Indoor Positioning System Tracks Equipment

Finding medical equipment can be a real challenge for nurses and patient care assistants. From shift to shift, medical equipment often ends up in various hospital locations other than the unit to which it was assigned. Many portable devices are actually misplaced and/or removed from the hospital premises and must be replaced, resulting in a substantial loss for the hospital. Starting in September, however, finding equipment will be more organized, thanks to a new indoor tracking system.

BWH is one of the first hospitals in the country to conduct a pilot study with this system. Tower 7CD, 8, 12ABC and Pod J (of the OR) will participate in the study, which will track telemetry transmitters, 12-lead ECG cables and temporary pacemakers. This indoor location tracking system works much like the global positioning systems that identify the exact whereabouts of late-model cars. Small transmitters, or ID-tags, are attached to medical devices. The ID-tags send continuous signals to identify their location. To find the device, a staff member will simply log onto a web site, choose the type of device and find out where it is.

“The goals of this system are to reduce the loss of costly equipment and improve staff satisfaction,” said Michael Fraai, director, Biomedical Engineering, (pictured above) who worked for several years to bring this novel tracking project to fruition. He credits his department in applying for and receiving a research grant from Partners Information Systems to partially fund the pilot study, which will last for six months. If the system is successful, said Fraai, then the program will expand to track other pieces of valuable patient care equipment, such as ICU monitoring modules, transport equipment, infusion pumps and pulse oximeters.