UMass Memorial Medical Center, located in Worcester, Massachusetts, has two electrophysiology (EP) labs. They perform approximately 1,300 EP procedures annually and maintain an inventory value of approximately $1 million at any given time. With cardiac rhythm devices ranging from $5,000-$35,000 each, and catheters costing a few thousand dollars each, UMass wanted a streamlined solution for managing this costly inventory. Specifically, our staff at UMass was looking to decrease the volume of items being stored in the labs and storerooms, while also differentiating between OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) products and reprocessed items.

Setting target inventory levels, or par levels, is the single most important task to conquer in any clinical department if you want to manage your inventory properly. Most of the time reordering is done according to what was used use one, replace one. We were determined to find a solution that would provide better management of inventory levels by analyzing usage to make target inventory recommendations, while also automating the requisition process.

WaveMark CIMS, from WaveMark, Inc. was recently installed in the two EP labs after a highly successful implementation in our five-room Cardiac Cath lab. The new RFID (radio frequency identification) system has immediately put minds at ease. Our EP technician and inventory manager is especially pleased with the implementation she can now leave at the end of the day knowing that her requisitions have been accurately placed.

WaveMark CIMS uses RFID technology to provide real-time visibility of all tagged items in an EP lab, operating room, or procedure room. Upon installation, WaveMark CIMS automatically sets par levels according to what is actually on the shelf. This serves as the baseline for the department s inventory level and is used to evaluate ROI success of the new solution.

How it Works

WaveMark CIMS is a web-based solution providing real-time visibility of inventory. To collect and make this information available, WaveMark installs RFID-enabled cabinets in the hospital to store and track products. Each product box is tagged with an RFID tag that serves as a license plate to that individual product, capturing its lot and serial number, as well as expiration date. The intelligent cabinets have built-in RFID antennas that read tagged items on the shelves every 18 minutes and feed the data to the WaveMark server. This provides a full physical count of products in those cabinets with no manual effort and 99.999% accuracy. When products are used in a procedure, they are waved in front of a Point-of-Service (POS) reader that confirms usage and simultaneously feeds into our EP lab s clinical documentation system. With this level of automation, our staff no longer needs to barcode or use pull-down menus to capture usage of these items, saving clinical resource time.

By waving tagged items in front of the POS readers in the labs or control areas, WaveMark CIMS automatically decrements the item from inventory without any manual entry or barcode scan. The application then sends the information into the open encounter in the clinical documentation system chosen by the hospital. If the item is not used, it is put back on the shelf and read automatically back into inventory. WaveMark CIMS does not replace the hospital s legacy systems, yet it augments it by feeding accurate, real-time information.