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Awarepoint Real-Time Awareness Solution Expanding, Adding 1,500 Additional Asset Tags and Temperature Monitoring Functionality

Awarepoint (www.awarepoint.com) announced its Real-time Awareness Solution (RTAS) (www.awarepoint.com/solutions.html) at the University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC). Awarepoint provides a ZigBee-based (www.zigbee.org) real-time awareness and condition sensing network, including real-time location ( RTLS ) applications and all hardware, software, installation and maintenance. When initially deployed, 1,000 medical equipment items were tagged, including IV pumps, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps, telemetry transmitters, continuous positive air pressure machines (CPAPs), and more. In October 2009, UTMC extended its relationship with Awarepoint to a new three year contract adding 1,500 additional asset tags (www.awarepoint.com/tags.html), including approximately 50 temperature monitoring tags.

Not long ago, a misplaced piece of medical equipment could be the catalyst for a major search. "In a hospital setting, sometimes it's a challenge to find certain mobile pieces of equipment," said Steve Hanenkrath, manager of technology support on Health Science Campus. "There were times my IT staff and staff from central services would lose a few hours of the workday just looking for IV pumps."

The Awarepoint Real-time Awareness Solution applies wireless technology to locate tagged hospital equipment enterprise-wide. Sensors that have been plugged into wall outlets throughout UTMC form a wireless network that pinpoints tagged equipment and transmits its location to an internet site. "The equipment tags talk to the wall sensors," Hanenkrath explained. "The sensors then talk to a router that transmits a message to an asset tracking management Web site."

The result is a system that can track a single piece of equipment to a room and to within three feet of its real-time location anywhere in the enterprise. Pat Nopper, UTMC manager of distribution services, uses the enterprise tracking system every day. "This allows me to make sure patients get the equipment they need as soon as possible," she said. "I can find things immediately from my desk. For instance, we have one piece of equipment we use for bariatric patients. Right away, we know what floor it's on and what room it's in from my desk, instead of searching on foot."

Moving beyond the initial "search and locate" phase of the system, UTMC has worked with Awarepoint 's Client Services Team to apply business intelligence rules that provide proactive management of resources. Equipment, Nopper noted, no longer comes back to her department. Instead, it is re-distributed from its last location for more efficiency. The system also has the capability to alert hospital staff when a tagged item moves to a certain point beyond UTMC's perimeter.

Awarepoint 's Real-time Awareness Solution aims to streamline clinical processes by having the right resources at staff's fingertips when needed, reduce patients' wait times, more efficiently manage preventive maintenance and recall notices on medical equipment and help UTMC save money.

Source: Awarepoint

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