Hospital operators are always faced with the need to replenish their medical supplies, and tracking and inventorying these supplies can be costly and labor-intensive. Logitag addresses those concerns with RFID solutions, which have helped operators save on labor and management cost. One of the solutions employs a tw
Hospital operators are always faced with the need to replenish their medical supplies, and tracking and inventorying these supplies can be costly and labor-intensive. Logitag addresses those concerns with RFID solutions, which have helped operators save on labor and management cost.
One of the solutions employs a two-bin Kanban system where both bins are tagged with RFID tags and filled with medical supplies. When one of the bins runs out, the nurse can push a button on the RFID tag, and an order is automatically generated and sent to the supplier. The supplies can be delivered directly to the bin, which is kept at a department of the hospital, thus eliminating the need for central storage.
“We see a reduction of labor,” said Shlomo Matityaho, CEO of Logitag. “Now we don't have to send someone to count or create order. By pushing the button, you create the order.”
Another solution employs cabinets filled with medical supplies, each of which is tagged with an RFID tag. Each time a supply is taken out, a record is generated on who took the supply and which patient received the supply. A third application is for protection of infants at hospitals. A baby and its mother are given a pair of RFID tags, and both tags must be present in order for them to exit the infants ward.
According to Matityaho, RFID will be more and more dominating. “Many of the barcode applications we know today will be replaced by RFID. However, it will not eliminate the barcode. I see a combination of barcode and RFID,” he said.