RFiD Discovery and Althea partner to provide UK hospitals with location tracking solutions for medical devices and other assets

16 June 2021

RFiD Discovery, the UK’s leading location tracking specialist for healthcare, and Althea, the leading provider of integrated healthcare technology management, are joining forces to provide location tracking solutions to UK hospitals. The new partnership is due to be officially announced at the EBME Expo in Milton Keynes at the end of June where visitors can take part in free demonstrations with the chance to win a prize.  

Under the agreement, Althea will be using the RFiD Discovery system, which is already tracking hundreds of thousands of assets in over 100 hospitals in the UK and beyond, to add value to their outsourced managed services and multivendor maintenance of medical equipment. In addition, Althea is becoming a reseller of the RFiD Discovery system.

By offering location tracking as a solution or as an added service to existing and new clients, Althea will enable healthcare providers to increase efficiency, improve device utilisation and cut costs by reducing the need to purchase new devices.

With its deep knowledge of healthcare processes, the company is ideally placed to advise hospital leaders about asset tracking solutions, in particular for medical devices such as infusion pumps, monitors, beds and endoscopes.

This partnership provides both companies with the opportunity to further strengthen their respective market leading positions. For RFiD Discovery it also constitutes an important milestone in its long-term strategy to build a strong global network of reseller partners and accelerate bringing an ever-growing portfolio of tracking solutions to the healthcare and other sectors.

As a first step Althea is already adopting the use of the passive RFiD Discovery tracking system for one of their clients, a large healthcare organisation in the UK, to improve their service provision and bring added value to clinical teams in several hospitals.

To do this, medical devices and other assets are fitted with an RFID tag which includes a unique ID number registered in a central database. The presence of tagged devices is detected by handheld or specially designed trolley readers, which send the location information to the database, where clinical and engineering staff can access it to locate devices quickly, saving valuable time and allowing them to focus on core tasks of patient care and device maintenance.

Arron Duddin, Global Sales and Business Development at RFiD Discovery, commented:

“We are delighted to team up with Althea, who are an extremely well-respected leader in their field. Our goals of helping healthcare providers improve processes and ultimately create better patient outcomes are perfectly aligned, and we are excited about our first joint medical device tracking implementations which are already well underway.”

Jason Long, Business Development Director UK and Ireland at Althea, said:

“With this agreement Althea are very pleased to be able to bring RFiD Discovery asset tagging and tracking technology to our wide range of customers. Althea will help customers reach higher patient safety and compliance standards by ensuring all tagged medical devices are serviced and compliant to MHRA standards. By providing RFID as a service Althea is helping customers overcome the initial capital outlay that can be a barrier to some organisations.”

For more information please contact:
Tanja Hundt
Marketing Manager
Tel: +44 (0)208 102 1881
Email: tanja.hundt@paragon-id.com
www.rfiddiscovery.com

Julia Price
Althea Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 7737 864878
Email: julia@juliaprice.co.uk
https://www.althea-group.com/uk/

About RFiD Discovery

RFiD Discovery is the recognised brand name for RFID solutions from Paragon ID, a global leader in identification and track and trace solutions. As the leading UK provider for RFID tracking systems, RFiD Discovery’s integrated systems are used in over 100 hospitals in the UK and Europe, proven to deliver a strong return on investment.

RFiD Discovery provides systems for medical asset tracking, sterile service tracking, inventory management, blood, sample and vaccine tracking, baby tagging, patient and staff safety, medical record tracking as well as automated temperature monitoring. Its systems help healthcare providers increase efficiency, cut costs, ensure compliance and improve patient outcomes. As a RAIN Alliance member and GS1 industry partner, the company pioneers innovative solutions designed to meet customers’ needs.