Wi-Fi based tracking ensures better usability of equipment and staff.
Christophe Mouton, Financial Administration Manager at Jan Yperman hospital in Ypres, reported on the successful installation of the Wi-Fi based AeroScout tracking system in his hospital. With help from Telindus/Belgacom ICT, the hospital was the first in Belgium to launch real-time tracking of medical logistic equipment as well as staff and patients. The hospital selected Nortel WLAN equipment and RFID technology supplied by Californian company AeroScout.
Jan Yperman’s wireless network has approximately 350 access points, which are managed via the LAN network through central redundant controllers. Assets and people are monitored through “tags”, attached to equipment, wrist and ankle bands. In refrigerators, cold stores and incubators, tags monitor the temperature and send messages when the temperature exceeds certain limits. Emergency and night staff have a tag with alarm buttons, which they can use to send an alarm signal in threatening situations.
Thanks to campus-wide tracking, the hospital can now manage its assets more efficiently and put them into service faster and more efficiently. The “exciters” or chokepoints offer even more accurate and immediate localisation than classic triangulation. They are used for localisation that has to take place very precisely and instantaneously. Thus, the day surgery has exciters above the entrance to every hall or room so that every patient can be tracked: in the reception lobby, operating theatre, in post-treatment care or anywhere en route. The transparency of the workflow provides much peace of mind for our nursing staff. Integration of this information via the primary processes offers the hospital the opportunity to rationalise its work while simultaneously giving both staff and patients a more efficient, safer environment.
