| Innovative RFID Solutions Enable New Congenital Cardiac Care Center to Deliver a Higher Quality of Patient Care, Safety, and Operational Efficiency |
The University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, a new state-of-the-art children's hospital, and Mobile Aspects, Inc., a leading provider of radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking solutions for the healthcare industry, today announced the purchase of Mobile Aspects' iRIS(TM) (Intelligent Radio-Frequency Inventory System) inventory management system and RFID-enabled, modular inventory management cabinets (iRISupply(TM)) for its congenital heart disease catheterization and electrophysiology labs. These tracking solutions are part of Mobile Aspects' One System of CARE(TM), an integrated suite of RFID hardware and software solutions that enable healthcare providers to automatically track supplies, drugs, assets, and patients in real time for safer and more efficient patient care.
The University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, a $135 million facility, has been designed to be at the forefront of pediatric care by providing a state-of-the-art, family-focused environment for all in-patient pediatric services at the University of Chicago Hospitals. The 242,000-square-foot, 155-bed, seven-story building is home to nationally recognized programs in cardiology, neurology, neonatology, transplantation, and other medical and surgical specialties. The new hospital is named after Gary C. Comer, founder of the Lands' End clothing-catalog company, and his wife, Frances, who together donated $21 million to help build the facility.
Dr. Hijazi, Chief of Pediatric Cardiology and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals, commented, "Our teams of congenital cardiac experts use advanced diagnostic and medical techniques to provide patient-friendly, family-focused care to patients with congenital heart disease of all ages. We also recognize the importance of RFID-based technology to enable our staff to spend more quality time with our patients and less time manually performing administrative tasks such as billing and reordering."
Mobile Aspects' One System of CARE enables healthcare systems to begin achieving the goal of universally safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable healthcare for all patients.
The fully integrated One System of CARE, including Mobile Aspects' RFID technology, provides accurate, real-time data, providing healthcare providers with reliable data instantly for reporting, searching and patient/drug alerts. One System of CARE redesigns the systems of care using automatic identification and information technologies to support clinical and administrative processes, resulting in safer, higher quality care. Hospitals no longer need to rely on clinicians to remember to complete myriad manual compliance tasks. One System of CARE automatically tracks patients, product usage, and drug usage, which enables healthcare providers to deliver safer patient care, while realizing significantly improved inventory management and accurate billing. From one web-based interface, doctors and nurses can receive real-time data and evaluate any supply, drug, asset, or patient anytime, anywhere.
Suneil Mandava, CEO of Mobile Aspects, commented, "World class hospitals such as the University of Chicago Hospitals continue to see the value and need of Mobile Aspects' One System of CARE, and we are excited to work with doctors such as Dr. Hijazi who are leaders in their field. We look forward to helping them achieve a higher quality of care with our suite of RFID solutions."
Integrated seamlessly into a hospital's existing information management systems, such as billing, electronic medical records, and ADT systems, Mobile Aspect's RFID tracking solutions feature the iRIS(TM) inventory management system, the RFID-enabled Anesthesia Workstation and Drug Delivery Workstation, and the Patient and Asset tracking systems.
iRIS Inventory Management System
The average hospital spends as much as 36 percent of its total purchasing dollars on supplies for operating rooms, catheterization and other interventional labs, but captures on average only about 75 percent of all charges related to those supplies, according to the Healthcare Financial Management Agency (HFMA). With the cost of medical devices increasing dramatically combined with their shortened shelf life, the need for hospitals to more carefully and accurately track their inventory is imperative.
Mobile Aspects' iRIS (Intelligent Radio-Frequency Inventory System) inventory management system, the foundation for One System of CARE, eliminates this manual compliance and ensures every used item is billed for, and items are automatically reordered when used.
A key component of the iRIS system is iRISupply(TM), an RFID-enabled, modular inventory management cabinet system that is installed in operating rooms, catheter labs, EP labs, interventional radiology, and wherever the tracking of critical hospital supplies is required. Each cabinet automatically tracks and reorders each item according to user-defined levels and, through iRISense(TM), associates the removal or replacement of each item with a particular clinician and patient, and can automatically alert clinicians when items are about to expire, or if they have recalled product on their shelves. The scalable server and Mobile Aspects' integration services link this information to patient tracking, financial, and billing systems, ensuring that all patient charges are captured.
iRIS Anesthesia Workstation
The portable, RFID-enabled Anesthesia Workstation automatically identifies drugs and narcotics as they are removed and integrates with Electronic Medical Record (EMC) and drug-drug interaction databases to immediately alert the caregiver if there is the potential for medical error. It also updates the patient electronic medical record with all drugs and supplies administered and tracks expiration dates, catalog numbers, and lot numbers to ensure expiring and/or recalled products are immediately identified and removed. Reorder alerts are automatically sent to the hospital pharmacy, while product usage and Anesthesiologist's time is transmitted for billing purposes. The built-in 802.11 wireless communications transfer data in real time.
iRIS Drug Delivery Workstation
The Drug Delivery Workstation provides a secure, automated patient safety and drug tracking system at the bedside. The portable workstation automatically senses each drug removed from its drawers and ensures through integration with the hospital's Physician Order Entry (POE, CPOE) system that the right drug is given to the right patient at the right time. Integrated with the Patient Tracking System, the Drug Delivery Workstation can automatically identify the patient and call up pertinent information to ensure patient safety. It updates the patient electronic medical record with all drugs and supplies administered. Also, it provides an automated drug and supply tracking system. Identical to the Anesthesia Station, this system automatically tracks the products and reorders product as required.
Patient Tracking System
The Patient Tracking System enables hospitals to provide a higher level of patient safety and to increase throughput by utilizing one, low cost infrastructure and one, web-based interface. The system uses Mobile Aspects' active RFID tags embedded into a patient's wrist band, which contains pertinent patient information. The tag transmits a unique ID to sensors, which identify the patient's location in real time.
Asset Tracking System
The Asset Tracking System provides hospitals with a real-time system to track all portable assets and equipment as they move through the surgical suites and floors. Using the same infrastructure as the Patient Tracking System, this system enables healthcare providers to locate assets at any time and place within the facility and sends an alert when any asset or equipment leaves the facility without appropriate approval.
One System of CARE, delivering real solutions in healthcare today by providing a higher quality of care and safety for patients, while simultaneously delivering effortless supply management and compliance, as well as significant cost savings for healthcare providers.
About Mobile Aspects
Mobile Aspects, the recipient of the 2004 Frost & Sullivan Product Innovation Award within U.S. RFID Markets for Healthcare, provides innovative RFID solutions to enable hospitals to deliver a higher quality of care. The company's One System of CARE(TM) is an integrated suite of RFID software and hardware solutions to track all supplies, drugs, assets, and patients in hospitals to make patient care safer and more efficient.
The company's RFID tracking solutions feature the iRIS(TM) inventory management system, the RFID-enabled Anesthesia Workstation and Drug Delivery Workstation, and the Patient and Asset tracking systems. These systems integrate seamlessly into existing hospital information management systems and eliminate all manual compliance steps while providing real-time data to clinicians. By integrating all patient and product information, the One System of CARE provides increased productivity, enhanced quality of care and safety for patients, and significant cost savings. From one web-based interface, providers can pull up information about all supplies, drugs, assets, and patients anywhere in the facility.
Mobile Aspects' One System of CARE is presently installed in several of the top 15 hospitals throughout North America. For more information, visit Mobile Aspects at www.mobileaspects.com.
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