The Southern Ohio Medical Center (SOMC) has deployed an automated asset tracking system from Radianse to help staff manage more than 1,600 pieces of medical equipment. The 222-bed, acute care hospital in Portsmouth, Ohio, has deployed the Radianse real-time location platform and Reveal Asset Tracking system across the facility.

The system provides room-level location data, and has improved equipment management, recall management, and asset utilization.

SOMC first began looking at RFID systems more than ten years ago, but the technology was too costly at the time. "At the time, the cost was over $1 million, and we just couldn't justify that," says Greg Malone, supervisor of the biomedical engineering department.

A new vice president at the hospital, however, made the asset management system a priority. According to Malone, the cost of a tracking system has since fallen to less than half of what it was more than a decade ago, which allowed the hospital to move forward with the technology.

SOMC selected Radianse from a pool of several vendors based, in part, on its installed base in the healthcare industry.

"Radianse was so mindful of the patient care environment that they set themselves apart early," says Penny Cooper, SOMC's Administrative Director of Worksite and Patient Safety. "We put them through the paces regardless. The technology impacts virtually every department, so we took a multi-functional approach to vendor selection. In a head-to-head competition, Radianse was the choice for every department involved -- with accuracy, automation and a shared commitment to safety among the deciding factors."

The hospital began deploying the technology in August 2007, and the system went live later that fall. SOMC deployed 363 receivers across the facility to read the Radianse tags. The 433 MHz active RFID tags can be read from up to 50 feet away, with a location accuracy of within three feet.

The hospital is tracking a variety of medical equipment with the tags, including wheelchairs, bed carts, infusion pumps, defibrillators, and ultrasound devices.

Staff can open the Radianse system on any computer and search for equipment by name. Floors and departments can also set up lists of frequently used equipment.

One of the most immediate benefits of the system was improving the equipment inspection process. Up to 700 pieces of equipment are inspected each month by maintenance staff, and in the past this process could be time consuming because workers had to manually search for equipment that wasn't in its proper location. Now, staff can find each piece of tagged equipment within a few seconds.

Staff can more quickly locate equipment affected by manufacturer recalls, and nurses can locate critical equipment much faster than in the past.

Radianse Reveal has also automated the bed inspection process, which has made it easier for SOMC to comply with Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requirements.

"We're saving all kinds of time," Malone says. "The nurses can find equipment immediately, and they are very happy with the system."

As staff learn about the benefits of the system, Malone says other departments have begun asking to have additional assets tagged.

"Our future plans will consider use of the Radianse platform to improve safety, particularly to add patient flow as we ramp up our new emergency services," Cooper says. "We also think about staff safety. Imagine if every staff member had an active-RFID tag in the parking garage -- a wonderful security application. Disaster preparedness is another opportunity."

SOMC also plans to tag an additional 200 to 300 pieces of equipment when the hospital completes its $110 million, 170,000-square-foot expansion project in June 2008.