Materials departments scratching surface of wireless potential

Healthcare Purchasing News, Sept, 2003 by John Hall

Long before physicians could view X-rays, review medical records or write prescriptions on personal digital assistants (PDAs), purchasing departments in hospitals were dabbling in wireless technologies designed to un-tether receiving and inventory count clerks from the arduous chore of manually inputting supply data.

As ubiquitous as the handheld bar code scanner has become in today's hospital, however, that's about as sophisticated as most materials management departments have become in the field of wireless. Some say that may be as sophisticated as hospitals need to be. Others insist that materials managers are just now beginning to tap the incredible power of wireless applications.

Ironically, the explosion of wireless devices on the clinical side may be laying the foundation for just that, as hospitals begin realizing the broader potential of the wireless networks they've built to support this new technology.

With so much scrutiny these days on patient safety, medical errors and privacy issues, it's no wonder that the current thrust of innovation in wireless technology is focusing on patient care, and not so much the bottom line. Consider a recent survey by the Healthcare Information mad Management Systems Society (HIMSS), which listed computer-based physician order entry (CPOE) as the most important IT application healthcare organizations will implement in the next two years. In fact, today's progressive hospitals often encourage physicians to enter medical orders on tablet PCs and review medical images wirelessly, advise nurses to match patients with prescriptions, and ask patients to register, order meals and learn about their diseases through the Internet.

Wireless workhorses

For several years, wireless devices such as handheld PCs doubling as scanners have become prevalent in hospital storeroom and receiving docks. These devices have evolved from large clunky machines the size of clipboards to very powerful, very small computers. In tandem with bar coding these devices have helped hospitals streamline their purchasing functions and workforces. Many experts agree that wireless devices also significantly improve accuracy by avoiding many of the mistakes of manual data entry.

Wireless devices today perform a wide variety of choices, including inventory counts, replenishment, receiving and asset management. Order entry is perhaps the most popular kind of wireless application in hospital purchasing departments. In some hospitals, wireless order entry devices are used increasingly in other areas of the hospital, giving non-purchasing personnel the ability to scan supplies as they are used, fueling both electronic reordering and accurate billing. One of the most popular is the automated supply cabinet marketed by companies such as San Diego-based Pyxis, a business unit of Cardinal Health, Dublin, OH, and Omnicell, Palo Alto, CA.

The OR may be the next proving ground for wireless materials management applications. In many facilities, the OR generates as much as 40 percent of an organization's revenues, yet may be one of the most underutilized areas. Often, overly lengthy case times in the OR can be attributed to missing supplies and equipment. Wireless materials management applications have great potential to change that, says Todd Tabel, vice president of marketing for McKesson Information Solutions, Alpharetta, GA. "The OR is one of the best places in the hospital to make use of wireless point-of-use applications to facilitate rapid product location of physician preference items, therapeutic equivalents, or pharmaceuticals," Tabel said. "Wireless applications have the potential to significantly increase or speed up the case throughput in the OR."

Wireless successes

Hospitals that have employed wireless applications for managing their supply chains have notched some early successes. Here are a few recent examples:

--Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, hired PeopleSoft, a Pleasanton, CA-based developer of Web-based supply chain software applications, to standardize its materials management business processes. Among the enhancements the facility put in were handheld devices nurses could use to update supply usage. The handheld devices have built-in Web browsers that, combined with the facility's wireless LAN infrastructure, connect them directly to up to the minute inventory information in PeopleSoft. Thanks at least in part to that system, Dartmouth-Hitchcock was able to reduce its inventory levels by half and consolidated 360 materials carts and 27,000 line items into a single system. "In terms of the solution's impact on the organization as a whole, we now receive a more accurate, real-time look at usage reports, which is helping to drive savings through contract compliance and product standardization," said William Grimes, manager of materials management information systems, said at the time of the implementation.

--Every morning, four data collection technicians at Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Burlington, MA, embarked on their daily task of counting 65 carts, with an average of about 175 items per cart." Today, those technicians use Intermec Janus 2020 portable handheld computers to collect the data. When they complete their counts, the technicians return to central processing, where they dock the handhelds and upload to a database developed by PeopleSoft. The PeopleSoft enterprise resource planning (ERP) system automates the rest of the replenishment process, creating pick lists and balancing inventories. The system even prepares purchase orders as necessary. "It all starts with a handheld computer. It's more efficient and reduces costs," said Martin Moriarty, materials management information systems administrator. "We receive and issue supplies in a just-in-time environment."