RFID in Health Care

• Improve patient outcomes. RFID technology can be used in a number of ways to improve the efficiency of the hospital, and therefore improve patient outcomes. RFID can be used to manage medications and inventory. It can track physical objects, such as film & lab specimens and tie them to the patient's electronic records. Using RFID technology can eliminate time wasted searching for supplies and equipment, allowing nurses and doctors to focus on the patients.


• Locate patients and hospital staff. Using RFID in staff ID badges and patient identification bands will allow the administration to be able to locate patients and staff in an instant.


• Eliminate 'stashing' behaviors. Hospital staff worry they spend too much time searching for things, so they will tend to remove items from inventory and stick them in a drawer or pocket. This leads to materials management problems when the items cannot be found and used by other staff, or when they are prematurely re-ordered. RFID technology can eliminate the need for 'stashing' by giving staff real-time locations on all items.


• Use this technology to improve patient and family experiences at your hospital. Give family visitors to longer-term units an RFID badge at the registration desk. Set up a monitor at the nurses' station that notifies them when the family has arrived in the building, reminds them of their names and faces, and who they have come to visit. Nurses can use the information gathered by visitor RFID badges to greet visitors by name, provide a status update, and direct them to the right room. They can also use the system to look for trends in visiting times, and perhaps schedule things like bathing and therapy visits around those times. Automatically check patients in and out of areas of the hospital, and automatically notify the family of their new location and room number via email. Use the same system to notify the family when the patient has temporarily left their room to go to radiology, for instance, and when they have returned.


• Prevent precious losses. Place tags on babies' ankles, and create security alerts or engage door locks to prevent unauthorized exits.


• Improve patient experience for new parents. Place monitors in parents' hospital bedsides that automatically bring up a photo ID and verification of each staff member entering the room. This not only allows the parents to check staff ID, but can also inform the parents of the staff member's title and area of expertise.


• Tag critical items for up-to-the minute inventories. For example, you can create 'smart' operating rooms, in which surgical instruments are tagged. The room can notify surgeons if the full complement of instruments are not present.