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©2015 RFID Journal

South Metro Fire reScue Authority, in Centennial,Colo., provides emergency and prevention services forroughly 195,000 residents in two counties, as well as forthe thousands of people who come into the communi-ties to work. The organization’s Fire & EmergencyMedical Services (EMS) department operates from 17 sta-tions and is staffed by fire and emergency medical tech-nicians (EMTs) and paramedics. It’s essential that theirambulances are equipped with all the medical suppliesthat might be needed in an emergency situation.

South Metro faced a few inventory-managementchallenges. The organization was maintaining anexcessive amount of inventory. The warehouse at itsheadquarters and each station were stocked with thesame number of medical supplies. In addition, themajority of the medications and other medical dispos-able supplies have expiration dates. Often, the medicalsupplies expired before they could be used, due eitherto overstocks or to a lack of demand for those products.That includes the rarely used supplies and pharmacol-

ogy the organization’s Advanced Life Support units arerequired to carry for critical intervention.

“Some incident types are common, where others arevery rare,” says Rich Buchanan, an EMS operations lieu-tenant at South Metro. “A licensed medic is required tocarry [in the ambulance] all of the supplies for all of thedifferent types of emergencies.”

South Metro was using a highly labor-intensiveprocess to update its inventory, Buchanan says. Thisinvolved having crews at each station manually countand verify expiration dates for all supplies, which took along time and was prone to human error. The organiza-tion needed an efficient way to monitor medical sup-plies so they would likely be used before the expirationdates were reached.

In March 2015, South Metro adopted an RFID inven-tory-management system known as IntelliView, fromSilent Partner Technologies (SPT), to improve efficien-cies. Following a pilot at South Metro’s warehouse todemonstrate the solution for the entire management

RFID Saves an EMS With InventoryChallenges South Metro Fire Rescue Authority is tracking medicalsupplies at its warehouse and at 17 stations, to reducewaste and improve efficiencies.

By Bob Violino

rfidjournal.com | May 18, 2015

team, the organization decided to roll out the solutionat all 17 stations. The system is helping South Metro tobetter manage inventory, reduce waste from expiredproducts and improve asset control, Buchanan says.

DIAGNOSING THE NEEDIn 2014, South Metro conducted an assessment to deter-mine its need for a technology solution that couldaddress its inventory-management inefficiencies. “Westarted this project with an extensive analysis of ourcurrent state, and determined that we had a significantamount of broken, missing, expired and excess volumerelating to medical supplies,” says Buchanan, who

heads the project. “This constituted an unacceptableliability and financial problem.”

The project committee, which includes representa-tives from EMS, IT and logistics, conducted a one-timeassessment of the medical disposable inventory at the17 stations. The team calculated that, at the time, it was

approximately $178,000, one-third of which was beinglost to medication expiration.

South Metro had used bar codes to track some sup-plies, but it wanted to deploy a technology that couldcontrol inventory and improve logistics processes. Bar-code systems could not support this, Buchanan says.

The committee determined that an RFID systemseemed best suited for its needs. After evaluating anumber of vendors and systems, South Metro selectedSPT’s IntelliView solution, an asset- and inventory-management solution designed for fire and EMS organ-izations. IntelliView uses active and passive RFID tech-nology to track both serialized items (such as narcotics)and non-serialized assets and supplies (maintenanceequipment and portable computers, for instance) at thestations and in the field.

“The key factor in selecting the RFID system was itscurrent utilization in the fire service,” Buchanan says.“We were able to see efficacy in our unique environ-ment, including fire scenes, hazardous materials andmedical emergencies.”

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“The key factor in selectingthe RFID system was itscurrent utilization in the fireservice. We were able to seeefficacy in our uniqueenvironment, including firescenes, hazardous materialsand medical emergencies.”—Rich Buchanan, EMS operations, South Metro

South Metro Fire Rescue Authority tracks medical supplies atits warehouse and at 17 stations via an RFID solution.

RFID Journal, May 18, 2015 | RFID Saves an EMS With Inventory Challenges

IMPLEMENTING THE CUREThe main feature of IntelliView’s solution is itsIntelliShelf, which uses passive ultrahigh-frequencyRFID technology—it turns a rack that holds suppliesinto a smart shelf that can identify tagged items. A rackis retrofitted with antennas and a Mercury 6 fixed readerfrom ThingMagic, a division of Trimble.

Items, boxes or packages of items are identifiedusing one of two types of Alien Technology tags thatcontain a unique identification number. Squiggle tagsare used on boxes, packages and large containers ofmedicines. For small medicine bottles, SPT customizedan AZ 9620 inlay with a “rat tail” that enables the tag to

be placed on the item without covering up drug infor-mation on the bottle’s label.

SPT’s IntelliView cloud-based software includesmiddleware to manage tag reads and an inventory-man-agement application. When a tagged item is removedfrom a smart shelf, it is automatically detected andinventory is updated in real time. The software also cantrack when products will expire and features a schedul-ing calendar for monitoring when items need to berecalibrated.

Prior to the pilot at South Metro headquarters, SPTtested the equipment at its offices, using an IntelliShelf

and South Metro’s inventory. During that two-monthtest period, South Metro’s IT department paved the wayfor rolling out the solution at the stations by installingpower, Ethernet drops and IP addresses. South Metroalso began the tagging process. When it was time to rollout the solution, “all we had to do was plug in the hard-ware and turn the system on,” says Ted Kostis, SPT’spresident. “Of course, there were some slight tweaks.”

The rollout was accomplished within two weeks. “But,”Kostis says, “it’s important to note that the majority of thework was done long before SPT ever arrived onsite.”

All supplies are RFID-tagged at South Metro’s head-quarters. At nine of Metro South’s 17 stations, rackswere outfitted with the IntellShelf technology. Racks atthe remaining eight stations have not yet been con-verted into smart shelves. At these stations, logisticsstaff members take inventory with CS101 handheldRFID readers from Convergence Systems Ltd.

In addition, at the warehouse and each station,assets—such as defibrillators and other medical equip-ment and rugged notebook computers—are identified

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RFID Journal, May 18, 2015 | RFID Saves an EMS With Inventory Challenges

IntelliView’s UHF RFID solution turns a rack that holds sup-plies into a smart shelf that can identify tagged items.

“All we had to do was plug inthe hardware and turn thesystem on. Of course, therewere some slight tweaks.”—Ted Kostis, SPT

via active tags from Wavetrend (modified Micro tagsand Indoor Asset tags). They are tracked using a fixedWavetrend (modified RX50) reader. Logistics personnelcan view each unique asset’s location via the Web usingSPT software.

South Metro also uses active RFID technology at thestations to track Pelican cases, plastic transport con-tainers that hold critical-care supplies for ambulances.Each case is identified with an active (modified) Microtag from Wavetrend. The tag, used in conjunction with afixed Wavetrend reader, can identify whether a case hasbeen opened and needs to be replenished with suppliesbefore being put back in service.

When a case is brought back into a station from anambulance, the reader detects whether the Pelican casehas been opened. The way this is done is that any time thecase is opened, the number in the tag changes. The nexttime that tag is read at a station, South Metro logisticspersonnel are alerted that the case has been opened, sothey know it needs to be checked for replenishment andthen “re-authenticated” for use in another ambulance.

The biggest challenge of the implementation was fig-uring out the appropriate tag for all of the different sup-plies, Buchanan says. “Some of the supplies are fluid-based [such as medications] and others are in protectivemetal containers, making the tags difficult to read.” SPTand South Metro addressed this by developing a specificprocess for how and where items are tagged, as well ashow they are stacked in their bins.

HEALTHY BENEFITSSouth Metro estimates it will achieve a return on invest-ment from the system within 18 months, Buchanansays. Before the RFID deployment, South Metro’s totalinventory—including supplies at the warehouse and 17stations—at any given time was more than 20,000items. Thanks to the RFID solution, the organizationhas been able to cut that amount in half.

South Metro’s headquarters now serves as a centralinventory facility for all supplies, which are delivered toeach station weekly based on need. The RFID solutionprovides visibility into what each station needs to havereplenished, Buchanan says.

It now takes roughly two and a half hours to replen-ish a battalion—five to six stations—a process that usedto take a minimum of six hours. The solution automati-cally generates Pick Tickets, so logistics personnelknow which items each station needs.

In the past, each station had approximately 1,500 to2,000 items, and it took a logistics person a day or twoto count them. Currently, inventory at each station hasbeen reduced to an average of 580 items. The smart shelfprovides continuous real-time inventory data. At thestations that haven’t been equipped with smart shelves,it takes one person with a handheld reader 15 to 20 sec-onds to inventory a rack. All told, South Metro expectsthe RFID solution to contribute to an estimated 400 per-cent reduction in labor cost.

In addition, South Metro can now see exactly whichproducts are about to expire and when. That enables itto move time-sensitive items to stations where they willlikely be used before the expiry date. South Metroexpects a 30 percent reduction in waste from expireditems.

South Metro would like to equip the remainingeight stations with smart shelves during the next yearor so as its budget allows, Buchanan says. After that,he says, when funds become available, South Metrowill consider adopting SPT’s Intellivan solution,which shows EMTs if a vehicle is fully stocked withkey assets and ready to go. An ambulance driver, forexample, could know before he or she leaves for anaccident scene or returns to a station whether a defib-rillator is still in the vehicle or if a particular drug isrunning low.

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RFID Journal, May 18, 2015 | RFID Saves an EMS With Inventory Challenges

The active RFID system tracks plastic Pelican cases holdingcritical-care supplies for ambulances.