equipment. These transmit signals that can be picked up by the PDAs.

The information is then relayed back to the equipment database, so it can display real-time information about an asset’s location.

Cannell said the electronic tracking of equipment was much more efficient and could result in significant cost savings.

“If you have a hospital with 12,000 beds, then nine times out of ten you will have 12,000 patients in them all needing various pieces of equipment at various times – it can be easy to lose track of items.”

The trust started with tracking the infusion pumps as they were one of the most regularly used items.

“We are currently managing three hundred plus infusion pumps – they are a real challenge for us because everybody wants them all the time.

“We want to know where the devices are going after they are taken out of the library, and if they are being used efficiently - there will be a cost saving in that for us.”

Cannell said use of the system was already showing benefits, but he was planning to take evidence to the trust board to get approval for rolling the system out further.

The next device Cannell planned to track was wheelchairs, which he said are “a bit like shopping trolleys” in that they are routinely left in places people do not regularly go.

It is hoped the wheelchairs will be included in the RFID tagging system before the beginning of the next financial year.