Archive for January 31st, 2012
RTLS to Increase Patient Visibility Within Tallahassee Memorial’s Operating Suites
The Florida hospital is expanding its existing AeroScout Wi-Fi-based RFID system to track patients entering and leaving its ORs, and to display data about each patient’s status on a reader board.
Jan. 30, 2012—More than five years after installing a real-time location system (RTLS) to track assets, as well as temperatures, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) will begin piloting the technology next month to track patients moving through the facility’s operating rooms, thereby automating the process of updating each patient’s status on reader boards posted for employees and patients’ loved ones. By leveraging its existing Wi-Fi based RTLS from AeroScout, the hospital hopes to gain automated information regarding patients’ movements into the pre-operation area, the ORs and the recovery area. That data could then be displayed on TMH’s existing reader boards, which would automatically update the location of every patient wearing an RTLS badge.
Since it began using RTLS technology in late 2006, the hospital reports that it has reduced its annual equipment replacement and rental costs by $85,000, while also reducing the amount of labor hours spent by nurses and the biomedical staff searching for missing assets, or checking the temperatures of cooling or warming devices throughout the facility (see Increasing Efficiencies by Using RFID to Track Assets). The original RTLS was provided by PanGo Networks, but the hospital replaced that system it 2009 with a solution consisting of AeroScout’s tags and MobileView software, residing on the hospital’s back-end system, at the same time that it upgraded its Wi-Fi infrastructure.
TMH is an 800,000-square-foot acute health-care facility containing 770 beds and employing a staff of 3,500. The PanGo solution was installed to track the locations of such high-value mobile assets as infusion pumps, wheelchairs and beds, thereby reducing the amount of time workers spent looking for those items, as well as ensuring that equipment did not end up missing, or require replacement in the event that it could not be located.
In 2006, the hospital had just deployed 225 Cisco Wi-Fi access points, which failed to provide sufficient coverage to pinpoint the Wi-Fi RFID tags’ locations, says Jay Adams, TMH’s IT enterprise architect. With the RTLS solution in place, he says, the hospital was able to identify an object ‘s location only to a specific wing, which did not provide enough granularity. Moreover, TMH wanted to install exciters at doorways to identify when an item left the premises, and to then issue alerts to employees indicating what was leaving, and through which door. At the time, however, PanGo’s future seemed uncertain (the company was later acquired by InnerWireless, which has since discontinued its RTLS solution).
So in 2009, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare adopted the AeroScout system, which includes T2 tags. The hospital had recently added Cisco access points, of which it now has about 700 deployed. TMH also installed AeroScout EX4100 exciters at doors, in order to prompt a transmission from any tag within read range, thus indicating the tag had entered the area defined by a particular exciter. With this upgrade to the Cisco system, as well as the transition to AeroScout tags and software, the facility can now ensure location data to within 15 feet—and with the exciters, it can identify when an item is leaving a particular area, and send a page to the appropriate staff members. The system is also used to monitor temperatures, by employing the temperature sensors built into AeroScout tags installed in refrigerators and warmers. If a temperature exceeds a specific threshold, a page is continually sent to employees until the problem is addressed and a worker inputs the corrective action into the MobileView system.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
View full post on Rfidjournal.com Operations RSS Feed
Water bills to rise by 5.7 per cent
Household water bills in England and Wales are to rise by an average of 5.7 per cent from April, as customers meet the cost of a multibillion pound upgrade for ageing infrastructure.
This above-inflation increase for water follows last year’s price rises for gas and electricity supply, and is expected to put further pressure on households struggling with higher utility bills.
More
On this story
IN Utilities
Customers living in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire will experience the sharpest rise, as Southern Water will increase its prices by an average of 8.2 per cent.
Householders supplied by Welsh water company Dŵr Cymru will see combined bills for water and sewerage increase by 3.8 per cent on average. Prices will vary according to local usage, house size and whether water meters have been installed.
In aggregate, price rises, which are set by industry regulator Ofwat, will amount to 5.7 per cent – a figure based on the 5.2 per cent rise in the retail price index in November 2011, plus an additional 0.5 percentage points. Higher inflation hit pre-tax profits for water companies in 2011 as it pushed up the cost of their index-linked debt.
However, Ofwat said it accepted that the additional cost – which will push average annual bills up by £20 to £376 – was unwelcome, “particularly in tough economic times”. Although the UK’s water sector is run by private companies, customers cannot choose their water and sewerage service supplier to reduce their bills.
Elderly people on fixed incomes are likely to be hit hardest by the increase. Although the winter fuel allowance provides state assistance for energy bills to those over 60, no such provision has been made for water.
Ofwat’s price announcement for the UK’s 22 water and sewerage companies follows the publication of its £22bn five-year plan in 2009 – detailing improvements to the UK’s pipes and water treatment works. Its price determination is made on a company-by-company basis, and allows for regional differences so that individual companies can fund additional works such as coastal protection.
Regina Finn, chief executive of Ofwat, said the increases would deliver benefits to everybody.
But consumer groups said that the price rise would create problems for many families in the UK.
“The number of people calling us for help with water debts has been sharply increasing over the past few years,” said Joanna Elson, chief executive of the Money Advice Trust. “The sobering fact is that paying water bills is becoming increasingly difficult for many households across the country.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
View full post on Utilities company and industry news with expert analysis from the Financial Times
ETI announces Cohesio sales in Europe
ETI Converting has sold three ETI Cohesio machines in Europe, all of which will be used to serve retail markets.
Telrol, based in the Netherlands, purchased two machines for its new company, Jac-Stick BV. The first will be installed in January 2012 at the 11,000 square meter production plant in Almere, with the second due to be delivered in July.
The third machine has already been installed at Blueprint, a family owned company in Benate, Italy. The equipment will be used to apply thermal coating, print, apply silicone and glue, die-cut and finish labels in-line with a non-stop turret rewinder.
Click here for more stories about ETI Converting on L&L.com.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
View full post on Labels and Labeling – the wider world of narrow web – Labels and Labeling
