Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today that m, a leading provider of RFID patient safety solutions, has integrated the ThingMagic® Astra® UHF Reader into its RFID Oncology Solution. The XECAN solution enhances the patient experience and significantly assists in the goal of eliminating treatment errors allowing healthcare organizations to offer a safer and more inviting medical experience. Most recently, XECAN's RFID Oncology Solution was deployed at Jordan Hospital in Massachusetts.
Designed for enterprise environments, the ThingMagic Astra is an integrated UHF RFID reader that is easy to install and unobtrusive, making it ideal for healthcare IT infrastructures. The XECAN Oncology Solution leverages the Astra's flexibility, ease-of-use and low cost to automate patient queuing, the opening of patient charts and treatment plans, and accessory verification for treatment devices. XECAN's RFID plug-in solution is designed to eliminate patient identification and potential treatment errors by interfacing directly with Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software.
"By embedding our agent software directly onto the Astra reader, we've made our RFID Oncology Solution truly plug-and-play," said Bin Yang, Ph.D., CEO of XECAN. "The design and functionality of Astra lets us offer integration-ready RFID solutions for major EMR systems on the market, so customers don't have to modify their existing EMR software. This breakthrough advantage sets us apart while enabling us to provide an affordable, yet highly reliable RFID system."
"Healthcare organizations have recognized how Passive UHF RFID can help streamline business operations, as well as the positive impact RFID-enabled solutions can have on patients," said Tom Grant, general manager of Trimble's ThingMagic Division. "By simplifying the way organizations can develop, integrate, and deploy RFID-enabled solutions, we help healthcare companies like XECAN focus more on the patient and less on the RFID technology."
As part of the solution, each patient receives a XECAN RFID lanyard. The RFID reader, which is concealed above the ceiling, automatically identifies the patient. Because of the extended read range of the ThingMagic Astra reader, patients need only pass within approximately 15 feet of any reader to be recognized. Through the XECAN EMR integration, when the RFID system identifies the patient, they are placed in the daily schedule queue and their medical chart and treatment plan are immediately opened. Patient-identifiable information can only be viewed within the clinic and only by authorized staff members.
After only a few weeks of use, the deployment at Jordan Hospital has been very well received by staff and patients because it fosters a more pleasant experience for the patient. By reducing the number of time-consuming manual activities, the front office and nursing staff can spend more quality time with the patients. Additionally, patients can be confident that "wrong patient" medical errors are significantly minimized, if not eliminated.
"Before the RFID system was in place, we would have to ask the patient to produce three forms of identification to properly match them with their treatment plans. Now, after an initial registration, the patient's identification is verified automatically in one step. This gives us more time to talk to patients about things going on in their lives, helping them feel more at ease," said Natalie Campbell, Department manager, Jordan Hospital. "We're so pleased with the progress that we're already thinking about expanding the RFID system to other parts of the hospital to potentially include staff and radiology accessories."
New Customer Deployments
Joining several leading oncology clinics, Lahey Clinic has also selected the XECAN RFID solution. The first phase of Lahey's XECAN solution will be deployed at its Burlington, Massachusetts site for patient tracking and queuing. Patient charts will be opened in two LINAC rooms, along with SIM rooms and exam rooms. The second phase will take place at the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Peabody, Massachusetts with similar functionality. A third phase is expected to add more tracking locations to fully leverage the technology to improve operational flows.
ThingMagic RFID readers are also deployed in solutions at healthcare facilities such as the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center to reduce patient anxiety and improve the workflow between clinicians, patients and administrators, as well as in Greenville Hospital for surgical case cart stocking, equipment loss prevention and asset utilization reporting. The company's RFID Reader Modules have also been selected for integration into many mobile and stationary medical devices, allowing hospitals to benefit from patient-centric applications that would otherwise not be possible, such as point-of-care solutions and services, automated pharmaceutical receipt & distribution, ADT, and EMR applications.
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