GE Healthcare and CenTrak Inc. have introduced a new RFID solution which enables hospitals to create “virtual walls” to help pinpoint the location of mobile medical equipment in large rooms.

GE’s Asset Optimization System creates subdivisions within rooms as small as six feet by eight feet, the typical size of small patient bays, often curtained off for privacy, used in large hospital wards. With the system, a RFID-tagged piece of equipment can be easily tracked to a specific patient bay, an enhancement of traditional RFID room-level accuracy.

“Our customers tell us that reliable accuracy, along with cost, are the two most important factors in choosing among current RFID systems,” said Bret Barczak, general manager of Services & Solutions for GE Healthcare. ”Most systems capable of providing higher than room-level accuracy, like ultra wide band, traditionally have been cost prohibitive. The Asset Optimization System allows health care providers to create virtual RFID rooms where higher level intelligence, tracking and reporting are more valuable, particularly in places like the OR and ED.”