Mobile Aspects, a leading provider of software for supply and asset tracking systems in hospitals, has announced a new product to help in the ongoing fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The company is building off of its 20-year history of delivering systems that help hospitals automate the tracking and documentation of supplies and assets within hospitals. The new software will help track the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as N95 masks, that are currently facing overwhelming demand due to Covid-19.
As hospitals are facing an extreme shortage of PPE, many are now investigating or implementing systems that will help them reprocess certain items for multiple uses in order to alleviate their supply problems. Several US hospitals have already implemented or are planning to implement N95 mask sterilization due to extreme or projected shortages. These systems utilize various sterilization methods such as hydrogen peroxide or ultraviolet light to allow for the reuse of PPE.
While the ability to reprocess PPE such as N95 masks during the Covid-19 crisis is a huge relief (the FDA has recently lifted its guidance to not sterilize masks), the new techniques will come with their own challenges. Each hospital will use its own set of protocols that limit how many reuses each set of PPE can have before it loses its efficacy, and early research shows that these limits could be between 20 to 50 times. However, these same hospitals will have to ensure that they use the equipment only up to the limit to ensure both patient safety and financial benefit. Using the PPE too few times will lead to lost dollars while using them too many times will lead to compromised patient safety.
In order to effectively track sterilized PPE and stay within usage limits, hospitals must have the proper protocols and tracking mechanisms in place. Mobile Aspects has developed a unique software tracking system to address this specific challenge. The system works by tracking the number of uses of each piece of PPE using RFID technology to track usage counts at the item level. Whenever an item reaches its usage limit, users will immediately be notified to discard the item. If anyone tries to use PPE past its usage limits, alerts will go out so that the user can be notified. And if anyone is in possession of multiple pieces of in-demand PPE, administrators will be notified so they can instruct the employee to return their excess PPE. With this system in place, hospitals and healthcare systems can be assured that sterilized PPE is being used only as recommended, no more and no less.
If your facility is exploring ways to track sterilized PPE, contact Mobile Aspects to find out more about its innovative new software.