A sample dashboard showing real-time, key performance measures
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It’s 11:42 p.m. Do you know where your IV pump is? How about the exact location of the patient that arrived in the Emergency Department earlier this evening?
By using ultrasound technology in combination with automatic tracking software, instantly locating patients, staff and inventory is as easy as consulting a computer screen.
Founded in Norway, Sonitor Technologies, Inc. is the creator and manufacturer of an ultrasound-based indoor positioning system (IPS).
“The company was started in 1997,” said Terry Aasen, president and CEO of Sonitor, which bases U.S. operations out of Largo, Fla. “It was started by a medical doctor who had a problem of medical charts becoming disassociated from patients.”
From that impetus, the company began researching available technologies. While infrared and radio frequency identification detection (RFID) are often used in such systems, Aasen said Sonitor chose ultrasound due to its superior physical attributes.
Ultrasound, which is a mechanical rather than electromagnetic frequency, cannot penetrate construction materials and therefore allows for room-level detection with complete accuracy.
The Sonitor IPS employs the use of tags and detectors (microphones) to track movement. Each tag has a unique identification code that would only be associated with one specific patient, staff member or medical asset. When the tag is in the room with the detector, its ultrasound identification signal is relayed through Sontior’s patented digital signal processing algorithms. The detectors transmit signals through the medical facility’s existing local area network (LAN) to a central computer that stores time-stamped information on the tag’s location.
Aasen said the small detectors would be installed in spaces where a positive identification was needed such as patient rooms, diagnostic areas and clinical departments. For large spaces, the area could even be broken into zones to provide a sub-room … almost bed-level … detection.
“When we talk about hospitals, we talk about complex indoor environments,” Aasen said.
“One of the attributes of radio frequency is it penetrates walls, ceilings, floors … any construction materials. That’s why your cell phone works,” he said of RFID systems. “That’s fine for your cell phone but not great for finding location … you’ll never be able to get absolute accuracy.”
Aasen added that RFID systems use three readers to calculate the likely location. However, since the frequency cannot sense a wall, ceiling or floor getting to a 10-15-foot accuracy level means that a tag might be in room 301 … or it could be next door in 300 or 302 or even on a floor above or below.
“We’re actually solving a problem in a very young market that’s been detected by the few users that have begun using positioning systems,” he said of the “fix” ultrasound offers. “We 100 percent guarantee location to the room level.”
The final piece in the collection puzzle is the software to translate the raw data into meaningful information for users. That’s where partnerships and alliances with software manufacturers such as Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS) come into play.
PCTS, which is headquartered in California and has corporate offices in Charlotte, N.C., recently entered into an alliance with Sonitor to integrate their respective workflow technologies.
Stephen Armstrong, vice president of marketing for PCTS, said the company has been providing intelligent workflow automation solutions for 10 years. When the company acquired Healthcare I.T. Inc. in 2004, the combined portfolio brought together computer-based emergency department charting software and automatic patient and asset tracking software for the emergency department and surgical suite.
“It was a wonderful synergy to bring together the advantages of automatic tracking with the clinical depth of our charting software,” Armstrong said.
PCTS uses the Amelior™ suite of software to provide fingertip access to assets and people in conjunction with most any positioning technology.
“We want to offer a menu of leading locating technologies … infrared, radio frequency and now the new opportunity to locate through ultrasound,” Armstrong said.
The first software lines were created to handle workflow and patient throughput in the emergency department. AmeliorED™ has now been joined by Amelior automatic tracking solutions to provide real-time identification of patient care milestones and accurate location of resources.
“One of the real advantages of automatic tracking is the ability of this information to populate within the software without the caregiver having to manually enter data,” explained Armstrong. “Caregivers are always updated on the real-time status of the patients and the location of their assets.”
Furthermore, he noted, because the system is Web-based, facilities can run the information on any station that has a browser and network connection.
A dashboard shows real-time, key performance measures. For example, in the Emergency Department, caregivers have the ability to see the triage level of all patients, how many are in the waiting room and how long they’ve been there among other information.
“On the backend,” Armstrong continued, “users have extensive granular patient flow data that has been collected automatically to be able to run in depth analyses and reports that drill down to look at workflow.”
For hospitals and other large healthcare facilities, being able to immediately and accurately locate people and resources translates into better patient care and reduced losses in terms of time and actual dollars.
By being able to find and retrieve equipment quickly, hospitals have been able to reduce the amount of capital tied up in having “extras” on hand. By having real-time visibility of patients, throughput numbers are improved. And by having time-stamped retrospective data, areas that require attention are highlighted.
Aasen added that patients’ families also appreciate the system. By assigning a number to a patient, hospitals could make information about that patient’s progress –– from pre-op to surgery to post-op back to a room –– instantly available to family members via smart boards or computer terminals without violating HIPAA regulations.
The system, Armstrong noted, also offers an added level of protection to staff. If a patient is ultimately diagnosed with an infectious disease, the software allows caregivers to quickly track who came into contact with that patient and notify staff.
August 2007 |
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