Hospital welcomes new technology
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LUMBERTON -- The Southeastern Regional Medical Center is getting ready to install new technology that helps save lives and money. RadarFind, based out of Morrisville, designed the new technology that allows hospital staff to find missing equipment faster.
Charles Brady, director of Clinical Engineering for the medical center, says it is a problem they have been trying to solve for more than 20 years.
"One of the major problems we have had over the years is approximately only 90 percent of the equipment can be found easily each month,” said Brady.
That leaves hospital staff to hunt down the remaining 10 percent of equipment, eating up valuable time when treating patients.
David Sumner, a vice president with the medical center explains, "We need the equipment, can't find it, we need to borrow it from another unit. Then we turn around, and often reorder that equipment and not realize where that original equipment is."
The medical center is now spending more than $250,000 to install a new tracking system. They will then pay $10,000 a year for maintenance on the system.
The new technology will make finding equipment like this a lot easier.
If a nurse needs to find an EKG machine in a hurry, there will be a device on the side of the machine that will send a wireless signal to a device plugged into the wall, that device will then send a data stream through the hospitals power supply to a central computer that will then update information on the nurse's workstation.
"It is very reliable, and so it is a lot cheaper to install for the hospitals, they don't have to spend large amounts of money to wire the hospital," said Brady.
Another feature the hospital likes, RadarFind can list the status of equipment as being ready, in use, or in need of sterilization. The battery on the locater tags can last up to six years before needing to be replaced.
The system was recently tested at Wayne Memorial Hospital in Goldsboro. The manufacturer says the hospital saved $300,000 the first year alone by cutting down on equipment purchases.
While testing the technology, Brady was able to see the device in action from a computer a hundred miles away, "We could actually watch equipment going down the halls in their hospital."