Imagine this…it’s a typical day in the life of paramedic Paula. She walks into the crew bay, clocks in for her shift and prepares for the day ahead. Her routine falls into a sense of normalcy as she begins her daily task until dispatch calls and a geriatric patient has fallen and broken their hip.
Paula knows she needs to grab her supplies, narcotics, her partner and jump in her unit to head to the scene. In moments like this, Paula is not thinking about filling out the controlled substance log book with perfect detail and handwriting, for her agency uses electronic controlled substance tracking combined with RFID technology. She pulls out her tablet, swiftly logs the medications as in her possession, grabs the medication from the safe and her supervisor is immediately alerted that the controlled substance she took has been removed from the safe. Within minutes, Paula has her medications in hand, hops in the unit and she and her partner are on their way to assist the patient.
Wish controlled substance tracking could be this easy? By using a safe with RFID technology it can be.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices are growing in importance within the healthcare community. First Responders such as EMS agencies, fire departments, hospitals and even veterinary clinics have turned to new ways to track their narcotic medications to meet compliance regulations and patient safety.
By combining the retrofitted narcotics safe with RFID and Operative IQ's Narcotics Tracking, you can be alerted and informed instantaneously as the technology offers real-time monitoring on tagged medications. You will be able to produce extremely accurate results while automating administrative tasks, so your team can stay with patient care.
With the RFID equipped safe, you can rest assured knowing compliance is not lost in the technology rather enhanced as the RFID safe takes advantage of the innovation to track loose drugs and drug boxes at your department’s distribution location areas. Drug safes often contain hundreds of individual items that must be verified each time the safe is accessed. The RFID Drug Safe performs this operation in seconds.
Each drug instance is tagged with a passive RFID tag instead of standard control number tags used today. Drug boxes may also be tagged with either passive RFID tags or BLE beacons to allow for tracking.
Your safe will include a thin back wall RFID reader that continuously inventories the content of the drug safe and compares those to the Operative IQ Operations Management Software to identify and report any discrepancies. Also included is a LED Status Light mounted to the safe that provides visual indication that the contents of the drug safe are accurate (green) or inaccurate (alternating green/red).
The RFID drug safe system can be delivered complete with a 42” 14 Gauge Steel Safe or made to Retrofit your Existing Drug Safe.
Visit the Narcotics Tracking and RFID Solutions page to learn more.
