740 Hospital Beds Equipped with WLAN Transponders

Process Requirements

The Leverkusen Hospital has a range of different patient beds available, which have to be transported to a specific ward depending on requirements. The different bed types include heavy-duty and comfort beds. Evaluations of the logistics processes showed that it could take up to two hours to find a specific bed. The search times thus tied up personnel resources and put a strain on staff. Faster patient changes and the associated logistics made it necessary to organize these processes more efficiently.

Objective:

• Reduce asset search times
• Cost-efficient implementation of the technological infrastructure
• Transferability to other processes: Tracking and localization of mobile medical devices or the surveillance of refrigerators

Solution

In the initial rollout, 180 comfort beds at Leverkusen Hospital will be tagged with WLAN transponders and localized in the existing WiFi infrastructure. Every five minutes, the transponders transmit the exact location of each bed within the building via the existing WLAN infrastructure.

The battery life of the transponders is approximately 24 months. Since all assets must be checked annually, the battery check takes place parallel to the asset maintenance process.

To avoid possible bottlenecks in data transmission, a network slicing was implemented. This network slicing ensures that sufficient capacities are available for every application via WLAN. Targeted monitoring identifies potential bottlenecks in the network structure and allocation to proactively counteract data loss.

At the start of the tracking solution, WLAN coverage at Leverkusen Hospital was around 45%. Practical experience has shown that this coverage is sufficient for bed tracking. Following the successful implementation in the comfort bed sector, all 740 hospital beds were gradually equipped with WLAN transponders as part of routine maintenance. Additionally, Leverkusen Hospital started the labeling of mobile medical equipment.

In a third integration step, WLAN sensor transponders were installed in refrigerators. The previous manual documentation of the temperature has since been carried out automatically. The number of refrigerator openings is also documented.

Advantages

• Reduzierung der Bettensuchzeiten von bis zu 120 Minuten auf durchschnittlich 5 Minuten.
• Reduction of bed search times from up to 120 minutes to an average of 5 minutes Reduction of employee workload, protection of personnel resources and reduction of absence from the workplace.
• Combination of tracking and monitoring generates analysis data for process optimization.
• Activity-based process control optimizes the coordination of building services and care.
• Operating technology and bed suppliers benefit from tracking data for maintenance and repair.
• Low construction effort and costs by using the existing WLAN infrastructure.
• The solution is transferable to the tracking of mobile medical equipment or the surveillance of refrigerators.

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