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Abstract
Although radio frequency identification (RFID) is not a new technology, it has only recently received interest beyond a few niche areas and is now on its way to becoming a mainstream technology in many industries. With its potential and unique uses, healthcare is one of the major sectors that RFID is being considered and adopted. Improving the healthcare supply chain, patient safety, and monitoring of critical processes are some of the key drivers that motivate healthcare industry participants to invest in this technology. Already, RFID is being used in the broad areas of asset management, inventory management, authenticity management, identity management, and process management. However, more research has to be done on the technology development and more applied investigations have to be conducted on integrating the technology within the industry in order to fully utilize RFID. This study provides a framework of current RFID uses in the healthcare industry and opportunities for continued deployment.
Summary
RFID is a data collection and storage technology which uses radio waves to automatically identify individual items and provide real-time information. Typically, RFID systems consist of three components: a transponder, a reader and a data processing system. Additionally, there are two types of tags, active and passive. Active tags are larger and usually have larger storage capacity than passive tags.
This study provides a framework of current RFID uses in the healthcare industry and opportunities for continued deployment. A brief background and an overview of the healthcare participants are provided, followed by an analysis of current use cases. Major opportunities and challenges are also highlighted.
There are five major categories studied: asset management, inventory management, authenticity management, identity management and process management.
Asset management involves tracking assets like wheelchairs, beds and other hospital services for better visibility.
Inventory management broadly means managing the inventory such as, tracking standard medical supplies including syringes, test tubes and pharmaceutical products; along with monitoring their status and updating their conditions. Agility Healthcare Solutions estimated that a 200-bed hospital can save $600,000 annually from less shrinkage, fewer rentals, deferral of new purchases and improved staff productivity. Secours found that employees were spending 25-30% of their time hunting for equipment which could be reduced dramatically with RFID as well.
Authenticity management involves reducing counterfeit products and improving the safety of assets. The FDA considers RFID to be the “most promising approach to reliable product tracking and tracing” and RFID usage is expected to grow in this domain.
Identity management involves knowing the location and personnel identity to provide better care for patients and protecting staff members. Identity management is a fast-growing area due to the volume of people being employed for the many functions of a hospital. More and more hospitals are deploying similar Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) to identify and locate personnel, patients and medical equipment.
Finally, process management involves preventing errors and the five patient rights are properly followed. A hospital in Germany has implemented RFID to monitor medicine dispersion in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to ensure right drugs and proper dosage.
Some of the challenges encountered in early deployments include high initial investment, lack of industry standards, need for technology refinement, and the privacy and quality of data which can be addressed in future studies.
