Despite many breakthroughs and innovations, the health care industry has been facing significant inventory management, supply chain, and clinical documentation challenges due to the lack of accurate data needed to make informed decisions. Hospitals’ Materials Management Information Systems (MMIS) and clinical documentation systems are not designed to track or manage supplies downstream in the supply chain in the clinical areas, and they do not have the technical capability to undertake true inventory control. According to Arnold Chazal and Lana Makhanik, founders of VUEMED, this often gives rise to poor and inaccurate data capture at the point of care, leading to inaccurate patient records, billing errors, and a decrease in patient safety. When Chazal and Makhanik recognized this critical situation or, as they call it, “the blind spot,” they designed a software and web-based technology called VueTrack™ that they built together with Pavel Rozalski, a former senior software engineer for Microsoft. In 2008, the software went from being a working prototype to a full-fledged product and a new business—VUEMED. “At VUEMED, our goal is to create simple yet powerful technologies that produce comprehensive and accurate data to guide hospitals through their decision-making processes and to help them reduce waste, increase revenue, and improve the quality and delivery of patient care.”
VUEMED is working to transform the health care supply chain using a scalable SaaS model and innovative UDI-compliant RFID- and Cloud-based technologies. Their solutions provide hospitals with a suite of powerful tools that collect, generate, and analyze critical data in a way that is meaningful and easily actionable. “With this data at their fingertips, users have full, real-time visibility of their inventory, can optimize the inventory by reducing purchases to sensible levels aligned with actual needs, and can achieve billing precision that translates into additional revenue capture for the hospital,” says Chazal. VUEMED’s flagship product, VueTrack-RF, is a RAIN (GS1 UHF Gen2) RFID technology that provides accurate, real-time visibility, and traceability of all medical products and supplies throughout the supply chain – from the moment the product is labeled with a passive RFID tag at the manufacturer site, all the way through the supply chain to the hospital and to the patient at the point of care.
For instance, the company has been helping the Cardiovascular and Radiology departments at Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) to transform their inventory management, clinical documentation, and billing processes using VueTrack-RF. LLUMC lacked control, visibility, and automation in managing consumable devices and supplies inventories, resulting in high rates of wasted and unused inventory, and inaccurate and incomplete supplies documentation and billing at the point of care. “We automated their reordering and billing, as well as helped them with the adoption of best practices and standard operating procedures for inventory control in both departments,” notes Makhanik. Unlike their competitors, VUEMED’s RFID technology solutions are cost-effective, hands-free, and cabinet-free; they turn any space—whether a supply room, procedure room, or warehouse—into a fully controlled and automated inventory space using existing shelving, with real-time information about each product’s location, availability, usage, and expiration information. “We give hospitals greater control, visibility, and traceability of their clinical inventory, thereby dramatically improving patient safety, clinical documentation, and integration of key supply data into other systems,” concludes Chazal.
