.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} On an average day, more than 20 patients will undergo life-saving catheterization procedures at Mercy Medical Center.

That high volume of procedures led Mercy to become one of the first hospitals in the country to use a radio-frequency identification system to track the hundreds of stents, catheters and other high-cost items used by its cardiac catheterization laboratory. What began as a pilot project two years ago is now catching on. Eight other hospitals across the country operated by Mercy’s parent company, Catholic Health Initiatives, are now considering such a system.

“Implementing this system has changed our inventory process dramatically,” said Pam Behnke Schaad, administrative director for the cath lab. Previously, two inventory managers spent more than two hours daily to count the entire stock of items by hand. Now, “if a product is taken off the shelf to use on a patient, our inventory staff will know about it within minutes,” she said.

Though RFID technology is widely used in the retail and manufacturing industries, it has rarely been adopted in health-care settings. Earlier this year, Mercy received an RFID Excellence in Business Award from the RFID industry for its collaboration with a medical supply vendor and an RFID manufacturer to install its system.

Though they’re small, the stents and other devices carry high price tags – up to $2,300 per item – and have expiration dates that must be closely monitored.

The RFID system used by Mercy consists of 16 “smart” cabinets that scan the items on the shelves one by one, reading a tag with a unique identifying number. The process, which takes place continuously, takes about 18 minutes to scan the entire inventory. RFID tags, about the size of postage stamps, are affixed to each carton and “checked in” by scanning them prior to putting them on the shelf.

Mercy estimates that its system has allowed it to reduce its inventory of high-cost items by 30 percent, save about 400 hours per year in labor and reduce waste of the perishable, high-cost products. Most important, it ensures “we have the right product at the right place at the right time,” Behnke Schaad said.

Edwards Lifesciences Corp., a vendor that initially approached Mercy about using the system to track its products, paid for the installation of the cabinets, which meant no upfront capital costs for Mercy, Behnke Schaad said. However, Edwards’ products are newer on the market and weren’t used frequently by the doctors, so Mercy also began to stock other vendors’ higher-volume items, she said.

“That’s where we saw the real value of the system,” she said.

Mercy’s main local competitor, Iowa Health – Des Moines, says it’s not rushing to jump on the RFID bandwagon.

“We have looked at it,” said Andy Howard, Iowa Health’s director of logistics. “When it was introduced a few years ago, everyone got real excited and thought it would be the answer to everyone’s problems. The hospitals that went out three and four years ago with this really struggled.”

Iowa Health currently uses a system in which the vendors manage the inventory at its hospitals so that Iowa Health doesn’t purchase a product until it’s taken off the shelf to be used in a procedure, Howard said.

“We feel comfortable that it doesn’t in any way compromise the quality of care to our patients,” Howard said. “So it’s a good method for us.”

That’s not to say that Iowa Health won’t consider RFID in the future, “if there’s the (return on investment) to do it, and if it meets our patient quality goals.” he said. “I think it’s getting there.”