RadarFind: RFID by Doctors, for Doctors

Reliability and cost effectiveness make RadarFind the tracking system for Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center.

RadarFind asset tags with status indicators communicate with the RadarFind plug-in reader.

Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center, Southern New Jersey's premier regional tertiary care teaching medical center, recently chose the RadarFind RTLS to boost its efforts to enhance patient care, rein in costs, and improve infection control throughout the hospital. Our Lady of Lourdes is part of Catholic Health East, one of the nation 's largest not-for-profit health systems.

The simplicity of RadarFind's installation, its ease of use, and its ability to provide real-time status information about medical equipment throughout an entire hospital made this asset and patient tracking solution stand out from competitors, according to hospital officials.

"This system will enable us to manage our equipment and monitor patient throughput more effectively and efficiently, benefiting patient care and hospital operations, " says Alexander Hatala, President and CEO of Lourdes Health System. "It became quickly evident that the design of RadarFind's solution was guided by doctors and former hospital administrators who clearly understand the dynamics of hospital operations. "

RadarFind also is more affordable to install than other systems, allowing hospitals to see a rapid return on investment. For example, less than a year after installing the RadarFind system, Wayne Memorial Hospital, a 316-bed facility in Goldsboro, N.C. was able to reduce equipment purchases by more than $300,000.

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RadarFind MapView of the sixth floor at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

The simplest solution is the best solution

"RadarFind did its homework by spending considerable time actually listening to potential hospital customers and performing test trials encompassing entire hospitals – not just clinical zones," says Louis Bianchin, Senior Analyst from Venture Development Corporation. "Rather than using technology intended for wireless data transmission to capture location information, RadarFind elected to develop its RTLS platform with more cost-effective hardware and better accuracy. Sophisticated antenna-based technology and system components that plug into almost any AC outlet result in a simple solution that most hospitals can afford. "

RadarFind status tag indicates that the feeding pump needs cleaning.

RadarFind's unique platform technology overcomes the limitations associated with typical RFID and WiFi solutions. Designed to seamlessly integrate with existing hospital infrastructure and operations, RadarFind requires no new wiring or ceiling and wall penetration. And unlike many other systems, RadarFind operates independently of a hospital's critical IT network.

The RadarFind system can provide room-level accuracy with no need for ongoing calibration. Readers that plug into existing electrical outlets avoid interfering with hospital operations and staff processes since there is no need to close off patient rooms during installation. Moreover, the intuitive software is simple to use and easily accommodates hospital staff skill levels.

Actionable intelligence

Where many other systems provide information only about a device's location, RadarFind's intrinsically safe, programmable asset tag goes a step further by alerting staff to the device's status: available, in-use, or needs cleaning/sterilization.

"Recent studies demonstrate that environmental surfaces, including mobile medical devices and computers, are a route for transmitting infectious diseases, " comments Vincent Carrasco, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for RadarFind. "By using RadarFind asset tags to track and identify mobile medical devices in order to document effective cleaning, hospitals can better address and control infection rates. "

"The RadarFind system was designed specifically for the hospital environment and can scale to accurately track thousands of assets and patient encounters in the largest hospital system, " says RadarFind's CEO Terry Kane, M.D. "Working in concert with our hospital customers, our ongoing technology development generates inherent flexibility to economically meet the unique demands of even the most complex hospital facility. "