The 18-month pilot project at Rigshospitalet hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, shows that tracking surgical instruments with RFID could save the hospital 31,000 hours a year in operating room procedures alone while also improving patient safety and providing additional time saving and infection control benefits during sterilisation and other processes.
Dr. Henrik Eriksen, project director for the RFID trial, announced the results last month during a press conference in Copenhagen.
Implementing RFID surgical tracking
When surgical trays were prepared for use in the operating room (OR), an RFID reader was used to automatically identify and record all the items that were contained in the tray. The trays were read at several more process points before entering the OR to make sure counts were accurate.
RFID readers can simultaneously identify the 60 to 80 individual items that a surgical tray typically contains
Trays were read again before they left the OR after surgery to make sure no surgical instruments were missing and were read at the hospital’s central sterile processing department to document the sterilisation process for each item.
RFID readers can simultaneously identify the 60 to 80 individual items that a surgical tray typically contains. Rigshospitalet previously identified and verified tray contents by bar code scanning.
RFID UHF technology
“RFID UHF technology provides unparalleled speed and accuracy advantages compared to bar code and other RFID technologies for tracking surgical instruments in sterilsation processes and operating rooms,” said Dr. Eriksen.
“Rigshospitalet is characterised by a very high quality and a strong focus on patient safety, and our technology leadership allows us to also realise the cost benefits of tracking medical devices and the workflow optimization associated with them.”
Rigshospitalet tested the “Tag, Track and Trace” (TTT) surgical instrument tracking system developed by Caretag Surgical, a global RFID solutions company headquartered in Copenhagen. Xerafy’s read-on-metal Dash XS passive UHF RFID tags were attached to a variety of surgical instruments to support item-level tracking and traceability processes. Surgical supply vendors that participated in the trial attached the Dash XS tags to their products using permanent adhesive developed by Dana Lim A/S.
Return on experience
RFID increases patient safety, improve the traceability and management of surgical instruments, and reduces the cost
During the trial, Rigshospitalet learned that the small tags did not impact the balance of instruments or how surgeons used them. The high-quality tags withstood more than 1,000 autoclave sterilisation processes, which most tags could not do because they cannot survive the temperatures, harsh chemicals, and pressure.
The trial was considered successful because it validated the business case for tracking medical devices at the item level and showed RFID could increase patient safety, improve the traceability and management of surgical instruments and reduce cost with better efficiency and productivity.
Tag, track, and trace system
The trial also showed RFID tagging together with Caretag’s Tag, Track, and Trace system can save time enough time for hospitals to increase productivity. Approximately 75,000 surgeries are performed each year at Rigshospitalet, and Dr. Eriksen estimates the RFID system saves 31,000 hours at that volume.
The time savings documented above are specific for operating room processes and do not include additional time savings at sterilization centers and other inherent benefits from improved traceability, such as better infection prevention, improved patient safety, inventory savings, and reduced asset losses.