RFID News

Quickly finding the right blood product among 30,000 bags is never an easy task, especially when bar codes have to be scanned manually in a -35°C deep freezer. When a study revealed that RFID would cut costs and increase safety, Spain's Balearic Islands Blood and Tissue Bank (FBSTIB) turned to Barcelona-based Aifos Solutions for an RFID system, and Salo, Finland's Nordic ID for handheld readers that would operate in subarctic temperatures.

BLOOD BAR CODE SCANNING FOUND TO BE PROBLEMATIC

Until now, bar code scanning has meant unpacking entire crates of frozen blood bags and scanning or reading up to six labels on each bag in turn—no small task with 30,000 bags packed 80 to a crate…in a deep freezer. Finding the right bag can take so long that staff members often take crates out of the deep freezer to search for the right bag, putting plasma in jeopardy of thawing. Blood extracted from donors at any of several mobile units in the Balearic Islands follows a complicated journey, requiring up to six bar codes to ensure that red blood cells, plasma or platelets reach the right patient in perfect condition. Then, when a hospital sends over blood parameters, the blood bank has to respond as quickly as possible.

RFID MAKES BLOOD TRACKING FASTER, SAFER, LESS EXPENSIVE

To make the blood tracking and location process faster, safer and more transparent, FBSTIB chose Aifos Solutions, a Barcelona-based RFID systems specialist, to help them move from bar code to RFID. Aifos in turn selected Nordic ID's PL 3000 UHF handheld RFID scanners to find the blood bags that staff members need. The new RFID tags store all information—including a record of ambient temperature over time—on each bag's re-recordable 512-bit RFID tag. Equipped with Nordic ID scanners, staff members are able to quickly find blood bags by scanning up to 400 bags per second and drilling down to see all the information associated with any bag.

"The system we have developed promises to pay for itself very quickly in reduced operating costs once the full program launches in August 2010," notes Esteve Jané, Aifos Solutions' COO. "It will also significantly increase safety," he adds, "because donor ID cannot be erased, and other memory banks can only be accessed by those with the correct passwords."

NORDIC ID: GREAT PRODUCT, SUPPORT, RELIABILITY

Working with Nordic ID is a new relationship for Aifos, one the company chose based on equipment tests, but also for strategic reasons. "To tell you the truth, one of the reasons we chose Nordic ID is because they are Finnish," says Esteve Jané. "This project is a very important one for Aifos, and we couldn't afford problems with equipment orders and support. When a Finnish company says an order will arrive in ten days, you can expect it there on the afternoon of the ninth day."

In addition to the handset's light weight, ability to carry a single charge all day and operate at -35°C, what Aifos appreciated most was Nordic ID's level of technical support. "At the outset we needed to know that the handset would work in subarctic temperatures," says Jané, "and none of the companies we talked with had tested for that. Nordic ID support personnel did some investigation and explained how, technically, the PL3000 would stand up to the job. That convinced us, and since then support has been excellent."

This is what the fashion business has been waiting for! By now, small and medium sized retailers can benefit from the easy-to-use RFID technology. The detego RFID Starter kit from RF-iT Solutions is the simple, cheap and extremely affordable way for putting that into effect.

In cooperation with GERRY WEBER International AG, RF-iT Solutions, the market leader in RFID solutions for the fashion industry, and Pranke GmbH have created a package for directly managing stocks using the innovative RFID technology in the retail industry.

From this summer on, all items from the lifestyle company GERRY WEBER will be equipped with RFID tags. As a result, each retailer who sells GERRY WEBER products can now also benefit from this technology.

One key benefit is an improved inventory management. Retailers can register all deliveries and the current inventory with a hand-held device and automatically check for completeness. "A nearly 100% product availability while simultaneously lowering processing costs - RFID has a huge potential," says Robert Paulus, senior vice president at RF-iT Solutions enthusiastically. Heinz-Erich Ohnezat, managing director of Pranke GmbH adds: "Electronic Data Interchange will exploit new potential in shop management and efficient replenishment of goods."

In that respect, GERRY WEBER itself sees a major advantage. Thanks to the transparent inventory data, the supplier can quickly detect an out of stock situation and close it immediately. Customers who find their preferred products at the shop are satisfied customers who come back and display tremendous brand loyalty.

"The RFID Starter kit provides a quick and efficient entry into an RFID-based inventory management for our retailers and that in all major European languages", ensures Dr. David Frink, managing director of IT, logistics and production at GERRY WEBER.

The starter kit, consisting of the detego SUITE modules Goods Inbound verification, Inventory verification and Electronic Data Interchange, has already been presented at GERRY WEBER's franchisers event in June. The topic of RFID found a very positive response there. Many store owners not only want to improve their goods inbound processes and their inventory management with RFID, but also use the technology directly for theft protection.

"With this starter kit, our retailers are able to benefit very quickly and easily from the advantages of the new technology, and earn money ", Christian von Grone, CIO of GERRY WEBER, is pleased to say and adds: "Now we can really kick off! The future of an efficient inventory management starts today."

GAO RFID Inc. (www.GAORFID.com) has added a 13.5MHz RFID wrist tag to its product collection. This wrist band tag is commonly used in swimming pools, washing centers, saunas and other outdoor water recreational entertainments. It is also specially suited for schools, hospitals and sport centers and for attendance management. The tag is compliant with the ISO 156693 standard.

This lightweight RFID wrist band tag, model 113416, offers a read range of 1cm to 10cm. It is waterproof and dustproof and is resistant to vibration. It withstands a temperature range of -40°C to 70°C and performs well even in harsh environments. Offset and silk screen printing are available. A variety of transponder ICs are available for selection with this package.

Despite more interest to use radiofrequency identification (RFID) to reduce medical errors and increase patient safety, the technology is mainly used for non-patient functions, according to a report from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

The society administered an online survey to 222 participants in May to discuss RFID technology. Nearly one-third (31 percent) of survey respondents believed that the widespread use of RFID applications will benefit healthcare organizations in the area of patient safety, followed by assets and/or biomedical equipment tracking (24 percent).

Thirty-six percent of respondents indicated that the ability to impact patient safety and/or reduce medical errors is the most critical influencer for the use of RFID applications in healthcare organizations, followed by inventory management/asset control (20 percent).

However, in terms of actual utilization, 39 percent of respondents were much more likely to report that RFID technology is put to non-patient uses, such as asset/biomedical equipment tracking, and 26 percent used RFID for inventory management, the Chicago-based HIMSS reported.

For RFID-adoption barriers, 36 percent of respondents stated that budgets were barriers and another quarter noted that they need a better return on investment analysis before they make this type of investment.

Only 16 percent of respondents utilized RFID technology for patient safety initiatives, the report concluded.