Datalogic Provides Hospital Corp. of America with 60K Cordless Barcode Readers

Datalogic S.p.A. (Borsa Italiana S.p.A.: DAL), a global leader in Automatic Identification and total solutions provider of bar code readers, data collection mobile computers, RFID and vision systems, is enhancing processes in the healthcare sector by meeting high demands in patient safety and inventory tracking solutions.

The total solutions system provided to this sector stem from the combined power of Datalogic ADC and Datalogic Automation, both of which enhance business in all Datalogic Group's markets, offering a comprehensive combined product portfolio ranging from industrial scanning and imaging solutions to hand-held and fixed scanners and from mobile computers and vision systems to integrated business solutions.

Management of public and private healthcare institutions must guarantee control and efficiency of critical processes. Data collection technologies play a key role as enablers to support processes in place at hospitals, private clinics, health centers and institutions operated by public health authorities. Datalogic already has an established record of the biggest base in the world of cordless readers in the healthcare sector with 60,000 readers installed in HCA, Hospital Corporation of America. Other recent deployments where Datalogic’s solutions are making a real difference are in remote medical inventory tracking in hospitals for device manufacturer, AngioScore, pharmaceutical control at the Regional Hospital Center/University (CHRU) of Tours in France and for the identification and registration of blood bags at Holland’s Rotterdam Hospital.

AngioScore, a manufacturer of balloon catheters used in treating arterial disease at 800 hospitals in the United States and abroad, needs to track inventory and keep records of when the devices are used.Rather than buying the equipment directly, hospitals store the units on site and only pay for the actual units used. Therefore, the burden falls on AngioScore to track the use of as many as 70 devices in one hospital. In order to meet this need, Datalogic's Windows-powered, pocket-sized Memor™ mobile computer has now been deployed in quantity by AngioScore along with the FELIX™ Mobile Work Assistant system provided by Datalogic's Business Partner, Purple Oak.

According to Tracy Moss, Customer Service Business Analyst at AngioScore, an outstanding feature of the Memor mobile computer is the accuracy of its laser scanner. "This is fundamental to effective data capture for record-keeping,” she said. Medical products can have long, dense bar codes that are printed in a small area making them difficult to read for some bar code scanners. The Memor mobile computer has no trouble reading these bar codes. In addition, the Datalogic patented Green Spot technology that illuminates a green spot on the bar code after it has been read assures good read feedback.
In a second deployment, Datalogic’s Memor terminals are at the heart of the CHRU solution at Bretonneau hospital, a specialist institution for onco-hematology with a pharmaceutical unit producing products for 25,000 chemotherapy treatments. The pharmacy has three production units, which require guaranteed sterility and security.
In order to achieve complete traceability of the manufacturing process, from the prescription stage right up to delivery, CHRU uses a traceability solution developed by Polytech and Eticsys. Within this, Datalogic’s Memor mobile computers effectively keep the preparation operatives permanently connected to the central system of the hospital throughout the production cycle. In addition, Skorpio™ mobile computers are used for delivery operations and registering the signature of the person commissioned to receive the product.

“With the Skorpio and Memor solutions, we can now regulate each of the manufacturing phases in real-time, and retrace all the operations in connection with chemotherapy for a given patient. It has really increased our confidence, and the safety of our patients,” said M. Tournamille, a pharmacist for CHRU of Tours.

Meanwhile, Datalogic Automation's Matrix 410™ image-based ID readers were chosen by Rotterdam Hospital for the identification and registration of blood bags. As the labels of vulnerable blood products contain numerous barcodes that range in size from 5 to 18 digits, it was important that the hospital had a system that could read these different barcodes quickly and accurately. Matrix 410™ ID readers provide a single image of all barcodes present on the labels that is then recorded in the laboratory information system. Efficiency is further improved as the cameras on these ID readers are OMNI-Directional and able to read damaged barcodes.

"Thanks to the Datalogic Automation camera, registration of all blood products we use for analysis in the laboratory is significantly faster and error-free," said Raoul Fallaux, Analyst/Application Manager KCL at Ikazia Hospital Rotterdam.

According to Mauro Sacchetto, CEO of Datalogic Group, efficient hospital and healthcare management is essential to ensure patients are provided with timely and appropriate care. “The total solutions provided by our Group help maximize processes which are vital to care, efficiency and security in the highly regulated healthcare sector,” he said.

Source: Datalogic Group