Intelligent InSites Integrates RFID-enabled Enterprise Visibility Solution of Consumable Assets from WaveMark

Fargo, ND and Littleton, MA March 13, 2012 Intelligent InSites, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise real-time location systems (RTLS) software helping hospitals improve patient satisfaction and operational performance while supporting multiple RFID and RTLS technologies, and WaveMark, Inc. have announced the integration of WaveMark’s enterprise visibility solution of consumable assets including medical implantable devices and supplies with the Intelligent InSites enterprise RTLS software solution.

At Intelligent InSites, we recognize that our healthcare customers use a variety of systems that meet the unique, function-specific needs of their organization, said Ralf Mehnert-Meland, Director of Developer/OEM Relationships at Intelligent InSites. While a system involving multiple, non-integrated applications can work, user experience and the ability to produce consolidated reports are severely limited. To deliver both flexibility and ease of use, we enable third-party applications, such as WaveMark’s enterprise visibility solution of consumable assets including its Cardiac Catheterization Lab solution, to integrate seamlessly with the Intelligent InSites solution.

WaveMark provides a complete consumable asset tracking solution that consists of RFID-enabled smart cabinets, business intelligence software, and point of care stations to drive clinical workflow and supply chain optimization. Our system enables hospitals to ensure that clinicians have the right product for the right patient at the right time, thereby improving the quality of patient care, said Sabina Chadha, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at WaveMark. Through our integration with Intelligent InSites, we can provide a seamless environment for healthcare professionals and enhanced analytics for process improvement.

According to Chadha, with the cloud-based RFID-enabled supply chain management solution from WaveMark, hospitals are able to better manage their inventory levels by adjusting par levels to match usage more closely, eliminating waste from expired products. In addition, WaveMark’s solution can conduct detailed analysis on device usage per room and physician. This information supports effective inventory consumption and regulatory compliance.
The Intelligent InSites RTLS software solution which provides a unified user interface for multiple enterprise-wide RTLS applications, integrations, connectivity, 3rd-party solutions, and RTLS hardware technologies enables hospitals to achieve meaningful and measurable hard-dollar cost savings while improving patient satisfaction and patient care.

About Intelligent InSites
Intelligent InSites helps healthcare organizations reduce costs and improve care by transforming automatically-collected data into actionable insights. Through its interoperable, hardware-agnostic, healthcare real-time location system (RTLS) software platform, Intelligent InSites gathers data from real-time location, condition sensing, and other systems; then delivers meaningful information to the right person, at the right time, on the right device. Intelligent InSites’ customers gain enterprise-wide visibility and are able to impact continuous process improvements, resulting in remarkable financial and quality of care outcomes. For more information, visit www.IntelligentInSites.com.

WaveMark is back exhibiting at the American College of Cardiology Administrators Leadership Conference in Chicago March 21-23, 2012.

WaveMark will be displaying their Enterprise Visibility solution that provides real-time inventory management for CV and other specialty areas using RFID and network technologies. The WaveMark solution helps the healthcare industry meet the ongoing challenge of improving patient care while reducing costs by ensuring clinicians have the right product for the right patient at the right time through our real-time consumable asset tracking solution.

This year the conference theme, ‘Finding Balance’, focuses on how CV leaders can best deal with changing regulations, keeping a market edge, wrestling with cutbacks, surmounting staffing issues, and creating new collaborations, all while providing value and maintaining profit margins. Specific educational sessions will focus on best practices, new approaches, and collaboration.

ACCA, a specialty group of the American Academy of Medical Administrators (AAMA), is the organization of choice for leading cardiovascular/ respiratory administrators. Its mission is to promote excellence and integrity in cardiovascular leadership. ACCA keeps members up-to-date with significant developments in cardiovascular administration as well as the broad multidisciplinary healthcare environment.

WaveMark will be displaying their Enterprise Visibility solution that provides real-time inventory management for managing consumable assets by leveraging RFID and network technologies. WaveMark’s solution helps the healthcare industry meet the ongoing challenge of improving patient care while reducing costs by ensuring clinicians have the right product for the right patient at the right time through our real-time consumable asset tracking solution.
The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) is the national organization of nurses who design, facilitate and manage care. Since 1967, the organization has provided leadership, professional development, advocacy and research to advance nursing practice and patient care, promote nursing leadership excellence and shape public policy for health care. AONE is a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association.

April 5, 2011, WaveMark, Inc., a global provider of real time medical device inventory management solutions for hospitals and medical device manufacturers, unveils the 5th generation of its CIMS (Clinical Business Intelligence and Real Time Inventory Management) solution set. The newest version of CIMS, which incorporates powerful decision support tools, a user-defined dashboard and sophisticated statistical algorithms, allows healthcare administrators to track, manage and control the cost of medical device inventory to a level never before possible. Now users have the information they need to reduce inventory, eliminate expired products and actively manage physician preference items, guaranteeing product availability while also saving money.

WaveMark’s CIMS solution uses RFID tags to track high value medical supplies such as stents, catheters or ICDs through receipt, storage and clinical use. The system captures individual device serial number, lot number, expiration date and PO number. When the clinician selects the device, the RFID tag identifies the device to CIMS, which associates the device with the patient, physician and room. CIMS improves patient safety by immediately notifying the clinician if the product has expired. And the RFID technology requires not manual data entry, allowing clinicians to focus on their patients and not inventory control.

Hospital customers of the WaveMark solution have reported annual cost savings of $50,000 to $300,000, notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst, Venkat Rajan. This solution allows for better management of consigned and purchased products, better understanding of the hospital’s supply utilization and inventory needs, while also saving time and decreasing the workload burden of the front-line caregivers. These benefits ultimately lead to both reduced healthcare costs and improved quality of patient care.

The new capabilities added to the CIMS system includes business intelligence features specifically requested by our users, says Carola Endicott, Vice President for Hospital Services are WaveMark. These new capabilities will be especially useful in analyzing usage trends and costs. And the system can be integrated with other hospital systems including patient billing, EHRs and inventory management systems.

WaveMark’s CIMS solution allows materials management to analyze inventory levels over time with both tabular and graphic representation of usage by supplier, physician, and product type. This information can be used during contract negotiations as a check on past device usage, expirations and waste. The system also provides guidelines for bulk buys by quantity and value, supporting adaptive product strategies.

The 2011 American College of Cardiovascular Administrators (ACCA) Leadership Conference will feature keynote speaker, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and Founder of the Center for Health Transformation. Gingrich is a well-known speaker on issues related to healthcare and is seen as one of the most influential people in the field. His presentation, “Creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System”, will highlight the Conference, which will be at the Doubletree Hotel, Magnificent Mile, 300 East Ohio, Chicago, April 13 to 15, 2011.

Gingrich is widely recognized as a transformational leader with the ability to create and lead successful large-scale change. During 20 years in Congress, he was committed to improving America’s healthcare system. Under his leadership as Speaker, Medicare was improved, investment in medical research was dramatically increased, and FDA reform was enacted to allow quicker approval for new medications. In 1995, Time magazine named Gingrich “Man of the Year” and the Washington Times called him “The Indispensable Leader”. He’s been on Modern Healthcare’s 100 “Most Powerful People in Healthcare” list for seven consecutive years.

Additional keynote speakers will provide their own unique insights into the future of healthcare. Jack Lewin, MD, Chief Executive Officer, American College of Cardiology; Erik Louie, MD, FACC, Vice President, Sg2, LLC; and Brian Contos, Managing Director of the Cardiovascular Roundtable, The Advisory Board Company, will each address plenary sessions during the conference.

Opening with three optional pre-conference sessions, the Conference includes parallel tracks on Reform and on Research and Innovation. Additional topics include Medical Tourism, Accountable Care Organizations, Robotics, Physician Enterprise, and Creating Value in Healthcare.

Complete conference details and registration materials are on www.aameda.org. Registration is also available via phone (847-759-8601) or fax (847-759-8602). Non-members are eligible to receive complimentary 2011 membership with a full conference registration. CEUs will be awarded.

Also, sign up for the RFID in Healthcare Symposium on Sunday, February 20, 2011 for a more in-depth view of how RFID has been used in numerous ways to decrease costs, improve patient flow, and increase revenue, featuring Lisa Stepps from St. Joseph Hospital in Atlanta doing a case study on her experience with using WaveMark for tracking inventory in her Cath Lab. Click here for more: RFID Symposium.

Back in April 2010, WaveMark’s software organization had achieved ISO 9001:2008 certification, for “Software Development for Real Time Inventory Management Solutions for Specialty Products in the Healthcare Supply Chain”. This was an important milestone for WaveMark, in the highly regulated healthcare space.

The process of achieving certification, which culminated in an independent third party audit, was relatively swift. The key to this swiftness is that WaveMark had already been focused on continuous improvement with well established processes. The certification was therefore a validation of the processes that were already being implemented in the organization, as opposed to creating all these processes from scratch; and these processes were in accordance with the required ISO standards. Based on this experience, I strongly recommend putting all necessary processes in place and having them followed by the organization for some period of time, well in advance of the actual certification activity.

The driving influence for any organization, including WaveMark, to implement all the quality processes and seek the certification, is to demonstrate to customers, employees, investors and shareholders, that the organization is committed to the highest quality solutions and has put in place a defined customer feedback loop. It is a commitment by the organization to communicate, understand, and deliver solutions that have been largely defined by customer needs.

The simple act of registering the item into WaveMark takes seconds and starts the chain of custody (implant tracking form) electronically. This form is accessible at any time using the online tool.

By simply removing a piece of tissue from a cabinet and waving it by the point of service reader, WaveMark has captured the use of the item. Clinicians and other staff can add case-specific information at the point of use, or after the fact via the web application. If the clinician chooses not to use the item, it is simply placed back on the cabinet where it is automatically read back into inventory.

Most, if not all tissue can be centralized on an RFID enabled storage shelving unit and tracked real time. Other pieces of tissue can live in the freezers, refrigerators, etc. The chain of custody process stays the same. By having accurate data captured without any hand-written notes, stickers, or hand-written notes, hospitals have improved ways to ensure that every implant can be tracked for patient safety, quality, and regulatory purposes.

RFID supply capture technology can solve the timeliness issue since supplies are being read in real-time, reported through the internet and available on your computer for viewing and analysis. RFID cabinets are supplemented by point of use RFID readers which again provide instantaneous data on usage of expensive items. What about accuracy? The RFID tag on the box is linked to the model number, product description, expiration date, lot or serial number and even the PO number. When the tag is waved at the point of care, all that information is also captured and linked back to the patient identifier and clinical staff. The automated nature of this data capture reduces errors often found at the point of use and at the moment when the product is taken. This easy, automated data capture makes it easier for the clinical staff to collect key usage data.

And finally, what about finding the information that you need? Armed with data, many administrators with little time are still frustrated when faced with long tabular reports with multiple tabs along the bottom, any one of which could be hiding a problem. To be useful, this supply information has to be delivered in graphical format with drill down capability, preferably via the web for anywhere access. It should show trends and opportunities where these departments can save on supply expenses. When timely, accurate, and easy to use data turns into actionable information, administrators will find ways to substantially reduce costs.

Example: This one-click chart tracks the actual usage over time of Drug-Eluting stents. Note the department’s ability to monitor actual usage against their vendor agreements.

Increasing Hospital Operational Efficiency

WaveMark Inc. leverages its proven expertise in healthcare RFID and network technology to address key healthcare problems. Since first penetrating the market in 2005, the technology has been installed in hospitals across 20 states. Addressing the need for an end to end supply chain solution, WaveMark also works with medical device suppliers to create greater customer satisfaction and improve efficiency for sales, customer service, distribution centers, and manufacturing.

WaveMark’s RFID-based technology allows hospitals to automatically track each individual product received from suppliers without burdening the frontline caregivers with regular cycle counts and other manual processes. Within the healthcare facility RFID-enabled storage cabinets automatically update inventory status of each item every 18 minutes and products are simply waved when used at the point of care. The introduction of interfaces to hospital Materials Management systems, hospital billing systems, and clinical documentation systems has created more value for users because of the reduced workload and errors resulting from automated input of critical information for ordering, billing, and documentation.

Hospital customers of the WaveMark solution have reported annual cost savings between $50,000 and $300,000, in addition to the increase in quality of patient care, operational efficiency, and number of patients treated. This solution allows for better management of consigned and purchased products, better understanding of the hospital’s supply utilization and inventory needs, while also saving time and decreasing the workload burden of the front line caregivers. By having access to updated data in real time, hospitals can accurately track an individual product including its lot/serial and even PO number, audit medical billing, and ensure patients receive correct and non-expired products. Also, with web-based reporting, hospital purchasing departments have immediately available costing information without having to involve multiple internal departments to run time-consuming calculations. In addition, write-offs that result from devices expiring are minimized or eliminated by automated reminders prior to expiration. These benefits ultimately lead to both decreased costs of healthcare and increased quality of patient care.

According to John Wass, WaveMark CEO, “By bringing hospitals and medical device suppliers a solution that utilizes modern advancements in information and network technology, WaveMark is helping to pioneer a new class of software applications which integrates clinical, operational, and financial components to facilitate highly efficient patient-centered activities in critical clinical areas.” By sharing information with medical device suppliers across this extended supply chain, WaveMark seeks to revolutionize how this supply chain operates by driving out distrust and replacing it with real-time visibility and collaboration.

Currently well leveraged in cardiac catheterization labs, electrophysiology labs, interventional radiology labs, and operating rooms within hospitals, as well as ambulatory surgery centers, WaveMark is well positioned to be an important player in the national push for lower healthcare costs and improved quality of care.

For these cumulative factors, WaveMark Inc, is the 2010 Medical Device Customer Value Enhancement award recipient in Workflow Solutions. The award ceremony will take place on November 16, 2010 in San Antonio, Texas.

For more information, please see www.frost.com and www.wavemark.net.

Hospital clinical departments dread the annual physical inventory. This count of medical products is required for financial reporting and requires the manual counting of all items on hand. However, a number of WaveMark users have replaced the manual counting with the automated RFID-based inventory reads provided by the WaveMark real-time reports. These hospitals generally invite the Audit department to “test” the system using approved methods. Once the RFID-enabled data collection method has been certified as accurate, it can be used in place of a manual count. Here is how one WaveMark user described her recent experience using WaveMark automated reports.

“We have the Apollo interface up and running, we are very pleased. Our auditors were impressed with the system and therefore we were able to skip our manual counting of inventory this past weekend. The counting normally took up 12 staff members’ time on the weekend and at least 24 hours of my own time getting all of the counts tabulated and input into our [Materials] system. The process took just me, Lynn, and the auditor this year. Because 90% of our asset value was contained in the WM cabinets and we verified earlier in the month that the WM counts were correct, a report was generated with the on-hands and I simply input the on-hands per WM into [our Materials system] for those items and then just took what [the Materials system] had on hand for the non-WM items as accurate. The process only took 5 hours for input into the [Materials system] and running of the physical inventory process!!”

Cindy Hutcheson, CPA, Business Manager – Georgia Heart Center, Financial Planning & Budget, Medical Center of Central Georgia, Macon, GA

This saved the cost of paying 12 Cath Lab and EP Lab staff members over a weekend and an additional 24 hours of administrative time to report on the counts. Having a timely and accurate report in just a few hours was a major win for this hospital.

The Georgia Heart Center has 8 Cath Lab rooms opening onto a central core where they keep most of their high-cost products. The EP Lab has 3 rooms with a storage facility down the hall.

From The Medical Center of Central Georgia’s About Us Page:
The Medical Center of Central Georgia is well known in its role as the first hospital to bring advanced surgical techniques to the region. In 1977, for example, Central Georgia’s first open-heart surgery was performed at MCCG’s Georgia Heart Center. The Georgia Heart Center is recognized as the area’s first cardiac center to offer the less invasive “beating heart” surgery in addition to an extensive array of non-invasive diagnostic and cardiovascular imaging services.

With the largest heart program in the state outside of Atlanta, the Georgia Heart Center is staffed by some of the most experienced and highly trained surgeons, nurses and support staff available. Averaging almost a thousand open-heart surgeries annually, the center is equipped with the latest technological advancements to provide a full range of cardiovascular services and is the sole provider of Electrophysiology procedures in Central Georgia.

The Georgia Heart Center received a five-star report card rating from HealthGrades.com, Inc. for its “superior quality of care”. This commendable rating placed MCCG in the top 10 percent of an estimated five thousand hospitals nationwide for its cardiac-care program.

On the visit, the Finance person will see first-hand the enormous range and complexity of high cost items sitting on the Cath Lab shelves. For the items costing $100 and up the average par per line item (SKU) is less than three products. The Cath Lab will typically carry 1,000 SKU’s (line items) over $100 and between 2,500 and 3,000 total products in that cost range. Given the clinical requirements to carry the correct sizes (length, diameter, French size, etc.) there is a need for more real-time, finely tuned, information than is easily available to most Cath Lab inventory departments. It is very helpful when the Finance Department understands that tracking exactly what is on hand, what is being used, what is coming in, what is consigned, what is expiring, and so on, at the line item level is a complex and time-consuming task that often is replaced with just over-ordering to avoid the worst case – a stock out of a critical item. This is called “Just In Case” inventory and, while maligned by Finance, becomes understandable when faced with a fast-paced procedure room with supplies being demanded in fast succession by the physician treating the patient.

Additional confusion regarding on hand inventory levels arises from the fact that the people responsible for decrementing items from inventory are nurses and techs who must grab a stent or balloon and run to get the product to the patient within the required timeframe (e.g. door to balloon time). The ensuing lapse in recording inventory reductions make it even more likely that the Cath Lab inventory staff will stock for “Just In Case” levels.

When the Finance department recognizes that managing supplies in the Cath Lab incorporates intrinsic and systemic difficulties arising from the nature of the business conducted there, they will be able to build on a mutual understanding and trust to find solutions to the causes of supply overages. By visiting the Cath Lab, the Finance department builds a shared platform for solving difficult but solvable problems.

See WaveMark case studies for how RFID-based solutions are helping Cath Labs, EP Labs, and other high cost specialty areas reduce supply expense and increase accuracy of point of use supply usage capture rates while reducing work for front-line clinical staff. The result is better information for improved, shared decision-making to help both the Cath Lab and the Finance staffs ensure that the Cath Lab remains a profit-center.

Case Study – Midwestern Hospital, 6-room Cath Lab, 2,500 PCI’s per year

Since that time, we have accumulated many stories of humans who can’t count accurately, or if they do , take a long time to do so. In one busy Cath Lab in Iowa we found that they were spending an hour and a half every morning counting stents and balloons on hand in order to place an order into their Materials system. This cumbersome system was very time consuming and error-prone because a human being was doing something humans aren’t good at – counting. The time and accuracy gained from RFID-enabled cabinets allowed them to reduce their “just-in-time” stock and spend valuable human beings’ energy on activities more suited to their natural talents.

In another example, the WaveMark inventory management software powered by the cabinets reduced the daily counting chore to the point where the inventory person was able to take on inventory duties for an additional department, work previously done by a nurse who spent half his time counting and ordering. By allowing the nurse to go back into the procedures where he was most valuable, the hospital was able to save money and increase employee satisfaction.

We are fortunate to live in a time when technology takes on the chores that are tedious, leaving more time for human beings to focus on activities that are more interesting, valuable, and, even sometimes, fun.