The March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR) features a non sponsored independent research study conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital. The article titled: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for Inventory Management in Neurointerventional Practice, seeks to highlight potential financial advantages, benefits to quality and safety as well as increases in staff satisfaction which can be achieved through implementation of RFID technology.
In the study 13 iRISupply units were installed within two Interventional Radiology (IR) suites to store and track millions of dollars of on-hand inventory assets such as catheters, coils, stents and other implantable devices. By running a heads up comparison between Mobile Aspects RFID enabled secure cabinets and the current HI-IQ bar-code based system, Massachusetts General Hospital was able to validate the need and cost effectiveness of purchasing RFID technology for supply management within IR and other surgical or interventional departments. Citing the RFID systems ability to remove the Human Factor (HF) from clinician work flow as well as eliminate arduous manual cycle counts needed to reconcile usage against actual on-hand inventory, IR at Massachusetts General was able to achieve stunning results.
Upon conclusion of the 10 month implementation the author’s were able to conclude that substantial benefits were achieved in terms of increased revenues, increased patient safety and an increase in job satisfaction for clinicians with IR. Lastly it should be noted that the largest benefits from the system were achieved upon its integration with enterprise ADT Scheduling, materials management and patient billing systems.
Below is a brief summary of the results at Mass. General Hospital. To view the paper in its entirety please see the March issue of JACR or see the digital copy here.