UTMC: from RTLS to BI

The University of Toledo Medical Center has stepped up its asset tracking efforts. As the area's only academic medical center providing specialty care in cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics, cancer, surgery and kidney transplantation, its recent decision to extend a relationship with Awarepoint signals the organization is moving beyond the initial search-and-locate phase of the RTLS system to apply business intelligence rules that enable proactive management of resources, according to UTMC manager of distribution services Pat Nopper.

Awarepoint has been providing UTMC with a ZigBee-based real-time awareness and condition sensing network. When initially deployed, 1,000 medical equipment items were tagged, including IV pumps, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps, telemetry transmitters, continuous positive air pressure machines (CPAPs), and other items.

But in October, UTMC signed a new, three-year contract with Awarepoint, adding 1,500 additional asset tags, including roughly 50 temperature monitoring tags. The result is a system that can track a single piece of equipment to within three feet of its real-time location anywhere in the enterprise, says Nopper. So, equipment no longer comes back to the distribution services department; instead, it's re-distributed from its last location for more efficiency. The system also has the capability to alert hospital staff when a tagged item moves to a certain point beyond UTMC's perimeter.

By adopting this approach, the organization is streamlining clinical processes by putting the right resources at staff members' fingertips when they need them. It also reduce patients' wait times, more efficiently manages preventive maintenance and recall notices on medical equipment, and it help UTMC save money.