Genesis Health System implements AeroScout's hospital-wide asset tracking and management system

Oct 21 2009

AeroScout, the leading provider of Unified Asset Visibility for the healthcare industry, today announced that Genesis Health System has implemented AeroScout’s Wi-Fi RTLS (real time location system) for hospital-wide asset tracking and management at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport, Iowa. Genesis uses the AeroScout solution to improve staff efficiency, optimize maintenance of medical equipment and reduce operational and capital expenses associated with renting additional devices and purchasing equipment.

Genesis Health System has been recognized among the nation's top 50 health systems for clinical quality and efficiency by Thomson Reuters. In August, Genesis was also named one of the top 100 most wired hospitals in the U.S. by Hospital and Health Networks Magazine, and in fact has made the list for six years in a row.

The AeroScout deployment exemplifies how Genesis uses technology to operate more efficiently and improve patient care. The solution leverages Genesis Health System’s existing Cisco Unified Wireless Network and consists of AeroScout Wi-Fi Tags, AeroScout Exciters and AeroScout MobileView software. By using its standard Wi-Fi network, Genesis reduced its total cost of ownership and avoided having to deploy and maintain a proprietary network.

For the Asset Tracking and Management implementation, the AeroScout Professional Services team worked closely with key Genesis stakeholders to understand their business processes and goals. Together, they created a solution design that incorporated best practices from many past AeroScout healthcare deployments, ensuring that the implementation was smooth, efficient and successful.

Genesis is currently tracking and managing about 700 items throughout the medical center, including infusion pumps, wheelchairs, bariatric wheelchairs, stretchers and powered air-purifying respirators. Using the AeroScout solution to monitor these items significantly reduces the amount of time the staff spends waiting for and searching for key equipment.

Improved asset tracking and management enables Genesis to increase equipment utilization rates considerably and control the distribution and allocation of assets more effectively. For example, the Supervisor of Logistics at Genesis, Steve Montgomery, uses census data as well as real-time asset visibility information in order to allocate equipment proactively and ensure its optimal deployment. If he sees that a large number of outpatient surgeries are occurring on a given day, which would require having more equipment available in the recovery area, the team can plan accordingly. In addition, Genesis is monitoring and managing its rented equipment using the Wi-Fi-based solution. Staff can easily locate the tagged rental equipment and return items on time and without incurring additional unnecessary rental costs.

The Asset Tracking and Management solution is also being used by Genesis to gather inventory data for daily staff meetings. “During a recent staff meeting we learned that we were low on infusion pumps, which meant we would have to rent additional pumps to meet our needs,” said Mr. Montgomery. “Using AeroScout, we were alerted to the fact that too many pumps requiring repair were accumulating in the biomedical department, and we therefore prioritized the repair of those devices. This saved us the cost of renting additional equipment.”

The AeroScout solution also plays an important role in the medical center’s disaster preparedness plan. Knowing the exact location of critical equipment has helped the logistics team demonstrate that it can react quickly and deliver the required equipment to the right places on time. Typically this would require several people combing the medical center and making numerous phone calls. With real-time visibility, Mr. Montgomery is now able to control the distribution from his desk.

“Clinical staff’s confidence that they will have the equipment they need when they need it has increased since we deployed the AeroScout solution,” stated Rob Frieden, Vice President of Information Services at Genesis. “AeroScout has helped us to improve patient safety and quality of care and, at the same time, to control costs.”

Because of the significant benefits the AeroScout deployment has delivered, Genesis plans to expand the number and type of assets tracked to include feeding pumps, patient-controlled analgesia pumps, sequential compression devices, bed alarms and operating room tables. The medical center is also planning to add AeroScout’s Temperature Monitoring solution to wirelessly monitor the temperature of refrigerators and freezers throughout the facility. This will help Genesis meet compliance standards while eliminating the time-consuming task of manually checking temperatures.

“With the nation focused on healthcare reform and reducing healthcare costs, Genesis provides a model for hospitals everywhere on how to apply technology and improve processes in smart ways to eliminate inefficiencies, while at the same time enhancing overall patient care and satisfaction,” said Gabi Daniely, Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy at AeroScout. “Genesis has achieved impressive results, and we are proud of AeroScout’s role in helping healthcare organizations across the country and around the globe.”