Conditions of Cost-Effectiveness for the Use of Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) in Medical Facilities and the Benefits of Effective Implementation Process

The healthcare system today faces numerous challenges due to lack of visibility of resources and low utilisation, excessive rental as well as purchase of medical equipment. The article attempts to identify the possibilities of implementing a system of identification and location of assets in healthcare system institutions. This research presents market analysis in the context of available technological solutions. The implementation of real-time location system (RTLS) would enable not only tracking of equipment and inventory in medical facilities, but also increase visibility of inventory and manage the entire supply chain. Presentation of the proposed solution made it possible to assess costs, potential savings and the implementation process. This article is a starting point for a discussion on the cost-effectiveness of using RTLS in the healthcare system

RFID TECHNOLOGY SELECTION AND ECONOMIC JUSTIFICATION FOR HEALTHCARE ASSET TRACKING

Although Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Real-Time Location System (RTLS) technologies for inventory tracking have been growing in popularity, the healthcare industry has been reluctant to adopt these technologies. One of the primary reasons for this lack of enthusiasm has been the risk associated with electromagnetic interference between RFID/RTLS systems and medical equipment functionality. The other reason has been the substantial cost and complexity of implementing RFID/RTLS in healthcare organizations. In this study, we show that there are several ways to safely install RFID/RTLS systems to improve the inventory management processes of hospitals and clinics. We then analyze the inventory shrinkage (loss and theft) data of the Veterans Health Administration VISN 10 (the Veterans Integrated Service Network of Ohio) using a mathematical model to estimate the annual shrinkage. Finally, we develop an economic cost/benefit analysis database system in Microsoft Access that can be used to calculate the breakeven point of RFID/RTLS implementations, as well as calculate the expected reduction in inventory- related operating costs. This system can be adapted for cost/benefit analyses in similar inventory-intensive environments

RFID Technologies in Intelligent Medical Applications

This thesis examines RFID-technologies as a part of the development of intelligent medical applications. In this context the intelligence is interpreted as a property of a system that is more automatic, safe or efficient due to solutions achieved by information technology. RFID-technologies offer a wide range of possibilities for both containing and acquiring information. With the help of RFID-systems information such as the count, location, or status of hospital equipment can be obtained and monitored without the need for line of sight. In this thesis the task of applying RFID-technologies to achieve more intelligent medical applications is approached by researching the compatibility of all the known RFID-technologies at the moment of writing. However researches presented in this thesis are generally related to systems operating within the UHF-frequency band. The thesis describes the main characteristics of the four main RFID-technology standards. As this research is concentrated on the solutions specialized in hospital environments, the compliances to such a setting are highlighted from the research papers undergone in this thesis. Functionalities that are considered to be useful in an intelligent hospital setting are presented in the literature study. Such functionalities include RFID-tags that are aware of their location and orientation, tags that carry user updatable data and even tags that update their data by themselves. After revising the RFID-technologies, a case-related research conducted for this thesis is presented. The research analyzes and estimates the saturation times of the carbon dioxide absorbers that are used in anesthesia machines. The measurements are conducted by multiple tests where environmental variables are changed to different known values and the results are recorded. The goal of the research is to find out if it is possible to predict the absorber behavior, and whether saving the information needed or the prediction can be done directly to the absorbers themselves. To predict saturation, lifetime and usability of the absorbers a formula is calculated, and the formula is evaluated based on the values measured. As a conclusion UHF-RFID-technology is evaluated to be most compatible to be used in the prototype for the case. In this thesis the RFID-technologies are evaluated to be an economical and functional solution for the monitoring of absorber state, and the case is agreed to be a convenient solution to begin the transformation to intelligent hospitals. /Kir1