Wireless Future: Tracking Patients And Equipment

At several of the 22 facilities that make up Erlanger Medical Center, every 50 feet in the ceiling tiles there are recessed antennas, which are connected by Ethernet cables to servers. That's the basis for a new system to save nurses time by letting them enter patient information wirelessly.

But John Haltom, Erlanger's network director, sees those antennas as the start of a much bigger opportunity for the Chattanooga, Tenn., medical center. "This wireless technology is a foundation to a revolution in how we look at traditional patient care," he says.

Last summer, Erlanger started giving nurses SC-2000s, rolling medical workstations from Tremont Medical Inc. As nurses care for patients and check vital signs, they enter data and clinical notes into the workstations, eliminating paper records and the need to re-enter information into computers. Nurses also check for patient information such as lab results.

The carts will soon include a bar-code scanner for verifying prescriptions when dispensing medications and a voice-over-IP phone so nurses can respond to a call button from anywhere. The mobile medical workstations connect to a Symbol Technologies Inc. wireless network supporting 802.11b and 802.11a standards to interact with hospital information-system applications. The carts eliminate five minutes of paperwork per patient, plus miles of walking, Haltom estimates. That's the biggest reason the nonprofit company spent $1.5 million to deploy wireless, despite expecting a $9 million to $10 million operating loss this year, he says.

The mobile nature of health care makes it a natural target for vendors touting wireless technology and handheld computers. But the potential isn't limited to doctors and nurses.

Haltom envisions in 18 to 24 months hospitals such as Erlanger using the technology to track medical gear that's wheeled from room to room--like the 600 intravenous pumps that need periodic testing--by tagging them with radio-frequency identification tags.

That could be extended even to patients. Already, newborns in some hospitals have sensors in their ID bracelets that trigger an alarm if they're taken from the floor. Combine that with a wireless network and a geographic information system at centralized monitoring areas, and a missing baby could be located immediately. "Thankfully, infant abductions aren't a common occurrence," Haltom says, "but you never know."

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Photographs by Angela Wyant