RFID/RTLS

Supply chain executives at the Premier Breakthroughs conference in Nashville this week agreed that materials management departments are often the IT stepchild in their organizations – although EMR innovations are making their jobs a lot easier.

For the healthcare industry, real-time location system (RTLS) technology represents one of the most useful and potentially transformative tools for patient safety and cost reduction. It also remains one of the most under-penetrated health IT markets.

Good Samaritan Medical Center and West Boca Medical Center are the first two hospitals in South Florida to use radio frequency (RF) detection technology in their operating rooms to prevent and detect foreign items inadvertently left inside a patient during surgery.

Six technologies, whose impact has been measured by hospitals, can improve workflow and communication for nurses while boosting patient care, according to analysts.

The University Hospital of Innsbruck has recently launched an integrated wi-fi real time location system (RTLS) in its psychiatric ward. Hospital officials are looking to leverage the technology in order to better communicate with hospital staff in the event of an emergency.

They're tiny: often just the size of a grain of rice or even a mote of dust. And they're cheap: usually just ten bucks or so. But radio frequency identification (RFID) chips pack a powerful punch. And they're being used in more – and more interesting – ways than ever.

The Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, based in São Paulo, is making strides to better manage its medical equipment, while at the same time improving patient-physician time with the use of asset tracking technology.

A developer of real-time location systems (RTLS) for hospitals has developed a new device designed to help patients with heart problems move about more freely and hospitals to keep better tabs on their valuable resources.