Healthcare IT News - September 2007 - (Page 19)

www.HealthcareITNews.com HoSpItalS & IdNs September 2007 ■ Healthcare IT News 19 Report calls for linking RFID and barcode technology By Molly MerrIll, Editorial Assistant – RFID technology offers significant advantages in terms of patient and asset tracking and the prevention of drug counterfeiting, but hospital adoption remains slow due to cost, claims a recent report by healthcare analysts Frost and Sullivan. Barcodes can be an affordable substitute to RFID, the report states. However, RFID has the advanPALO ALTO, CA tage over barcodes when it comes to durability, improved accuracy and reusability. The idea put forth in Advances in Healthcare Applications is to marry the two technologies together, so that they coexist and provide a proven return on investment. “Even as RFID matures, it is likely that barcoding will continue to offer hospitals a proven, efficient and more cost-effective means of capturing data for a variety of applications,” explains Frost & Sullivan research analyst Sachin Thukral. “Some of the applications are bedside medication administration, unit-dose labeling in the pharmacy, specimen collection at the patient bedside, specimen tracking and management in the laboratory, materials management and more,” he added. Hospitals are currently the largest buyers of RFID technology. The time saved on asset tracking has proven to reduce costs of maintaining inventory of medical equipment such as pumps, wheelchairs and diagnostic and monitoring equipment. Various estimates have shown that 20 percent of capital in hospitals is occupied in assets, like these, that are easily lost or stolen. “There is a great need to locate critical assets, people and equipment, in a timely manner,” said Thukral. “There is also a need for more efficient staff workflow and patient throughput because of an inability to locate critical resources, and to get them in the right place at the right time," he said. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: rFID 0907 l MIdlaNd Continued from page 17 us a proven comprehensive system that we could afford.” The implementation of OpenVista has made it possible for the hospital to go “paper light,” Whiles said. Midland has automated functions such as registration, pharmacy, lab, materials management and physician orders. The hospital also got rid of its paper charts. There may be a few pieces of loose David Whiles paper here and there, but almost every task has gone digital. The electronic record is the primary source of patient information for all caregivers, and it can be accessed in the hospital, in the physician’s office or even from home. Whiles calls OpenVista “very functionally rich.” “The system is extremely mature and extremely robust,” he said. At Midland, OpenVista runs on Red Hat Inc.’s Linux Enterprise advanced server operating system. The Linux software runs on two Hewlett Packard servers. Midland calls the new system EDITH – Electronic Data Information for Team Healthcare. Midland Memorial paid for the software and implementation in part with a grant from the VHA Health Foundation. “Midland Memorial has broken the cost barrier with an information technology system that is economical and relatively quick to deploy,” said Linda DeWolf, president of the VHA Health Foundation. “This is a good alternative for other small and mid-sized hospitals and Midland Memorial already is sharing what they’ve learned with other hospitals around the country and the world.” Whiles, who conceived and oversaw the project, is happy to share what he’s learned. “Our ultimate hope is that EDITH will improve patient safety, but I’ve become aware of the national implications of what we are doing here, of showing that this is a real, viable solution for other hospitals of similar size and with similar financial constraints,” he said. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: MIDLaND 0907 Show your hospital the way to enhanced integration. Hospira MedNet® A server-based patient safety solution, Hospira MedNet Integrated Clinical Care can go beyond handling aggregated infusion data and reports; it encompasses interoperability with BPOC systems to support 5-Rights Verification of IV infusions and eMAR documentation. The modular, open-source Hospira MedNet system enhances clinical decision-making by linking pharmacy and other hospital information systems to the point of care. It’s a smoother road to patient safety. Supports multiple Hospira devices, including Symbiq™, Plum A+®, Plum A+®3 and LifeCare PCA®. Learn more about Hospira MedNet at www.hospira.com e l Connect: HoSPIra 0907 l P07-0801B http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7675 http://www.hospira.com http://www.hospira.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7671 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=7716

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - September 2007

Contents Alaska Sweep SiCKO Debate Data Exchange Rx EDITH knows Hold That Script IT in the Sun Breathing Easy IT on the Menu Ambulatory EMRs Identity Crisis

Healthcare IT News - September 2007

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