LOCATION:

Italy

SECTOR:

Health Care

PRODUCT:

1128 Bluetooth® UHF RFID Reader

Medigas Italia Integrates UHF RFID Technology Into Home Ventilator Distribution

Project Overview

Medigas Italia are one of the primary suppliers of home-based oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation services in Italy. They take care of the needs of patients at home or in permanent residential structures through multiple therapeutic or diagnostic services of the highest quality and reliability.

Medigas Italia are playing a vital part in the effort to save lives in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, recently distributing thousands of new liquid oxygen containers in all the Medigas Italia medicinal workshops to meet the growing demand on the national territory. In record time, they have set up a crisis committee to guarantee home delivery to over nine hundred of the most vulnerable patients.

Challenge

Home care is a form of care that allows the patient to live at home without giving up their habits and the tranquility of their home environment. It is an increasingly widespread solution that brings advantages but also presents complex needs requiring specific skills.

Medigas Italia have a huge distribution network and require absolute accuracy in asset management and inventory movement.

Medigas desired to implement the RFID technology to track and trace gas cylinders, trolleys and other assets along the distribution network and to manage the returns.

It was a complex challenge due to the metal surfaces of the cylinders and the need for temperature resistance and tag durability.

The Solution

Medigas called on IdeaPura, a Swiss based Consulting boutique focused on RFID Feasibility studies and Project Management, to perform the RFID feasibility study, design the processes and bring the project live.

To implement such a challenge, IdeaPura involved Cisper, an international distributor of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) products and systems.

 

The RFID technology is applied using three elements:

  1. Label/RFID Tag
  2. RFID Reader
  3. Data management system.

 

Among the advantages:

  • Tags do not have to be visible.
  • Tags can be read many meters away.
  • Possibility to read even hundreds of tags in a few seconds.
  • You can add information on the tags (which can be Read-Only, Write Once or Read and Write).
  • Communication can be in the clear or encrypted.

New “on metal” RFID tags printed and written with the Zebra printer can be read by the TSL® UHF RFID Reader

Medigas carriers are equipped with an iPad Mini tablet, portable printer and TSL® 1128 UHF RFID Reader. The devices communicate via Bluetooth® wireless technology.

“Mount on Metal” UHF RFID tags applied on all models of LOX and cylinders

“Mount on Metal” UHF RFID tags applied on all models of cryogenic cylinders

Result

  • Van loading and mass load reading with the new UHF RFID technology has saved 20 minutes per van
  • It now takes just a few seconds to verify and save data
  • Serial number typing errors have been reduced to zero.
  • Fast and immediate traceability on the conveyor devices
  • Improved quality of service to the user
  • Displaying documents in real time with the possibility of immediate access to various information by the customer
  • Total compliance with patient therapy

About

Medigas headquarters are based in Milan, Italy. 

For more information on their products and services, visit them at http://www.medigas.it/ or email info@medigas.it