RFID Tracking in Health Care
RFID Tracking In Healthcare
Hospitals are under enormous pressure year on year from the increase in hospital admissions, which can put strain on both administrative and medical staff. Many data capture processes in the hospital remain manual which, leaves them prone to errors and, can lead to serious consequences for patient care and safety. That is why it is important for the healthcare industry to invest in solutions that will reduce instances of a misplaced samples, equipment, and patients.
Asset Tracking
In such a fast-paced environment where life-threatening emergencies are a daily occurrence, the ability to locate medical assets and devices when it is needed is crucial. Research conducted by Gartner’s states, on average, staff spend 72 minutes a day searching for medical assets. Manual processes to track the location and maintenance of medical assets and devices is labour intensive, costly and can lead to increased risk to patient safety. By tagging medical assets and devices, such as heart monitors, IV pumps and wheelchairs and, installing RFID antennas and readers, healthcare providers can identify their location, movement and maintenance requirements. This improves the visibility and maintenance of assets and devices. Ensuring staff have access to medical assets and devices, when they need them, enabling them to focus on patient care.
Patient Identification & Tracking
Patient safety is of the upmost importance for healthcare providers, so, there is no room for medical errors. With the ever-increasing volume of patients, healthcare providers are looking to improve workflow efficiencies to improve patient care and safety. By utilising RFID patient tracking they can automate the data-capture process of the patient journey, enable healthcare providers to ensure they are treating the right patient, with the right medication, at the right dosage and at the right time. It also allows them to analyse and improve the patient journey within their hospitals. By using, RFID wristbands, printers, antennas and readers, it provides healthcare providers with real-time information on patient details, location, time admitted, length of time waiting for services, which allows them to identify problem areas in the patient journey.
Inventory Control
The 2010 report Evaluation of the Scale, Causes and Costs of Waste Medicines produced by York Health Economics Consortium and School of Pharmacy University of London estimated the national figure of pharmaceutical waste to be £300 million. By integrating an inventory control system with barcode and RFID technology, along with mobile computers and barcode scanners, it will improve accuracy for medical inventory. Your healthcare professionals can quickly and accurately take inventory on a daily basis, ensuring they have complete visibility of medical supplies that they have on hand.
File Tracking
Healthcare, due to the nature of the industry, is heavily dependent on documentation for patient records, which is often paper based. Keeping track and maintaining patient records can be a costly and time-consuming process. With an RFID tracking solution, hospitals can improve their efficiency and provide full traceability of patient records, reducing costs, time wastage and improving patient care. To deploy the solution, patient records are tagged with RFID tags, while antennas and fixed readers are positioned throughout the hospital, enabling hospitals to track the movement and location of patient records.
Partnership With GS1 Ireland And ASD
Watch our animation in partnership with GS1 Ireland and ASD find out how together we can provide an end-to-end RFID tracking solution for hospitals.
Benefits Of RFID In Healthcare
- Improves patient care & safety
- Reduces time wastage
- Real-time information on patients & assets
- Improved inventory control
