A developer of real-time location systems (RTLS) for hospitals has developed a new device designed to help patients with heart problems move about more freely and hospitals to keep better tabs on their valuable resources.

The RadarFind Corporation on Tuesday unveiled a customized RFID tag to track cardiac telemetry devices  allowing nurses to keep track of both the devices and the cardiac patients wearing them in the hospital. 

Cardiac telemetry devices, which monitor a patient’s heartbeat and transmit that information to the nurses’ station, are usually about the size of a deck of cards, making it possible for cardiac patients to carry them while walking around the hospital and nurses to monitor the patients at all times. But they’re valuable, costing $3,000 on average, and can be easily mislaid or destroyed, thus having the potential to cost hospitals thousands of dollars and put the patient at risk.

RadarFind, based in Morrisville, N.C., collaborated with Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, Va., to custom-design the asset tracking tag for cardiac telemetry devices. The tag attaches to the device, allowing nurses to keep track of where all those devices are located in the hospital.

“Tracking equipment in hospitals poses unique challenges, and RadarFind offers the only technology available to comprehensively address these needs while offering the flexibility for future adaptations,” said Terry Kane, MD, RadarFind’s CEO. “We are confident that forward-thinking hospitals will continue to envision new ways to leverage an asset- and patient-tracking system, and we remain committed to working with our partners to ensure our technology evolves accordingly.”

“RadarFind’s flexibility, technological innovation and first-hand understanding of everyday issues facing hospitals far surpassed any of the other solutions we considered. They were aware of the significant losses and frustration incurred each year from lost telemetry units, and their engineering team deftly responded to the physical challenge of designing a tag to fit these life-saving devices,” added Andy Holden, director of biomedical services for Mary Washington Hospital. “RadarFind’s flexibility in working with us to develop this tag underscores their commitment to helping hospitals eliminate unnecessary costs while improving patient care.”

In addition to keeping track of each device’s location, the tag can be configured into a hospital’s RTLS to launch e-mail or pager alerts when a device nears a predetermined location, like an exit – allowing nurses to track down devices before they’re taken out of the hospital or accidentally laundered.