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By Andrew Domino | MiBiz
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WEST MICHIGAN — Information technology companies from Holland and Traverse City are working to bring hospitals up to date with nothing more than a simple ID badge.

Versus Technology of Traverse City introduced the Clearview badge, a small device about the size of a business card, meant to be worn by everyone in a hospital from doctors and administrators to patients. Each badge has an emergency-call button, but its main purpose is to keep electronic tabs on everyone and everything walking the hospital floors.

Versus Technology created the software for the Clearview systen and made sure the badges could connect to computers inside the hospital’s walls, no matter where a doctor, patient or device might wander, but it turned to Fleetwood Group Electronics of Holland to design and produce the badges.

Stephanie Bertschy, director of marketing for Versus Technology, said the badge is synched up with a computer system that shows where a doctor, patient or other person is located at any given time. The real-time locating system uses radio frequency identification (RFID) and infrared light to send a signal to computers, reporting an individual or item’s status without blending into or overriding other signals used in the system.

A partnership between Versus Technology and Fleetwood Group Electronics has provided healthcare organizations with an easier way to track personnel and distribute resources. COURTESY PHOTO

High-end equipment like EKG machines and IV pumps also have a “tag” linked to the computer system. A quick glance at a computer will show which doctor is using which machine, eliminating the need to manually check equipment in and out, or search for someone who knows if a device is available.

Bertschy said the system also tracks time, showing when a patient arrives in the hospital and reporting on how long they are in the waiting room. Traditionally, a nurse would have to keep track of his or her own time — when they see a patient and when they leave a hospital room. On a busy day, a nurse is so occupied with patients, there’s no time to update a work schedule.

“The supervisor thinks everything’s great, but nobody has time to put in data,” Bertschy said. “I’ve seen nurses writing on their arms: when did they see this patient?”

The system can provide names, hospital room numbers and even data comparing the number of active nurses to the number of patients. It can be used within the hospital, and also to meet federal mandates for accurate reporting of hospital data.

The Clearview badges are replacing an older set of badges and software Versus had been using. The new system was introduced in March, with an initial shipment of 5,000 units. Bertschy said the system was being used in multiple hospitals nationwide, and a positive response to that first wave of badges has led to more trials for the badges and computer program.

Don Beery, director of new business development at Fleetwood Group, said his company’s contribution to Versus Technology’s program is a proprietary wireless communication protocol. Like any wireless setup, the computers and remote devices (the Clearview badges) are in constant communication. Beery said Fleetwood was able to offer an exclusive wireless system, one that doesn’t interfere with other wireless signals found inside a hospital.

Fleetwood is a 100-percent employee stock owned company formed in 1955. Fleetwood’s only office is in Holland, which keeps all of its design, production and development plans under one roof. That makes the Clearview system entirely designed and built inside Michigan. Fleetwood Group Electronics is a member of the Michigan Homeland Security Consortium, and its relationship with Versus Technology brought it under the wing of the West Michigan Medical Device Consortium as well.

Bertschy said the two companies had been in talks for several years about joining forces, and while she wouldn’t say precisely were the Clearview system is being used, Versus Technology does have relationships with Munson Medical Center in Traverse City and Allegiance Health in Jackson, among other Michigan hospitals.

Beery said Fleetwood Group Electronics also currently holds 14 patents and has applied for 12 more.

“We understand how to obtain wireless certification in 50 countries,” he said. “We bring creativity to technology.”

He said the Clearview technology could likely easily be translated to any industry that needed to monitor where its equipment was being used, like alternative energy developers or HVAC.

“This solution is geared toward efficiency,” Beery said. “We’ve been brainstorming other areas where locating (wirelessly) could be more efficient or safer.”

Fleetwood has been providing similar wireless technology in other industries as well, including corporate management and education. Beery said the company has created a student response keypad, which allows learners to respond digitally to a question that a teacher might ask in a PowerPoint presentation.

Fleetwood’s manufacturing capabilities enable them to produce about 1 million wireless devices each year. A hospital using the Versus Technology/Fleetwood system is actually a smaller customer, given Fleetwood’s output, Beery said.

An efficient computer system keeping track of people and materials may improve efficiency, but both Beery and Bertschy acknowledge it can lead to worries about “Big Brother” keeping track of every move a nurse or patient makes while inside the hospital’s four walls. Bertschy said Versus Technology suggests to potential customers that they include monitoring in bathrooms and break rooms, but not to keep people on edge. Instead, it shows users who’s available at any given time. The system as a whole shows hospital staff where they can improve their performance to make sure the hospital is as fast and efficient as possible.

“We do not promote it as a time and attendance system,” she said. “We can’t see what you do but we know where you are and who you’re with. At work, people want to go above and beyond. Our devices help.”

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TAGS:

• clearview badge
• don beery
• fleetwood group
• manufacturing
• stephanie bertschy
• versus technology
• west michigan