Aeroscout Improves Efficiency Of Regional Hospital St. Trudo With Asset Tracking And Temperature Monitoring Using A Cisco Unified Wireless Network
AeroScout, Inc. (http://aeroscout.com), the leading provider of Unified Asset Visibility for improving operational efficiency, recently announced that St. Trudo Hospital is using a solution from AeroScout and Cisco to improve the management of critical equipment. Since deploying the solution, St. Trudo has increased staff productivity and reduced equipment costs, while delivering the highest level of safety, comfort and care to patients.
Regional Hospital St. Trudo is a 310-bed hospital that serves the Limburg and Vlaams-Brabant regions of Belgium. Its 700 employees and 80 doctors care for more than 11,000 patients admitted to the hospital annually. The hospital installed a Cisco® Unified Wireless Network and uses this infrastructure to support AeroScout's Unified Asset Visibility (UAV) solution, including Wi-Fi-based active radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, to track and manage expensive specialty mattresses, IV pumps and wheelchairs that are required throughout the facility. St. Trudo also uses the wireless network to accurately monitor the temperature inside the hospital's data center.
The specialty mattresses, called anti-decubitus mattresses, help prevent pressure sores in patients who must remain in the hospital for extended periods. The hospital's mattresses, as well as the IV pumps and wheelchairs, are in constant use and moving throughout the facility. Before installing the asset tracking solution, staff often had to manually search the entire facility to locate needed equipment, which wasted a substantial amount of time and reduced utilization of this patient-care equipment. Moreover, when the mattresses weren't readily available, the hospital often had to rent others, incurring significant expenses and delays.
To solve this problem, St. Trudo implemented AeroScout's MobileView software and Wi-Fi-based RFID tags. The tags are attached to the specialty mattresses, IV pumps and wheelchairs, enabling accurate, real-time visibility and management of those assets. The system is also set up to alert hospital personnel when the number of wheelchairs available for use reaches a critically low level, or whenever a wheelchair is inactive for two hours so that it can be returned to the reception area.
In addition, AeroScout's Wi-Fi-based temperature-monitoring application is installed in St. Trudo's server room. The application also uses the Cisco Unified Wireless infrastructure to transport information -- in this case, temperature readings -- to the network. This enables the hospital's IT department to remotely monitor the temperature of the room from anywhere in the hospital, or even to receive alerts at home.
"AeroScout and Cisco have made a significant improvement in the way we operate," said Daniel Loos, manager, information technology, at St. Trudo. "The staff is more satisfied and much more efficient with their time. We have been able to increase the utilization of expensive mattresses, IV pumps and wheelchairs, as well as reduce expenses related to renting extra mattresses. Best of all, we can improve service and care for patients who require the use of the tracked equipment."
Systems integrator and Cisco Gold Certified Partner, NextiraOne, led the design and installation of the context-aware wireless network, composed of more than 250 access points. The Cisco Unified Wireless Network can support a range of services including applications that give clinicians access to electronic medical records at the bedside, mobile calls using Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phones, and AeroScout's Unified Asset Visibility.
"St. Trudo is a great example of how Unified Asset Visibility helps healthcare organizations to become more efficient, reduce costs, and deliver high-quality care," said Andris Berzins, vice president, EMEA, at AeroScout. "We are proud of the valuable results achieved at St. Trudo with Wi-Fi-based asset management and temperature monitoring, and we look forward to continuing to drive success with Cisco across European and global customers."
About AeroScout
AeroScout is the market leader in Unified Asset Visibility solutions. Customers improve operational efficiency using AeroScout products that leverage standard Wi-Fi networks to track and manage the location, condition and status of mobile assets and people. AeroScout's global customer base consists of leading hospital, manufacturing and logistics organizations, including many of the Fortune 500. The company originally invented the first Wi-Fi-based Active RFID tag, and today is widely recognized as leading the market in number of deployments and tags shipped. Headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., AeroScout has offices in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Australia. For more information, please visit www.aeroscout.com.
SOURCE: AeroScout, Inc.