Automated pass-through surgical instrument tray reader
An apparatus and method for interrogating and automatically identifying a radio-frequency tagged surgical instrument tray and its contents of RFID-tagged surgical instruments are disclosed. The surgical instrument tray and its contents come into contact with an RF signal transmitted by the RFID reader, and as a result, the RFID tags affixed on the instrument tray and the surgical instruments respond by transmitting back to the RFID reader data pertaining to the history of the surgical instruments. A data terminal, which is connected to the RFID reader, may contain data pertaining to the radio frequency tagged surgical instruments during packaging, and during the return of the surgical instrument trays to the packager, identifies the surgical instruments.
1. A method for verifying contents of a surgical instrument tray, comprising:
moving the tray into a wireless radio frequency (RF) field of an RF reader, the tray provided with an RFID tag, the tray further including a plurality of surgical instruments each tagged with an RFID tag, the surgical instrument RFID tag including instrument data related to the respective surgical instrument, and the tray RFID tag includes data related to the respective surgical instruments contained therein;
receiving at the RF reader an RF signal containing the instrument data from the tagged surgical instruments and an RF signal containing the tray data from the tagged tray to provide read instrument data;
transferring the read instrument data to a terminal connected to the RF reader;
comparing the read instrument data to a database that includes predetermined tray data and surgical instrument data to assess whether the contents of the tray from the read instrument data match the predetermined surgical instrument data in the database; and
displaying the read instrument data and the predetermined surgical instrument data.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a mismatch between the read instrument data and the predetermined surgical instrument data.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a missing instrument based on comparing the read instrument data and the predetermined surgical instrument data.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting an extra instrument based on comparing the read instrument data and the predetermined surgical instrument data.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined surgical instrument data includes usages, age, and repair information for the plurality of tagged surgical instruments.