What’s in Your Laundry? Preventing Portable Equipment Loss
Lost portable equipment can cost healthcare providers thousands of dollars. Learn how to track mobile items to reduce loss and operational costs.
The scene: a hospital patient has been under observation for a few days and is ready for discharge. When she gets dressed and packs up, she removes the cumbersome telemetry unit she’s been wearing for a few days and leaves it on the bed. Housekeeping quickly prepares the room for the next patient and changes the bedding without realizing that the telemetry monitor is still inside. The bedding linens leave the facility for cleaning. The telemetry unit is now lost, likely for good.
How many times has this happened at your hospital? The average telemetry pack costs between $3,000-$5,000 so if you’re losing even three each month, the replacement costs can quickly add up.
There is another way this scene could play out: You apply battery-free, passive RAIN RFID tags to your telemetry packs and other wearable devices, which connects them to your network. RAIN RFID readers and gateways installed at key chokepoints like laundry chutes and doorways, trigger notifications before an expensive piece of equipment leaves the premises. You send someone to retrieve the equipment before it becomes a loss, saving the organization thousands of dollars and enabling better equipment availability.
RAIN RFID tags are small and unobtrusive. Once you map out the flow of laundry you can find a few key places to place the RAIN RFID readers and antennas, keeping the cost of your infrastructure low and the positive ROI fast.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wendy Werblin
Former Impinj Director of Industry Solutions
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