San Diego hospital tests RFID-based drug-management system developed by MEPS Real Time

Jan 19 2011

RFID Journal features MEPS Real Time's Intelliguard drug management system story.

Someone can live or die depending on the correct medications being dispensed. Hospitals and medical professionals clearly agree leveraging better tracking of a drug's expiration dates, information about the drug administered, tracking and updating inventory levels, all performed in REAL TIME, would assist in preventing errors.

A San Diego hospital is testing an RFID-based drug-management system developed by MEPS Real Time, an RFID solutions provider based in Carlsbad, Calif. The system, known as Intelliguard, employs standard EPC Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) passive RFID tags and readers, including a tabletop reader for commissioning the tag attached to each drug's packaging, as well as RFID-enabled drug-dispensing cabinets and bedside patient trays. Each time one of the cabinet's drawers has been opened and then closed, the system reads the tags of drugs stored in that drawer, and can verify that the correct item was removed.

"It has always been my intention to try to have a system that can reduce medications from expiring, unused," the hospital's pharmacy director explains.

Key benefits of MEPS Real Time Drug Management System are:

• Better management of stock levels of medicines. By maintaining a smaller stock, the frequency at which any of the drugs remain on the shelf past their expiry date is reduced.
• EPC Gen 2 tags and readers because the hardware is standardized and the tags can be read consistently and in quantities.
• Trading partners would tag medications prior to shipping them to hospitals, so that the tags can then be used to create drug pedigrees and chains of custody.
• A reduction in cost of capital.
• RFID tags and readers, including a tabletop reader for commissioning the tag attached to each drug's packaging, as well as RFID-enabled drug-dispensing cabinets and bedside patient trays, designed for use within patient rooms.