WakeMed Signs On as Research Facility for Tracking System

Cary, N.C. — WakeMed Cary Hospital is implementing a simple-to-use tracking system for medical equipment and patients developed by RadarFind of Morrisville, N.C. The indoor tracking system quickly determines the location of available mobile medical equipment throughout the hospital and displays this information via the hospital staff’s computer screens.

WakeMed Health & Hospitals will also serve as a research facility for RadarFind to refine their patented Real Time Location System (RTLS) technology platform.

“WakeMed is committed to fostering technology which will continue to raise the standard of excellence for health care both within our system and beyond,”said Denton Arledge, vice president and chief information officer of WakeMed. “We expect this implementation to positively impact patient care by enabling staff to locate needed equipment expeditiously. Our hospital installation will play a key role in testing and improving asset and patient tracking in hospitals across the nation.”

RadarFind was developed by hospital administrators and doctors as a tool for surveillance and infection control throughout an entire hospital. It uses an asset tag feature to mark status of medical equipment as available, in-use or needs cleaning/sterilization. A color-coded bar gives staff a visual cue to quickly determine if it is ready for patient use.

The RTLS platform operates in a different frequency band than WiFi, so it can function independently of a hospital’s critical IT network. No new infrastructure is needed. Asset tags communicate with readers that plug into existing hospital-grade electrical outlets, with the outlets still available for other electrical devices. These plug-in readers also avoid interference with hospital operations.

“We continue to focus on developing a product that enables all of the systems within a hospital to work synergistically,” said RadarFind Chief Executive Officer Terry Kane, M.D. “Our work with WakeMed gives us visibility into how we can better serve the day to day needs of hospitals with a solution that offers hospitals ease of use, pinpoint accuracy, and affordability.”