Olympus Launches Unifia, A Reprocessing Documentation, Workflow and Asset Management System

Endoscope Tracking System, from the Leading Provider of GI Endoscopes, Is Relevant to Range of Healthcare Providers

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Oct 02, 2017, 03:36 ET

CENTER VALLEY, Pa., Oct. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Olympus, a global technology leader in designing and delivering innovative solutions for medical and surgical procedures, among other core businesses, announced today the introduction of its Unifia system. An endoscope documentation, workflow and asset management software platform, Unifia helps staff supervisors, infection prevention champions and supply chain managers have greater visibility into the utilization, cleaning, reprocessing and storage of the flexible endoscopes in their departments.

Olympus has launched its Unifia System, an endoscope documentation, workflow and asset management software platform that helps staff supervisors, infection prevention champions and supply chain managers to have greater visibility into the utilization, cleaning, reprocessing and storage of the flexible endoscopes in their departments. Unifia will be launched by Olympus in October at the ACG conference in Orlando.

Unifia utilizes the proprietary, built-in RFID technology of Olympus endoscopes and OER-Pro reprocessors to track an endoscope's movement throughout the GI lab. Wireless scanners, used to track an endoscope's journey, collect information on the asset's real time location, patient interactions and user performance.

Unifia makes it possible to track and visualize an endoscope's movement, from the front desk to storage room and all stops in between, in order to better understand trends, conduct analysis and act accordingly. This tracking creates a permanent electronic reprocessing and location record that associates patient, user and endoscope data together in a single system. Data can be used in Unifia's Infection Prevention and Materials and Asset Management modules to identify areas for improvement, including accuracy of reprocessing documentation, staff performance, asset utilization and repair history.

In 2016, ECRI Institute ranked inadequate cleaning of flexible endoscopes as a top technology hazard facing endoscopy departments today.^1,2 As such, healthcare providers such as Olympus are committed to developing user-friendly tools that support documentation automation, data consolidation and robust analytics to assist in adherence to reprocessing instructions and meet multi-society guidelines.

Unifia's Infection Prevention module helps staff supervisors, infection prevention champions and supply chain managers identify challenges faced by modern GI departments, and provides a visual solution to those challenges with premade easy-to-use charts and graphs.

For facility communication needs, Unifia's Daily Dashboard visualizes data for staff and managers from the time a patient arrives at a facility's waiting room. The Daily Dashboard also provides real time feedback on a facility's endoscope fleet, including endoscope hang times, when procedure rooms' turnovers are required, how much time an endoscope is waiting for manual cleaning, time remaining in the reprocessor and endoscopes out of facility.

The Unifia system is designed with three aims in mind:

Connect: By connecting users, location, endoscopes and other medical devices, the Unifia system creates a cabinet-to-cabinet endoscope electronic tracking system.
Communicate: The Unifia Daily Dashboard communicates real time data from five primary locations including the reception desk, procedure room, storage locations, and soiled and reprocessing rooms. By communicating this real time data, staff members can stay in sync and work efficiently.
Decide: Departments can make data driven decisions with Unifia's Infection Prevention and Materials and Asset Management modules that makes creating charts and graphics fast and easy. Unifia provides the needed transparency for decision-making by providing a deeper understanding of endoscope utilization, mix and acquisition needs. For nurse managers, Unifia enables easy understanding of staff workloads, compliance to reprocessing steps and allows for reprocessing breach analysis within seconds.

"Unifia is an example of Olympus' strategy of transformation to a solutions company, by which we make it easy to bring our GI customers more than clinical data, but now also operations data that will drive compliance, safety and utilization initiatives," said Kurt Heine Group Vice President, Endoscopy Division at Olympus America Inc. "Whether we're talking about a nurse manager gaining visibility into the entire department, a technician improving his own performance, an administrator making decisions about acquisitions or a CEO instating system-wide performance initiatives, Unifia provides value through automated tracking and easy data navigation."

Unifia will be launched to the healthcare community at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) World Congress of Gastroenterology conference in Orlando, October 13-18. To learn more about the Olympus Unifia offering, please call 1-800-848-9024 or visit us at http://medical.olympusamerica.com/customer-resources/cleaning-disinfection-sterilization/reprocessing-products/unifia.

About Olympus Medical Systems Group

Olympus Medical Systems Group, a division of global technology leader Olympus, develops solutions for healthcare professionals that help improve clinical outcomes, reduce overall costs and enhance quality of life for their patients. By enabling less invasive procedures, innovative diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, and early stage lung cancer evaluation and treatments, Olympus is transforming the future of healthcare. For more information visit Olympus at www.medical.olympusamerica.com.

¹ https://www.ecri.org/Resources/Whitepapers_and_reports/2016_Top_10_Hazards_Executive_Brief.pdf

² https://www.ecri.org/Resources/Whitepapers_and_reports/Haz17.pdf

SOURCE Olympus Medical Systems Group