Hi, has anyone heard of RTLS (real time or radio tracking) location systems? I was told yesterday that our parent company is bringing this onboard and that it would have applications in the Blood Bank as a means of locating blood products once we release them. Anyone know anything about this? I did a quick Google and found nothing that was applicable to labs. Thanks!

Try searching RFID - Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) is the name given to the wireless,
radio wave technology that allows for a small RFID chip to be embedded in any physical object and uniquely identified by an RFID reader.  With an unlimited amount of possibilities for connected devices we are now seeing consumer packaged goods, animals, waste management systems and even humans tagged with RFID chips. .
 

http://transfusionmedicinerfid.org

Vein-to-Vein Tracking of Blood Products

Reducing medical errors and enhancing the safety and quality of healthcare delivery is widely recognized as a national priority. In this regard, enabling error-free delivery of blood products is a key component of enhancing overall healthcare safety. While the general public associates blood transfusion risk with exposure to infectious hazards, mis-transfusion (mismatch between patient and blood) is the most prevelant serious hazard of transfusion.

 

The Transfusion Medicine RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Consortium is actively engaged in the first-ever comprehensive investigation to research, develop and introduce innovative application of RFID for automatic identification, tracking and status-monitoring of blood and blood products across all entities in the supply chain – from the point of collection, through blood product manufacturing and distribution, to delivery of a product by a healthcare provider to a patient. The goal is to develop an innovative RFID-enabled blood product tracking solution (to complement barcoding) that will overcome associated technical and policy environment challenges and complement good manufacturing practices using a quality systems approach.

 

Click on the sections below to learn more about the Study Objectives, Guiding Principles, and Approach followed by our study team, and explore the various sections of the website to gain a better understanding of how High-Frequency RFID technology can help overcome a number of common challenges and process inefficiencies associated with identification and tracking of blood products from vein-vein.

 

 

 

• Study Objectives
• Guiding Principles
• Approach

 

The use of RFID technology in blood banks and transfusion medicine has the potential to improve operational efficiency, reduce cost, and advance patient safety in the delivery of transfusion services at the hospital.

Read More..

 

OK, thanks! I got what little info I had from the BioMed administrator for the corp that owns our hospital. Kind of wish he acted like he knew what he was talking about....