Owosso Hospital Using Virginia Firm's Location, Temp Monitoring Tech
OWOSSO -- Memorial Healthcare, a 150-bed hospital in Owosso, has implemented a real time location system, enabling wireless caregiver alerts, two-way communication and automated temperature monitoring, from Ekahau Inc. of Reston, Va.
The system will be used by Memorial's 1,000-plus patients, who treat more than 196,000 outpatients and 4,600 inpatients annually.
By giving Memorial Healthcare's security teams real-time visibility into staff locations during emergencies, the hospital expects to reduce response times to staff duress incidents logged by the housekeeping staff, techs, interns, doctors and nurses working in its 10,000 square foot behavioral health unit.
Employees in distress simply pull down on their re-chargeable Wi-Fi safety badges worn on break-away lanyards, and their location appears on badge tags worn by the police and other staff closest to the emergency. Ekahau badges offer 2-way communications via badge LEDs, and hospital security teams can even monitor staff entry and exit into restricted geo-fenced zones via text and email alerts.
Memorial Healthcare also uses Ekahau Wi-Fi-based temperature sensors and Ekahau Vision software to reliably monitor commercial refrigeration units housing blood, tissue and medications. Ekahau RTLS ensures that near-breach temperatures trigger text and email alerts before spoilage impacts patient safety. In addition, Ekahau Vision software automatically logs all temperatures for Joint Commission compliance documentation without the use of manual logs that are prone to human error.
"Keeping caregivers visible and monitoring patient consumables using our Cisco Wireless LAN is game-changing. Ekahau RTLS is cost-effective to implement over Cisco Wi-Fi, reliable and instantly makes staff and patients feel safer," notes Frank Fear, CIO at Memorial Healthcare.
"Ekahau is proud to help Memorial Healthcare ensure staff and patient safety with location-based alert and sensor solutions that leverage the hospital's existing wireless LAN investment," said Mark Norris, president and CEO of Ekahau.
More at www.ekahau.com.
