Automatic management of surgical instruments in RFID hospital disinfection supply room

Traditionally, the responsibility for selecting equipment for each surgery has generally fallen to senior nurses and clinicians, who must go to the supply room to collect the equipment before each surgery. The disinfection supply room of the Hospital is responsible for the recovery, cleaning, packaging, sterilization, storage, and distribution of medical supplies in the hospital. It is an important part of the hospital's work, especially in the management of surgical equipment packages, which is directly related to the lives of patients. After each operation, the supply room collects, washes, sorts and packages the used surgical instruments, and prepares them for new operations after strict sterilization and disinfection.

During the entire process, due to the lack of sufficient monitoring and management, accidents such as lax disinfection of surgical instruments, expired disinfection validity period of instrument packages, pollution of traditional recording paper and cross-infection caused by entering the operating room sometimes occurred. At the same time, there are still problems such as high labor intensity, the inability of relevant units to define responsibilities after the accident, and high disinfection costs, which bring certain difficulties to the management of the hospital.

RFID technology provides a real-time, accurate and automated electronic information recording method by installing RFID electronic tags on each device. RFID technology does not require the hospital to introduce a new process system. It can seamlessly connect with the hospital's existing system process and provide relevant document information for each link in the process. The entire system can also be automatically updated when the instrument is repaired or maintained. After the hospital adopts RFID technology to manage surgical instruments, it no longer needs to manually count the trays and instruments, but only needs to use the UHF reader to read the instruments within a few seconds. These data can be used to analyze the management process. It is also a strong basis for quality improvement and certification.

The specific process is to attach a unique RFID electronic tag to the newly received medical equipment, and the RFID electronic tag will be printed with codes to link the corresponding items in the software. When the staff use the RFID handheld terminal to complete the daily picking, the scheduled surgical procedure will be displayed on the RFID system and the required items and their storage locations will be listed. In this way, doctors can quickly get the medical equipment they need. The UHF RFID handheld will update the list after each scan. If the wrong item is taken, the RFID system will issue a warning.

When the medical device is transferred to the designated operating room, the RFID Reader in the operating room will read the RFID tag on the medical device and confirm the received device. After the procedure is complete, any unused items can be returned together in the same package to the supply room. Upon return, staff scan or read the tags on each instrument, and the data collected can be Stored to record which supplies, Tools or implants were used by that patient.

Management of medical surgical instruments through RFID technology has the following characteristics:

1. Improve management efficiency and facilitate traceability

Through the RFID system, the staff can easily understand the information of each link in the whole process of recycling, cleaning, packaging, sterilization and distribution of the instrument package. In the event of an infection accident, the irresponsible link can be eliminated and the responsible link and responsible person can be finally determined .

2. Device record information is more accurate and comprehensive

Each device is equipped with an RFID electronic tag, which contains data such as the type, quantity, and disinfection date of the device. These data can be read throughout the process, and can be replenished, recycled, and cleaned at any time.

3. Avoid the hidden danger of infection of traditional instrument recording paper

Traditional instrument recording paper actually constitutes one of the sources of surgical infection. After adopting the RFID technology management system, the recording paper is no longer used, thus avoiding the hidden danger of infection.

4. Ensure the strictness of the sterilization process

By recording the data such as the disinfection time and the temperature and pressure of the disinfection room, when the disinfection is out of the pot, it is judged whether the surgical package is qualified according to the collected data, so as to ensure that the unqualified instrument package will not flow out.

5. Save time and cost

The relevant data of sterilization and disinfection is recorded through the RFID system, which saves a certain amount of time, and saves costs because the disinfection test strips are no longer used.

The application of RFID system technology in the disinfection process of medical surgical instruments has strong originality, which will fundamentally reverse the passive situation of surgical kit process management, improve the hospital's processing capacity in the management of surgical instrument disinfection, and meet the requirements of hospital medical equipment disinfection process information. Humanized and humanized business innovation requirements. It plays a positive role in improving the digital management function of the hospital, ensuring the safety of patients, improving the work efficiency of doctors, and improving the management and various medical procedures of the hospital.