Oregon Health & Science University Receives Award For Advanced Healthcare Technology Solutions

Combined Technology from Stanley Healthcare and CareFusion Creates Solution for Near Real-Time Location and Utilization Data of IV Pumps.

Oregon Health & Science University received an award last night from the RFID in Healthcare Consortium/Intelligent Hospital for the "2013 Best Comprehensive Integration" of advanced health care technology. The award was presented at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2013 conference and exhibition, currently underway in New Orleans.

Oregon Health & Science University implemented an interoperability solution that combined Stanley Healthcare's Wi-Fi Real-Time Location System (RTLS) and Asset Tracking & Management with CareFusion's Alaris® IV pump hardware and utilization data. The combined system enabled Oregon Health & Science University to better understand the location and utilization of each IV pump at its hospital, and made it easier for clinicians, equipment managers and biomedical engineers to quickly locate and view near real-time utilization of the pumps.

"Through the integrated Stanley Healthcare and CareFusion solution, we not only know where each pump is located, but if it is currently in use or if it is available for the next patient," said Dennis Minsent, Director of Clinical Technology Services at Oregon Health & Science University. "This has greatly increased our efficiency in how we deliver IV medication to our patients."

In addition to the benefits of a real-time view of IV pump location and utilization, the integrated system can also provide valuable insight into the various pump modules being used in different parts of the hospital. The Alaris® System has several types of pump modules (large volume pump, patient controlled analgesia, syringe, respiratory monitoring), and the hospital can view utilization of each module to determine frequency of use or if there are opportunities to redeploy a module to another area of the hospital where it would have higher utilization.

The new interoperable solution also enables clinicians to push a button on the RFID tag to notify equipment managers or biomedical engineers if the pump needs to be cleaned or serviced. The notification is sent to the appropriate department and they are able to easily locate and retrieve the pump for maintenance.

Source: CareFusion