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AeroScout has announced that Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center (OHMC) has implemented its visibility solution to track the location of patients throughout the hospital for improved clinical staff workflow.
Endorsed by the American Hospital Association, AeroScout's Wi-Fi-based solution enables nurses and physicians to know the accurate location of any patient in real time. This saves time spent locating patients who have to leave their rooms for procedures like CT scans.
Successful pilot
The implementation follows the completion of a successful pilot programme, in which 64 patients were tracked through 14 departments over two floors. At OHMC, 601 of AeroScout's T2 Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tags will be attached to patients' chart-holders, which accompany them as they move throughout the ten floors and two patient care towers of the 632-bed facility.
The tags use OHMC's pre-existing standard Cisco Wi-Fi network, which is also used for laptops and wireless phones at the hospital. The location data transmitted by the tags is interpreted by AeroScout's MobileView software, which integrates with the existing patient flow visibility system, to display the patient's current location on a map on monitors at nurses' stations, or any web-enabled device.
Tag triggers
AeroScout Exciters, placed at doorways, trigger the tags to immediately transmit their position as patients enter and leave specific departments, such as ultrasound, radiation oncology or CT scanning. With this unique choke-point detection solution, the accurate location of each patient is updated on the map the instant they enter or leave the department.
"The AeroScout solution will improve the daily lives of our nurses and physicians by saving them time spent locating their patients for care activities such as medication administration and physician rounds," said Monica Donofrio, RN, Senior Director of Care Management & Access at OHMC. "Our nursing and physician staff have been enthusiastic about the pilot programme, and we're looking forward to implementing the patient-tracking solution throughout the hospital. While we're tracking patients now, we may use the same infrastructure with additional tags to track assets like infusion pumps, wheelchairs and WOWs (workstations on wheels) sometime in the future."
Sources: AeroScout Inc.; Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center
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