Electronics specialist Siemens Healthcare has teamed up with a British hospital to use a pioneering system which will streamline the workflow and improve availability of intravenous (IV) pumps across its site.
Airedale HNS Trust will use the real time location system (RTLS) to track IV pumps across various buildings on the hospital site using its existing Wi-Fi network infrastructure and ID tags attached to each pump.
The aim is to optimise the use of medical devices within the hospital and identify future applications for tracking and tracing technology.
At any given moment the IV pumps can be tracked to within approximately three metres, which will save on resources required to manually locate the devices.
The RTLS system will also streamline stock control, ensuring that pumps are available when needed and minimising the time taken to allocate a pump to a patient.
“Our use of RTLS will enable us to more efficiently use medical equipment and thus support our application of the LEAN process management methodology,” said Rebecca Malin, IT project manager at Airedale NHS Trust.
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