Applications are Patient identification, Asset and equipment tracking, Reduce inventory costs and stock-outs for our surgical units. I propose that we implement RFID for patient PATIENT IDENTIFICATION wrong procedureRFID tags for marking sponges used during operations and ID tags for the operating team itself. It lists critical information such as allergies, precautions and special needs.Leading-edge hospitals are using RFID to tag surgical sponges, scalpels and other surgical equipment to reduce medical errors and potential law suits. The new rules, which took effect July 1, require surgeons and nurses to clearly mark a patient’s surgery site and to take a documented “time out” for a final check that it is the right patient, procedure, and operative site before cutting.

Patient identifySurgeon all use handheld devices equipped with RFID interrogators to identify that patient positively. The device also displays a checklist of procedures that must be carried out before that specific patient can progress through to the next stage of the surgical process. Clinicians are aware of the status of their patients and can avoid delays in patient flow caused by a lack of information. Information is organized in status view screens for each stage of the department from registration to recovery units. Our hospital partners are seeing that the workflow in their Emergency Department has improved significantly with RFID tracking and see that it provides the same or greater benefit in Surgical Services. In a busy operating room, counts are unreliable, even with the most conscientious surgical staff.

ASSETS SpongesOthers are tracking high-value assets and setting up automated maintenance routines to improve operational efficiencies. Locating hospital assets in real time. These systems tend to reduce the data-entry workload of nurses, and also let them spend more time caring for patients and automate the process of billing. These systems reduce the time employees spend looking for assets, improve asset utilization and enhance the hospitals' ability to performed scheduled maintenance. Our hospitals lose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment each year and spend countless hours searching for patient care assets. Poor utilization and slow device cycle times cause many high-value assets to go underutilized while hospitals continue to overspend on new and rental assets. Meanwhile, nurses sacrifice time with patients to seek equipment they need, and maintenance staff loses productive hours searching for specific items that need maintenance. The ability to find assets instantaneously and improve their flow through hospital processes saves staff time and lowers capital or lease costs. ROI is immediate. Studies indicate that up to one-third of your hospital staff time is spent searching for equipment, patients and other hospital personnel. Our studies show that a typical hospital cannot locate 15-20% of its mobile assets at any given time. Now that more patients than ever are choosing a hospital, you can now better focus on the patient experience.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT: Easy, accurate inventory counts, Reduce out-of-stock items on the sales floor, Easy location of items in back room. Asset management is critical for patient safety. Consider the consequences of nursing not able to find a medical device that would save a patient's life. Consider the consequences or nurse time spent looking from room to room for hospital assets. Consider the frustration of your nurses and the impact on patient satisfaction. Patient identification and location assistance are often needed to ensure patient safety when urgent medical attention is needed. Patient tags with RFID chips will meet this need.

ConclusionLearn how different RFID systems can be used today to reduce costs and achieve improved patient outcomes. Leading-edge hospitals are using RFID to track patients, surgical sponges, scalpels and other equipment to reduce medical errors and potential law suits. How patient tracking reduces labor and improves care? How to choose the right RFID technology for your needs? Taking an infrastructure approach to RFID to improve your ROI. RFID system can almost fit into wherever needs a field needs to identify, track, and manage objects, Hospitals and health-care providers are using RFID technology to track patients and high-value assets, as well as ensure patient safety, Chou says. "Patient safety is the most

important and uncompromised issue for hospitals’’. The primary goal of the RFID initiative is to improve patient care and safety. There is a clear advantage to using RFID tags in departmetits where tracking supplies, beds, trays, plasma bags and tbousands of other items remains a major challenge for health care institutions. Leading-edge hospitals are using RFID to track patients, surgical sponges, scalpels and other equipment to reduce medical errors and potential law suits. we want to continue to show that we are a patient center care facility. nine-county region has received awards for its patient-centered care, including the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2005. RFID means time savings, improved efficiency, lower capital equipment spending, and fast return on investment. RFID tagging is the most promising approach for track and trace information. RFID applications provide significant benefits to ensure patient safety and improve supply chain efficiency. By implementing RFID applications for asset tracking solutions, patient identification, patient locating, our hospital can improves our business operations by having the right asset or right patient, in the right place, at the right time.improved patient satisfaction and a lower per-patient cost of service delivery. Conclusion RFID is a technology solution that tracks patients, staff, asset and inventory for Surgical operation or units. Con Now that more patients than ever are choosing a hospital, you can now better focus on the patient experience. Our hosiptal is center around patient care and we have won numerous of awards to account for it including. Let us continue to be a patient-centered facility by rising with new improve technologies such as RFID to enhance the overall quality of patient care. I am confidient that RFID technology fits right for our hospital espically in the surgical department. There is also a need to enhance the overall care patients are given. And we have shown that is our number one concern. it easy to use,it will cut on time looking for thing which is frustrating and interupt our work flow. The staff will love this and patient will be more satisfied with the quality care they are given

BenefitsReal-time data on assets and goods. Improved inventory efficiency and management. Reduced labor costs. Increased efficiency and product flow. Reduced human error. fewer errors, faster customer service and accelerated return on investment. Improvement of healthcare quality Cost reduction Increased operational efficiency Improved billing accuracy Rapid location of assets and personnel Increased through-put of patients. Hospital RFID applications provide significant benefitsConsHigh implementation cost. Lack of globally accepted use standards. Lack of better middleware. Privacy intrusion. Strain in the IT infrastructure by overwhelming information systems as real-time scans move between multiple applicationsPRIVACY INTRUSIONAccording to Chou, once a tag is used and a patient leaves the hospital, the hospital destroys the tag to protect the patient's privacy. With most rising there’s always some skepticism and concern about privacyWhat is RFIDShort for radio frequency identification, RFID is a dedicated short range communication (DSRC) technology. The term RFID is used to describe various technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify people or objects. The antenna enables the chip to transmit the identification information to a reader. The reader converts the radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag into digital information that can then be passed on to computers that can make use of it

A simple RFID system consists of a RFID reader and a RFID tag. And, inside of each sophisticated tags there then consists of a radio transmitter and radio receiver. This enables a RFID reader and a RFID tag communicates each other through a specified radio frequency. There are three main roles a RFID reader plays other than signaling RFID tag to transmit desired information back to the RFID reader. Firstly, a RFID reader has the responsibility of keeping RFID tags powered up. Secondly, a RFID reader demodulates incoming signals from the RFID tag down. This process slows the incoming signals down enough so that the RFID reader is able to process the signals. Finally, after the incoming signals are slowed down, RFID then has the responsibility of decoding the incoming signals into the words people can

interpret. Both a RFID reader and a RFID tag can be easily made into almost any desired shape and size. Because of the versatility,RFID middleware consists of computer hardware and data processing software that connects readers to computer systems and data repositories. It converts data from tags into tracking or identification information. It may also help filter data more effectively, and remotely monitor, control and maintain readers.

Hospitals in Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia, to name just a few, have implemented RFID solutions in materials management and found great savings and even greater efficiencies. There is a clear advantage to using RFID tags in departmetits where tracking supplies, beds, trays, plasma bags and tbousands of other items remains a major challenge for health care institutions. Government studies suggest strong IT investment could cut health care costs by 20 percent each year, and RFID can definitely contribute to these health care cost reductions. Tbe tags are wireless and hands-free. cited patient safety as the No. 1 reason for interest in the technology. managed inventories will lead to improved asset use, lower rental costs. management departments can reduce the time required to manage equipment inventory. manage-ment can lead to more precise supply orders and more accurate delivery of appropriate materials to physicians and patients. RFID has been implemented in several major hospitals around the country. Their experience shows how RFID can decrease inventory loss, increase time devoted to patients and improve the accuracy of instruments required for surgeries and other treatments. Bon Secours Health System, Richmond,Va., installed RFID at three hospitals to track 12,000 pieces of equipment.The health system no longer has to spend money on replacing lost equipment—a once common problem—and the nursmg staff saves 30 minutes per shift because they don't have ro search for equipment. In total, the system reports saving $200,000 a year over the cost of installation and maintenance of RFID, not mcludmg productivity gains. They For these early adopters, the savings and improved patient care far outweighed the cost of RFID installation and maintenance. By targeting how it can work in the materials management department,based on an analysis of business processes, it will become apparent how it could improve equipment and asset tracking, materials management, staff identification Look for companies with a backgroundin RFID deployments in an environment like yours. Survey showed that patient safety andmedical error reduction are top priorities for hospitals. bydebbie murphy