In the dynamic healthcare environment, accurate visibility – knowledge of where critical assets and people are at all times – can mean the difference between clinical success and failure. All too often, though, valuable time and resources are wasted searching for the nearest infusion pump or trying to locate the right doctor when needed. The results can be costly:

• Loss of equipment (through shrinkage or misplacement) is often as high as 20% of mobile assets per year
• Nursing, central supply, materials management and clinical engineering staff spend hours each day searching departments for the equipment they need
• Patient care is delayed when the right doctor or equipment cannot be found, causing staff and rooms to sit idle
• Inability to quickly find the right device leads hospitals to overstock or temporarily rent extra equipment, much of which sits idle or underutilized
• Preventative maintenance is not completed on equipment that hospitals are unable to locate, introducing JCAHO liability risk
• Patients put themselves and others at risk by entering unauthorized areas

Sensor-based Network Solutions for Healthcare using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) enable healthcare professionals to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve patient safety.  RFID enhances the ability to locate and track mobile assets and improves access to information at the point of care, which adds up to better quality care.

AT&T provides complete solutions that deliver full visibility of assets, patients and staff to healthcare organizations. With AT&T RFID Service, hospitals around the world now wirelessly track the location of equipment and people, and use that location information to improve everyday processes.