U.K. Hospital Gets Help From RFID to Manage Thousands of Paper Records,

Managing patient records presents a mammoth challenge for the multiple trusts (regional health-care bodies) of Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS). Hospitals typically have thousands of records onsite, very few of which are digitized. In nearly every case, paper files are all that staff members have to provide a patient's health history. 6PM Holdings Plc., a U.K.-based provider of IT services and products, has developed its Intelligent File and Inventory Tracking (iFIT) solution, by which passive RFIDtags are attached to paper records, and handheld readers are used to track the locations of those documents on shelves, or elsewhere within the hospital.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

The technology has been installed at East Surrey Hospital (Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust), while four other trusts are currently in the process of planning or installing the technology.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust's patient record library contains 201,000 onsite paper files.

The long-term solution to tracking paper records is to digitize them. Many hospitals are in the process of scanning paper files, one document at a time, in order to create digital versions. However, says Steve Wightman, 6PM's deputy chief executive, the conversion process tends to be slow and expensive, and it will be many years before all records are stored electronically. In the meantime, Wightman adds, 6PM's iFIT solution is intended to help hospitals manage their records efficiently until that transition is made.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

Jackie Brown, the head of outpatients and health records services at the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust's clinical support services division, says the manual system of locating and filing its 201,000 onsite patient records was time-consuming. "The health record could be located anywhere within our onsite and offsite facilities," she explains. "Poor tracking means that we could often not locate health records in time for clinics, theater [operating] sessions, etc."8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

The iFit solution consists of 6PM's CareSolutions software, for managing file data such as a patient's name and birth date, and FileTrail software, for interpreting RFID read data for the CareSolutions system. Numerous hospitals are applying FileTrail EPC Gen 2ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) passive RFID tags to files, and are reading those tags usingMotorola MC3190-Z handheld reader.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

The iFIT system reduces the number of hours that hospital personnel spend putting away or locating files by 80 percent (based on the initial results at Surrey Hospital), Wightman says. The solution also frees up 10 to 15 percent of library space, he adds, since files can now be placed in the most convenient shelf location, rather than alphabetically.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

Most hospitals store each patient's paper records, whether current or archival, within a dedicated storage area, and a staff of 20 to 30 workers manage those records, retrieving them for health-care personnel and returning them to the shelves when they are returned. If a file is not returned to the records storage area, an employee must walk throughout the hospital searching for it, or make phone calls and send e-mails, if they, in fact, determine that it is missing. With the iFIT solution, a user attaches a FileTrail RFID tag to a patient's file and scans the bar code printed on the front of that tag, in order to input its ID number into the system. That ID is then matched to that particular patient's records in the CareSolutions software. Each time a worker moves the file, he or she utilizes a handheld reader or bar-code scanner to update the file's status.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

Hospital staff members use a Motorola MC3190-Z handheld reader to track the locations of documents on shelves, or elsewhere within the hospital.

The process of placing a cart full of untagged files (there are typically about 100 files per cart) onto shelves can take approximately three hours, but the iFIT system is designed to complete that same task in a matter of minutes. That's because the files can be checked in via a bar-code scanner and then be placed on the nearest or most convenient shelf. Users then scan the bar code above that shelf, thereby creating a record of that file's location.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider

The system, Wightman explains, not only makes putting the files away faster, but also makes it nearly impossible for unauthorized staff members (such as a health-care worker) to simply walk into the records area and help themselves to a file stored alphabetically, based on the patient's last name. Since the files are not shelved alphabetically, any unauthorized individual not equipped with the RFID reader, or without access to location details in the software, would have difficulty pinpointing a specific patient's file. The iFIT solution also saves space, he says, since empty shelves can immediately be filled, rather than requiring a staff member to search for an appropriate empty space in an alphabetically arranged shelving system.8EKGEENFC: A Global RFID tag, NFC tag, RFID Solution Provider