01-02-2008, 11:07 PM
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High-cost Inventory cut 9% at UMass Medical Center
RFID Journal tracked the story of the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center’s new RFID inventory system. With this system of tracking pacemakers, cardiac stents, and other cardiac devices, thousands of dollars and countless labor hours have been saved.
The hospital has cut its inventory of high-dollar items by 9 percent, and now takes advantage of volume discounts through bulk orders made possible by better understanding the utilization rates. For some medical items, which UMass receives on consignment, the data system helps reconcile order and payments with the suppliers, and track expiration dates. The new system utilizes 13.56 MHz tags, smart cabinets with built-in RFID interrogaters that read items on shelves every 18 minutes, a point-of-service (POS) device that incorporates RFID and bar-code scanners, and Web-based software by WaveMark to monitor, analyze and manage the results. How it works: every time a device is pulled from a cabinet, the inventory level is updated. Before the device is used in a patient, it is read by a POS interrogator that updates the web-based system with the date, time and location of usage. This data is transmitted and integrated into the clinical system, which correlates that information with the patient. The hospital expects to expand RFID technology into the surgical rooms, which are often black holes for surgical equipment and products. 
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