"Whenever we purchase new bedding, we provide our RFID tags to the manufacturer, and before they tag and deliver the material to us, we put the tags on it for immediate use," The tag is encoded into a unique ID.
When clean, laundered and ironed bedding is delivered to the hospital from an external laundry facility, they enter through an RFID gate reader that reads all tags. The software provides data on which cabinets need to be replenished and the existing inventory in the receiving "laundry room."
The bedding is then routed to the necessary cabinets based on the supply quantities provided by the software. When the cabinets are replenished, staff use handheld readers to read all tags. The user can view the display of supplementary counting results.
As the linens are routed back through the laundry room after being used, they again update their status via the RFID door and are then sent to an external laundry service.
Hospital team members can access supply data and then assemble replenishment cards (written orders) based on what is detected in each cabinet.
Using UHF RFID tags not only cuts labor costs and improves inventory accuracy. In addition, the system enables hospitals to recognize when items are damaged, misused or need to be replaced.
