Calculating the Return on Investment from a Real-Time Location System Mark Roberti Founder and Editor, RFID Journal
Presentation overview Types of RFID-based RTLSs How to Think about an RTLS Common Operational Issues RTLS Benefits: Safety Improved patient flow Reduced equipment search times Reduced shrinkage Reduced capital expenditure Calculating the hard ROI from asset tracking
Types of RFID-based RTLSs There are a variety of real-time location systems that use active RFID transponders ZigBee (2.45 GHZ, IEEE 802.15.4) Active (433MHz, proprietary air interface protocol) Active (900MHz, proprietary air interface protocol) Wi-Fi (2.45 GHz, IEEE 802.11) Ultra-wideband (3-10 GHz, proprietary air interface protocol)
How to Think about an RTLS Most hospitals deploy an RTLS to solve an operational problem or comply with regulation Your RTLS is an infrastructure, like the Internet, that can be used for many applications Consider both the immediate and longer term benefits
Common Operational Issues Nurses spend 30-90 minutes per week searching for equipment Biomedical staff spend about 40 hours per week searching for equipment Asset utilization rates are often around 50% Money is wasted on unneeded rental equipment Staff spend time manually tracking the temperature of refrigerators for regulatory compliance
RTLS Benefits: Safety Austria's University Hospital in Innsbruck has installed two RTLS-based alarm systems to track workers at its facility who may be confronted with aggressive patients. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7972 St. Andrews Healthcare, the U.K. s largest nonprofit provider of mental-health services, uses an RTLS to enable staff members to send alerts, and to route them to the appropriate personnel. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7948
RTLS Benefits: Safety The Prince Court Medical Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is employing RTLS tags with a built-in infrared (IR) transmitter to protect infants within its facility. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/8223 Montpellier University Hospital in France has deployed a wireless system that can alert healthcare workers when a patient falls. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/2462
Hand-washing Compliance Princeton Baptist Medical Center, in Birmingham, Al., has seen a 36% reduction in patient visit time resulting from a health-care acquired infection since employed an RFID-based hand-washing compliance system in February 2010. That equates to 125 fewer bed days since February in which patients were hospitalized for infections gained while receiving treatment at the facility. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7713
Improved Patient Flow Memorial Hospital in Miramar, Fl., improved average bed turnover rate to 30 minutes. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7431 Methodist Healthcare, a six-hospital, 1800-bed system in San Antonio, TX, has reduced bed assignment time by 68%; lost bed time from 76 minutes to 35 minutes; and monthly ED diversions from 700 hours to just 8 hours. http://www.teletracking.com/success/casestudies.cfm
Reduced Search Times San Joaquin Community Hospital in San Joaquin, Ca., saw search times for PCA pumps go from an average of 23 minutes to less than 5 minutes, saving 1,663 man hours in 4 months. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7434 Union Hospital in Terre Haute, IN, has saved labor hours equivalent to one full-time employee since deploying an RTLS in January 2010. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7414
Reduced Search Times Genesis Health Systems had hoped to cut the time it spent searching for medical equipment from 22 minutes to 11 minutes with RFID, but it actually decreased the time down to 2 minutes. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/5374 Since Trident Health System deployed an RTLS, it reduced the average 21 minutes needed to find equipment to five minutes per nurse, per shift. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7547
Reduced Regulatory Labor University Hospital in upstate NY installed a temperature-monitoring system in approximately 100 refrigerators that store pharmaceuticals, vaccines and bone and tissue samples. Previously, workers had to manually record temperatures several times each day on paper. The system was slow and had the potential for errors. Wi-Fi tags now transmit temperature data at pre-set intervals, along with the date and time, and the unique ID number of the tag within the refrigeration unit. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/5013
Reduced Shrinkage After deploying an RTLS, Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Ca., saw the number of lost items decreased 14%, which equates to an annual savings of $150,000 to $200,000 worth of equipment. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/8091
Improved Asset Utilization Wayne Memorial Hospital found, after deploying an RTLS, that it was utilizing only 60% of the oxygen pumps it owned, so it purchased 50 fewer than planned, thereby saving $275,000. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/3199 Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Ca., saw asset utilization rates rise 7 percent after deploying an RTLS. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/8091
Improved Asset Utilization In the three months after an RTLS was installed at San Joaquin Community Hospital in San Joaquin, Ca., utilization has risen from 50% to nearly 80% for PCA pumps, and from about 40% to more than 60 percent for IV pumps. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7434
Reduced Capital Spending Health First, a Florida hospital network, saved $300,000 because it did not need to purchase 100 replacement infusion pumps http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7713 Brigham and Women s Hospital in Boston expects to save $300,000 a year from using an RTLS to track 8,000 devices http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/3931
Reduced Capital Spending Bon Secours Richmond Health System has saved $2 million each year from its RTLS as a result of drastically reducing the amount of rental equipment utilized by the company's four hospitals, as well as by decreasing the incidence of lost or stolen equipment. http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/7259
Calculating the ROI for Asset Tracking Enter total number of asset owned Cost per asset Number of assets Number replaced it each year Enter total amount spent on rental equipment
Calculating the ROI for Asset Tracking Enter your current average asset utilization rate (we used an average of 70%) Enter expected improvement in asset utilization rate (we used a 12% improvement) When you do your pilot, consider tracking tagged assets without allowing people to use the system Create a benchmark for what asset utilization is today
How It Works XYZ Memorial has 170 oxygen pumps Only 70 percent are being used on average Only 126 are actually needed If asset utilization rises to 82%, then 154 are needed to ensure a pump is always available 26 pumps are saved by using the RTLS (180-154)
How It Works XYZ Memorial replaces 10 percent of oxygen pumps, so 17 per year. Since 26 pumps are available, no new pumps are required in year 1 and only 8 in year 2 This reduces annual capital investment Calculator also applies units freed up to reduce rental costs We did not include much labor savings
What an RTLS Can Do Increase asset utilization rates for most medical equipment Reduce capital expenditure Reduce rental costs Deliver an ROI Plus...
What an RTLS Can Do Increase employee and patient safety Reduce time nurses and biomed staff spend looking for equipment by 95% Reduce theft and lost assets Increase hand-washing compliance Improve patient flow Improve nurse and patient morale
April 30 to May 2 Orlando County Convention Center Orlando, Fla. Special Preconference on pharma serialization Health Care / Pharmaceutical Track Major technology providers exhibiting
Update on the Veterans Health Administration Enterprisewide RTLS Deployment Martin Brunworth, Biomedical Engineer, RTLS PMO, Veterans Health Administration Andrew Mazotas, MS, Biomedical Engineer, RTLS PMO, Veterans Health Administration Improving Efficiency With RTLS Todd Frantz, Associate Chief Technology Officer, Florida Hospital Optimizing Inventory Management in an Acute-Care Setting Lisa Stepps, Data Manager, Cardiovascular Services, St. Joseph's Hospital
Hospital Pharmacy Uses RFID in Emergency Medication Kits Adrienne Shepardson Phar.D., Manager, Central Pharmacy Services, University of MD Medical Center, Department of Pharmacy A Technology and ROI Roadmap for RFID in Pharmaceuticals Ultan McCarthy, Post-Doctoral Researcher, College of Engineering, University of South Florida Ismail Uysal, Ph.D., Director of RFID Lab for Applied Research and Assistant Professor, University of South Florida
Thank you For more information, contact Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal mroberti@rfidjournal.com