(P-PB-23) Radio Frequency Identification Vendor Managed Inventory

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been implemented by donor centers across the United States due to its ability to improve management, tracking, and monitoring of blood component inventory. In a blood center with consignment-based inventory management, the use of RFID technology was expanded in 2022 to include platelet inventory monitoring via a RFID Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) system at several larger local hospitals.

Study

Design/Methods:

A basic VMI system uses incubators at the local hospitals retrofitted with RFID sensors that communicate to the donor center staff through personalized dashboards. The sensors continuously refresh data to monitor the number and type of platelets hospitals have in inventory. Hospitals designate specific shelves to be excluded from their total platelet count for platelets assigned to orders or patients. Site specific hospital dashboards are in place to show current inventory and in process orders. The local hospitals set par levels to ensure adequate number of platelets are available and determine automated alerts for low/critical inventory notifications. These notifications are pushed to blood center staff by email and to a pager, which triggers an order to bring the hospital back up to their established par level. The donor center also uses dashboard information for redistributing platelets based on specific type and need.

Results/Findings:

The use of RFID VMI at local hospitals provides both the donor center and local hospitals a streamline source of information that aids in meeting platelet demand, tracking utilization, decreasing waste, and improving efficiency of the ordering process. Local hospitals benefit by reducing time spent on manual inventory counts, reducing unnecessary ordering, which reduces cost and waste of product, and decreasing miscommunication between hospital staff and the blood center. The blood center benefits with increased control of platelet inventory across multiple hospital sites, reduces cost by combining orders to ship, and fostering strong communication and transparency between the donor center and local hospitals.

Conclusions:

The RFID VMI system improves inventory management, both in the donor center and local hospitals. The reduction of manual orders cuts cost at the donor center and hospitals by enabling employees to work more productively. Direct insight into hospital inventory and usage allows for long-term, data driven plans to move products between multiple hospitals more efficiently.