{module 169}

For many hospitals, it is important to know both the location of patients and the equipment within the facility.

Working in a consortium involving three companies, IronRooster developed a comprehensive solution for this issue. The county hospital where we deployed the pilot installation was extremely satisfied with the results and continues to help us further refine the solution.     

How we track patients?

During the planning stage, the partners identified a complex process aimed at determining the location of individuals or equipment within a building. An important aspect of the development involved ensuring that the hospital could be divided into zones. The main idea is that they want to track not just certain people but equipments as well. In the event of unauthorized movement to or from one of these areas, an alarm would sound and security personnel would receive an automatic alert. In this case, one of the most challenging aspects of the implementation was the requirement to rely on existing hardware infrastructure to develop the solution. Our RFID-based system employs antennas for tracking the RFID tags. But those needed to be precisely calibrated for the system to be as accurate as possible. In addition, we developed two applications as components to the solution: 

• For security personnel, we developed an Android application. It assists in tracking by showing the position of patients or equipment within the building or within a given zone. 
• For visitors, we developed an application that offers general information about the facilities and any important news or informational updates.  

Future plans

Together with our partners, we will continue to improve the solution for the county hospital. In addition to this, we would like to ensure it continues to meet their patient tracking and facility management needs. Does your hospital need to do a better job of tracking patients or equipment within your facilities? We would be glad to tell you more about the available solutions.