STRATEGIC SOURCING & LOGISITICS
or inventory on paper or Excel – that’s a perfect spot to start to implement a bar code- or RFID-based solution. One par- ticular niche we’ve seen is with patient belongings and valuables. Using a solu- tion like IntelliTrack’s Patient Belongings Tracking application will improve the patient experience immensely.”
Concentrate on labor early Healthcare organizations should focus on three key areas when evaluating the type of track-and-trace technology sought as well as the brand, according to Rich Leitermann, Director of Engineering, WaveMark Supply Management and orkfl ow olutions, ardinal ealth. Healthcare staff time is one. “How do you value the time of healthcare staff?” Leitermann asked. “Day-to-day use of bar codes requires gaining ‘line-of-sight- access to each bar code, pointing and shooting. onversely,
Rich Leitermann
reading RFID tags does not require line of sight and will read at up to 100 tags per second at a distance. Think about taking away the tedium of using staff time to fi nd the bar code, point and shoot over and over for each product being counted. I’d ask if the healthcare providers really have the time to do this?” Tracking individual item attributes ver- sus stock-keeping units (SKUs) is another. “Is it important to track individual item attributes versus only SKUs?” he indi- cated. “Bar codes often do not include information that identifi es individual items. Instead, the bar code may repre- sent just manufacturer and manufactur- er’s part number. RFID systems usually uniquely identify products down to the ‘each,’ including serialization, lot number, etc. This is possible because RFID tags contain a worldwide uniue identifi er that can be associated with all relevant information about the product to which it is affi ed. he uniue identifi cation from RFID enables richer data that can be used for more advanced reporting and analytics.”
Automation and inventory accuracy is a third. “Is automation and inventory accuracy important to you?” he noted. “Using bar codes is predominantly a manual operation. A person has to point the bar-code reader at a bar code. By definition, this makes bar code an error- prone process and will result in lower inventory accuracy. RFID is the path to automating item identification and can provide highly accurate inventory
information without taking the time and attention of staff.”
Labor should be a key consideration,
acknowledges John Freund, Founder and , ump echnologies. e points to nursing and supply technician compli- ance in recording transactions. “I think most would agree that if nurses found scanning bar codes to be a simple and effi cient part of their everyday work- fl ows, they would do so, Freund said. “However, while bar coding as a technology is less expensive, compliance with scanning is the challenge.” Nursing compliance represents the
John Freund
fi rst factor in that any system should be user-friendly and integrated with other systems, according to Freund. “For exam- ple, the ability to update lot and serial numbers, along with expiration dates in the [electronic health record], would be a valuable feature to look for in a sys- tem,” he said. “Other features to look for in a system include: Does the system decrement inventory and create reorders for items? Does the system create requi- sitions for bill-only, consignment, and trunk stock items? And does the system update the implant log in the EHR? “You can have an RFID system that makes recording the transaction simple, but if it doesn’t interface with the back- end systems properly and nurses have to do dual entry, then clinical issues will arise, which can complicate implementa- tion and reduce the savings potential of an RFID-based system,” he continued. “Therefore, nursing should play a critical role when evaluating these technologies.” Naturally, economics plays a role. “The monetary value of the items being tracked is also an overriding factor in this deci- sion,” Freund noted. “RFID technology is good, but not inexpensive. Not only are there facility charges associated with physically implementing the technology, there are ongoing costs associated with getting RFID tags on the items you want to track. That’s why RFID doesn’t make sense for inexpensive med/surg materi- als. However, for more expensive mate- rials like implants, it may make sense.” onseuently, reund recommends bar coding as affordable for tracking med/ surg items in sub-inventory locations. “For example, the Jump Technologies system supports Kanban as an inventory method using a bar-code scanner cost- ing just $105,” he said. “It’s important to remember that the technology being deployed can’t drive the costs to track
them beyond the reimbursement hospitals receive for them.”
Focus on value of labor, products
Any product or service decision designed to improve a process should see roots in a value assessment, according to Jason Rosemurgy, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Terso Solutions. taff effi ciency must be
obtained and maintained. “If making the most of staff time is important, then it’s important for providers to consider technology that enables their team to perform the jobs they were hired
Jason Rosemurgy
to do,” Rosemurgy said. “Nurses’ core responsibilities revolve around provid- ing patient care. A recent study found that nearly 40% of an average nurse’s shift time is spent on ‘wasteful’ activities — often looking for items like supplies and critical inventory. RFID technology, further enabled with the right integrated software platform, can direct nurses to the right inventory in a department or facility. And if that inventory or item isn’t where it is supposed to be, it can direct staff to who may have handled it most recently, allowing nurses to refocus on patients and urgent procedures.” riticality of the inventory needing to be tracked is important, too, and that doesn’t always involve costs, Rosemurgy indicates. “As we learned in the pan- demic, while expensive inventory is often critical, critical inventory isn’t always expensive,” he said. “Supplies and items like [personal protective equipment] were often in short supply, sometimes hoarded, or simply not located where they were meant to be stored. Barcode-based sys- tems can be ‘confused’ by users scanning an individual item and inadvertently taking more than one thing, throwing inventory levels out of balance and pos- sibly overstating inventory levels on these critical items.” Additionally, certain cold chain implants are often best tracked using , specifi - cally RFID enclosures, Rosemurgy rec- ommends. “Knowing for certain that a particular product has been stored at the proper temperature can be a requirement for items like tissue and biologics,” he said. “Some of these items have been donated or are related to a trauma-specifi c surgical case and could truly be considered price- less. Misplacing them or having to scrap them due to not knowing whether an item was kept outside of specifi ed temperature
hpnonline.com • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • September 2022 19
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