Patient Care Technology Systems Announces Integration Of Parco Wireless' Advanced RFID Tracking Technologies
Mission Viejo, CA - Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS), a provider of advanced clinical information systems for high-acuity departments, announced the integration with Parco Wireless' radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking systems. PCTS will be integrating the technology, which is designed exclusively for hospital use and uses a highly developed form of RFID called ultra-wideband (UWB), with its software for automatically tracking patients and mobile medical equipment.
PCTS automatic tracking software allows for real-time data collection of patient location and care status utilizing most major tracking technology platforms including infrared, active RFID, and now ultra-wideband. Automated tracking systems operate inertly in the background, passively collecting location data for the caregivers and are designed to eliminate data entry or bar code scanning in some instances. Because little demand is placed upon the caregiver to collect this data, clinicians are able to provide more time focused on caregiving.
The PCTS software uses rules-based intelligence to translate interactions between staff, equipment and patients to identify and time-stamp the progression of care for each patient which can quickly identify patient flow bottlenecks. PCTS markets automatic tracking solutions for the emergency department, operating room and hospitalwide under the Amelior brand name.
The ultra-wideband hardware operates across a range of frequency bands while not interfering with existing communication systems. This is because it uses very low transmit power, while still maintaining a high data rate. It operates in the time domain rather than the frequency domain, with its signals consisting of high-speed electromagnetic pulses rather than sine waves. This means that the waves traverse many frequencies unimpeded and unnoticed. Extremely suitable for sensitive hospital environments, the UWB provided by Parco works alongside all existing wireless standards. Considered hospital-grade wireless, UWB is more robust and accurate than IR, WiFi, or traditional forms of RFID. As such the combined systems can accurately read tags attached to people and objects in real-time with accuracies between six and 12 inches. The tags are also capable of sending and receiving secure data packets from integrated components to which the tag is attached.
"We are excited about the potential to integrate our automatic tracking software with Parco's RFID system," said Tony Marsico, CEO of PCTS. "Our focus has always been to provide the most advanced software with the broadest hardware compatibility possible. This provides our customers with the ability to create the ideal system configuration for their needs. The Parco technology offers a significant technological advantage in terms of thousands of tags that can be tracked at once, accuracy of reporting, repeatability and quality of data, and we are pleased to welcome them to our network of technology partners."
SOURCE: Patient Care Technology Systems