Mississippi Baptist Health Systems uses real-time workflow management
and patient location from PeriOptimum and Radianse
Active-RFID-based solution supports more timely communication among clinicians and patients’ families
Contact: Robby Channell, 601-968-5135 rchannell@mbhs.org
Jackson, Mississippi, March 15, 2005
Committed to using information technology to support improved clinical outcomes, staff productivity and operational efficiency, Mississippi Baptist Health System Surgery Department has deployed a real-time workflow management and patient location solution from industry partners PeriOptimum and Radianse.
The solution integrates patent-pending Radianse active-RFID location technology into PeriOptimum’s PathFinder, a software application that collects patient, equipment and process tracking data across perioperative care, distributes it via a hospital's Intranet or the Internet and stores it for analysis.
Everyone sees the same information
Spread over three large areas, the Baptist Surgery Department needed a way to monitor patient flow. More than 12,000 surgical cases are completed annually. The PeriOptimum/Radianse solution allows Baptist to use real-time location information to facilitate more accurate and timely communication among surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and patient families. Everyone can see the same information and if anything changes everyone will know.
How it works
Patients are issued Radianse location tags, which are assigned individual numbers. Receivers/sensors track where each patient is in the perioperative process. Large plasma computer screens are installed throughout the surgical unit and waiting area. Patients can give their numbers to loved ones who can locate the particular number on the screen and know the patient status of their loved one in the surgical process. For instance, loved ones will know that surgery is completed and the patient is in recovery. Nurses can also send personal messages to the screen to let the loved one know the patient is "resting comfortably" or "coming out of anesthesia."
“Our goal is to increase overall satisfaction and efficiency,” explained J. Kempf Poole, Director of Surgical Services. “Every day we have inpatients and outpatients enter from multiple points, and we face a very dynamic schedule with many operational variables. Managing throughput from pre-op to post-op to discharge is a major challenge, and we felt we could improve it. Now, with this software, we’re able to capture the data we need to analyze our processes, which allows us to improve communication between physicians, staff and patients’ loved ones.”
Second joint installation – PeriOptimum is Radianse Ready™
“Integration of the Radianse solution with PathFinder is proving to be as valuable as we expected,” said Hakan Ilkin, founder and executive vice president of PeriOptimum. “With Radianse active-RFID and location technology, we extend the capabilities of our optimization tools, giving hospitals relevant, time-stamped identity and location data to help them improve the perioperative cycle.”
Michael Dempsey, chief technology officer of Radianse, said, "The value that the combined PeriOptimum/Radianse solution provides to Mississippi Baptist is just as we have envisioned — a simple, accurate, consistent way to use time-stamped location data to identify bottlenecks and develop workflow solutions."
Radianse and PeriOptimum have also installed an integrated solution at Hannibal Regional
Hospital, Hannibal, Missouri.
PeriOptimum is part of the Radianse Ready™ partner program, which gives application providers and device manufacturers the training, support and warranties to ensure consistently high performance of Radianse location software, active-RFID-tags and LAN- and WiFi-ready receivers.
About Baptist Health Systems
Baptist Health Systems is the parent company of Baptist Medical Center, The Mississippi Hospital for Restorative Care and a number of related healthcare services and programs. Since 1911, Baptist has served Mississippi as a Christian-based, non-profit comprehensive medical center. Today, Baptist Medical Center is part of a growing network that makes comprehensive health care, health education, health risk assessments and wellness more accessible than ever before.
About PeriOptimum
Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PeriOptimum provides a broad range of products and services that help hospitals improve surgical throughput. Hospitals and surgicenters use the company’s Perioperative Improvement Evaluation (PIE™), PathFinder™ workflow management solution and Surgical Capacity Improvement Program (SCIP™) to create predictable and streamlined perioperative environments. The result is increased patient throughput, significantly improved physicians, staff and patient satisfaction, and tremendous net revenue gains. For more information, visit www.perioptimum.com.
About Radianse, Inc.
Radianse, Inc., Lawrence, Mass., provides indoor positioning solutions (IPS) to locate and associate medical equipment, patients and staff. A Radianse IPS combines active-RFID with a patent-pending location algorithm to deliver proven accuracy and return on investment. Radianse adheres to an open systems approach to location solutions, shunning exclusive arrangements it sees as limiting effectiveness across a healthcare campus. Hospitals in the U.S. and Europe use Radianse solutions to reduce asset loss and excess rentals and improve efficiency, resource utilization, safety and patient flow. Learn more at www.radianse.com.
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