Patent ID: 7518502

Claim:
A system for tracking a surgical asset, the system comprising: a. a tag operatively connected to the surgical asset, the tag being configured to provide localized location information to a transceiver when the surgical asset is located in a first area associated with the transceiver, the first area corresponding to an interior of a building; b. a readiness module operatively connected to the surgical asset, the readiness module being configured to determine readiness information associated with the surgical asset and provide the readiness information to the transceiver; the readiness information comprising an indication of whether the surgical asset comprises a set of components needed for a selected medical procedure; c. the transceiver configured to provide the localized location information and the readiness information to an application server; d. a global positioning satellite reader operatively connected to the surgical asset, the global positioning satellite reader adapted to: determine localized location information for the surgical asset based on location data received from at least one satellite when the surgical asset is located in a second area associated with the at least one satellite; and provide the localized location information to the application server; and e. the application server configured to: determine a location of the surgical asset using at least one of a triangulation algorithm on the localized location information received from the transceiver or using the localized location information received from the global positioning satellite reader; and determine a readiness of the surgical asset using the readiness information.