Patent ID: 7639136

Claim:
A medical item tracking system for medical items at a medical facility having associated radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, the system comprising: a medical supply cabinet having a supply cabinet reader for reading RFID tags of the medical items stored in the supply cabinet, wherein the supply cabinet periodically and automatically scans to read the RFID tags; a procedure room RFID reader in or near a procedure room in which the medical items are used on patients of the medical facility, the room RFID reader reading the RFID tags of medical items removed from the medical supply cabinet for use in the procedure room; and a management system for receiving RFID tag information from the supply cabinet reader and the procedure room RFID reader and for tracking movement of medical items between the medical supply cabinet and the procedure room by classifying medical items as gone from the supply cabinet when the periodic scans for the RFID tags of the supply cabinet indicate that the RFID tags of the medical items are no longer in the supply cabinet and as used at the medical facility if the RFID tags of the medical items are read by the procedure room RFID reader.