CARLSBAD, Calif., Jan. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — RFID
Journal features MEPS Real Time’s Intelliguard drug management
system story.

Someone can live or die depending on the correct medications
being dispensed. Hospitals and medical professionals clearly agree
leveraging better tracking of a drug’s expiration dates,
information about the drug administered, tracking and updating
inventory levels, all performed in REAL TIME, would assist in
preventing errors.

A San Diego hospital is testing an RFID-based drug-management
system developed by MEPS Real Time, an RFID
solutions provider based in Carlsbad, Calif. The system, known as
Intelliguard, employs standard EPC Gen 2 ultrahigh-frequency (UHF)
passive RFID tags and readers, including a tabletop reader for
commissioning the tag attached to each drug’s packaging, as well as
RFID-enabled drug-dispensing cabinets and bedside patient trays.
Each time one of the cabinet’s drawers has been opened and then
closed, the system reads the tags of drugs stored in that drawer,
and can verify that the correct item was removed.

“It has always been my intention to try to have a system that
can reduce medications from expiring, unused,” the hospital’s
pharmacy director explains.

Key benefits of MEPS Real Time Drug Management
System are:

• Better management of stock levels of medicines. By maintaining
  a smaller stock, the frequency at which any of the drugs remain on
  the shelf past their expiry date is reduced.
• EPC Gen 2 tags and readers because the hardware is standardized
  and the tags can be read consistently and in quantities.
• Trading partners would tag medications prior to shipping them
  to hospitals, so that the tags can then be used to create drug
  pedigrees and chains of custody.
• A reduction in cost of

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SOURCE