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Wyoming Medical Center Tracks Supply Replenishment Via LogiTag RFID System

The Wyoming Medical Center, located in Caspar, Wyo., has installed LogiTag Systems' StockBox, an RFID solution that leverages 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags compliant with the ISO 15693 standard, to more efficiently manage supplies stored in rooms across the center's entire 700,000-square-foot facility. The StockBox is designed for consumables, such as surgical supplies, that are only used once. Once a predetermined amount of product is consumed, an RFID tag is placed within an RFID-enabled box, thereby triggering the reordering of that item from the warehouse or stockroom. The solution replaces an automated supply cabinet solution that the medical center had been leasing, which cost approximately $175,000 per year to maintain, according to LogiTag. While the cabinets kept supplies secure, nurses had to first enter a keypad code and then the items required, in order to obtain a count. This slowed the staff down, the company reports, and due to the extra steps, the count was rarely kept up to date. The medical center wanted a system that would be easier to use, and that would improve the facility's material-management processes, save labor time and hospital funds, according to LogiTag.

The new StockBox works with Spacesaver's FrameWRX health-care storage system, by which RFID tags have been placed on each bin in the storage system. When the quantity of a particular product within a bin reaches the designated reorder point, a staff member removes the tag and inserts it into the StockBox. The StockBox's built-in RFID hardware reads the tag's ID number and forwards that information to the StockBox software. In response, the software issues a notice to authorized personnel to replenish that item. When additional supplies arrive, a worker unlocks the StockBox, removes the RFID tag and places it back at the appropriate reorder point, thereby signaling that inventory levels are now up to date in the software.

The Wyoming Medical Center worked with Improve Group, which initially installed the solution within one of the medical center's small ER supply rooms that held low-value inventory items. Improve Group installed 285 primary bins and 285 secondary bins, along with the StockBox. Since then, StockBoxes and FrameWRX have been installed in 15 more supply rooms throughout the facility. To date, LogiTag reports, the medical center has seen more than a 90 percent reduction in its annual maintenance costs, cut the amount of labor associated with counting supplies in half, and experienced no stock-outs.
In addition, the center has eliminated expired items and waste, with right-size inventory. It has also been able to produce real-time reports, accessible by hospital employees, and it now has faster and easier access to supplies, as well as more time for patient care, according to LogiTag.

http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?11184/2