St. Joe’s Hamilton adopts tech for equipment tracking

WATERLOO and HAMILTON, Ont. – Studies across the world have shown that, on average, hospitals tend to use less than half of their medical assets at any given time. In addition, hospitals are likely to hold on average three times as much inventory as they need.

In a facility the size of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton Charlton Campus (St. Joe’s), which has 600 beds, specialized equipment such as mattresses designed to reduce pressure sores and IV poles travel with patients throughout the hospital, making them difficult to track. As a result, porters have to spend time to find the equipment, which can create delays for patients who are waiting for the equipment or for transfers throughout the hospital.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton has implemented a state-of-the-art technology platform from Technology Trace designed to track medical equipment in real time, reducing wait times, increasing healthcare worker efficiency and improving patient experience.

Technology Trace’s innovative platform, called trevii, is the first-of-its-kind data analytics and tracking technology platform – akin to a “find my phone” app for specialized medical equipment – to optimize the use of medical equipment such as specialized beds.

The agreement between St. Joe’s and Technology Trace was facilitated by the Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton and assisted by funding through OBIO’s Life Sciences Critical Technologies and Commercialization (LSCTC) Centre of Excellence.

During a one-year evaluation project that recently wrapped up, trevii delivered a 100 percent reconciliation rate for assets tracked, with precise location accuracy and a 98 percent certainty that an item is on a specific floor.

“Having to search for specialized equipment can cause delays for porters and patients throughout our hospital. With the trevii system in place, staff are finding specialized equipment faster and getting it where it’s needed the most,” said Donna Johnson (pictured), director of clinical programs at St. Joe’s. “Innovation plays a vital role at St. Joe’s and we’re continually exploring new ways to enhance how we deliver care.”

“The pilot study offered important validation that use of trevii for real time location asset tracking can result in significant cost savings for hospitals, with no IT infrastructure or integration required,” said Michael Becker, CEO of Technology Trace. “In addition to saving the hospital wasted hours searching for assets, we uncovered a significant percentage of medical assets that sit idle. Our data shows that improved asset utilization can help hospitals across Ontario realize $76 million in annual capital cost savings.”

“This project is an excellent example of how made-in-Canada technology can streamline hospital operations and improve patient experience,” said Dr. Maura Campbell, president and CEO of OBIO. “By supporting the adoption of Technology Trace’s platform at St. Joe’s, our Life Sciences Critical Technologies & Commercialization (LSCTC) Centre of Excellence is demonstrating how critical technologies like 5G can be applied to solve real-world healthcare challenges and drive significant cost savings for our hospital system.”

About OBIO
OBIO, a not-for-profit, membership-based organization dedicated to advancing health technology innovation and commercialization, is prioritizing the evaluation and implementation of new solutions using critical technologies through its Life Sciences Critical Technologies & Commercialization (LSCTC) Centre of Excellence, supported by the Government of Ontario. OBIO is engaged in strategy, programming, policy development and advocacy to address the needs of the next generation of companies developing innovative human health products. For more information, please visit OBIO.ca.

About Technology Trace
Technology Trace is a 100% Canadian-owned IoT product and services company, and its flagship product, trevii, is the only boundless asset tracking solution focused on the multi-billion-dollar medical asset management problem, at a fraction of the cost of conventional real-time location system technologies. For more information, please visit technologytraceinc.com.

About St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (St. Joe’s) is a leading research and academic health sciences centre located in Hamilton, Ontario. For more than 130 years, St. Joe’s has delivered high-quality, evidence-based and compassionate care to patients. The hospital is well known for excellence in mental health and addictions, respiratory care, kidney and urinary care, robotic surgical services, cancer surgery and women’s and infants’ care, provided at its three main campuses. St. Joe’s Charlton Campus is home to the busiest emergency room in the region and the only psychiatric emergency service in the city. The hospital’s threefold mission is to provide dynamic research, revolutionary methods in health sciences education and the highest standard of clinical care in a spirit of compassion, innovation and commitment. St. Joe’s is a proud member of St. Joseph’s Health System, one of Canada’s largest healthcare corporations serving more than two million Canadians. To learn more, visit stjoes.ca.