RFiD Discovery Tracks High-Value Medical Assets with Impinj
From the point of delivery to the operating room, this inventory management solution pinpoints the location of critical surgical implants throughout a hospital.
Streamlined tracking ensures safe, timely delivery of surgical implants
From the time it is delivered to a hospital to the moment it arrives in the operating room, the journey of a medical device is a critical one. Custom-made surgical implants such as artificial knee or hip joints are extremely expensive. If an implant is delivered to the wrong floor, misplaced, or stolen, an important surgical procedure may be delayed as staff scrambles to locate or replace it. And if the wrong implant is accidentally selected for a patient, the outcome can be dire.
With its healthcare inventory management solution, Impinj partner RFiD Discovery aims to help hospitals solve this common challenge. The United Kingdom-based solutions provider teamed up with healthcare storage expert Medstor and auto-identification pioneer SATO Corp., another Impinj partner, to develop a RAIN RFID inventory management solution that automatically locates and tracks surgical implants from delivery to storage to the operating room.
Improved safety and efficiency with Impinj
The solution is based on RAIN RFID, a form of wireless communication that uses radio waves to identify, find, and track the movement of items in real time. Using a combination of RAIN RFID labels, “smart” medical storage cabinets, fixed Impinj RAIN RFID readers, and handheld readers from Impinj partners, RFiD Discovery’s all-in-one solution:
- Helps prevent devices from being misplaced or stolen
- Minimizes waste by providing visibility into expiration dates
- Matches the right device with the right recipient
- Improves inventory efficiency
- Frees hospital staff to focus on patient care
Here’s how it works:
When a medical implant is delivered to a hospital, its packaging is affixed with a RAIN RFID label embedded with an Impinj M700 series RAIN RFID tag chip.
The label — printed by a SATO RAIN RFID label printer featuring an Impinj E710 RAIN RFID reader chip — is registered on the hospital’s database with identifying information about the device, such as its type, size, and unique device identifier number (UDI).
Implants tagged with RAIN RFID are placed in Medstor smart cabinets for storage. The cabinets are designed to open only for staff wearing registered RAIN RFID badges.
Impinj R700 RAIN RFID fixed readers installed inside the smart cabinets wirelessly read the tagged implants within. Opening and closing the cabinet triggers a “stock check,” after which any missing items are associated with the employee who opened the cabinet via their unique badge number.
Once the implant is brought to the operating room, staff use handheld RFID readers to read the patient’s identification wristband using either RFID or barcodes — and then the implant — before or during the procedure. This process identifies the correct item and ensures it is used on the correct patient.
Impinj R700 delivers performance and reliability
Developers of RFiD Discovery’s inventory management solution chose the Impinj R700 RAIN RFID reader for use inside smart cabinets because it is fast, reliable, accurate, and designed for use cases that demand industry-leading performance, making it ideal for tracking the location of items like costly surgical implants.
“The Impinj R700 was the natural choice for our solution’s smart cabinet because of its flexibility to allow our software to be installed directly onto the reader,” said Simon Dawkins, RFiD Discovery’s lead consultant for healthcare. “This means that the cabinet is responsive to ensure instant door unlocking without delays, even in the case of network issues. Its speed and accuracy were also major factors to ensure inventory information is 100% correct every time to ensure the correct implants are available when needed.”
The Impinj R700 was the natural choice for our solution’s smart cabinet because of its flexibility to allow our software to be installed directly onto the reader.
RFiD Discovery’s all-in-one solution saves time and money
With a RAIN RFID-based inventory management system to automatically follow high-value devices on their journey, hospitals can free up staff to focus on more important tasks — like patient care. Other benefits of RFiD Discovery’s solution include:
Increased visibility into high-cost medical items
Limited visibility into healthcare supplies often results in loss, waste, and sometimes even medical errors. Misplaced items can be hard to pin down in large hospitals with multiple buildings or floors. RFiD Discovery's solution automatically records when a tagged device is removed from a smart cabinet. If it is not read later when it’s used, the system flags the event and highlights the item as possibly misplaced or stolen.
Quick and easy stock replenishment
The solution’s web-based stock replenishment software identifies when and where inventory is running low, indicating when it’s time to re-order. This system can also be configured to alert staff when an implant on the shelf is nearing expiration, so it can be used before it needs to be discarded, preventing unnecessary waste.
Improved patient safety and security
While medical staff are trained to carefully ensure the right surgical implant is prepped for the right patient, mistakes can happen. The information provided by RFiD Discovery’s solution helps minimize the potential for human error by automatically alerting staff if the wrong implant is selected, drastically reducing the possibility of a potentially life-threatening mistake.
Significant cost savings through item tracking
Hospitals are busy places. If a medical asset can’t be located when it’s time to schedule a procedure, the choice is often made to simply order another, adding delays and significant costs to a hospital’s operating budget. The solution tracks the location of every tagged asset, ensuring the items ordered are right where they need to be — right when they’re needed.
Fulfills England’s regulatory mandates
RFiD Discovery's inventory management solution was designed to directly align with requirements set forth by Health Technical Memorandum HTM71, one of a series of directives published by England’s National Health Service (NHS) that aim to standardize hospitals’ materials management programs. The solution can also be used anywhere RFiD Discovery operates, including the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and North America.
RFiD Discovery and the Impinj Partner Network
Impinj partner RFiD Discovery is a global provider of integrated automation and tracking solutions, combining hardware and software technologies to meet the specific demands of its customers. Learn more about RFiD Discovery and the Impinj Partner Network, and read how RAIN RFID and the Impinj platform can help companies track assets, manage inventory, and more for healthcare and other industries.
- Article tagged as:
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
ABOUT THE PARTNER
RFID DISCOVERY SOLUTIONS LTD
RFiD Discovery (owned by Paragon ID) is an independent systems provider specialising in integrated automation & tracking solutions used in a variety of sectors incl. healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, oil & gas, mining, construction and retail.
PARTNERS
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Impinj products deliver connectivity for this solution
Tag Chips
Impinj RAIN RFID tag chips provide unique identifiers and enable smart, connected things (endpoints)
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Readers
Impinj RAIN RFID readers are smart edge devices that identify and locate connected things
Learn more