RFID System for Patient Tracking

RFID System for Patient Tracking in Hospitals

Extant literature has been dedicated towards the analysis of RFID system for patient tracking in hospitals. The emergence of latest technological breakthrough has allowed for the introduction of better systems to be used in the management of various health-care departments. This in turn has lead to a general increase in the efficiency as pertains the management of the various hospitals (Fisher and Torin, 2008).it has therefore been t noted that the integration of technology in various aspects of health care facilities has the added advantage of improved service delivery and a drastic and positive change in the way the hospitals are managed. In particular the various latest technologies that have been introduced have resulted in the way patients are managed through an efficient, real-time monitoring, identification and tracking systems. There are of course several dimensions to the introduction of such technologies to the various health facilities. Fisher and Torin (2008) discusses the social dimensions of the use RFID systems in various health facilities. They focus their attention to the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems is various hospitals and they also provide a general conceptual framework to be used for the analysis of the relationship of the RFID systems in the work experience as well as the dynamics of power across various hospitals in the United States of America.

Baker (2005) presented the result of a survey which clearly stated the rising popularity of the RFID technology in various hospitals in the U.S. His report stated that there was going to be a general rise in the use of the RFID systems in various hospitals despite the various obstacles that existed in opposition to the use of the technology. According to Baker (2005),the main obstacles that undermined the use of the technology in various hospitals across the country can be attributed to the uncoordinated efforts that existed between the various health care providers, suppliers as well as shippers.

Bakers' reports goes ahead too pint out that about 10% of heath care facilities makes use of the relatively expensive RFID technology in the tracking of their patients. About 45% of the interviewed hospital management expected to acquire the RFID system in the coming years (Baker,2005).The report further pointed out the main obstacles that affected the use of the RFID technology. The main barrier that affected the deployment of the RFID system was pointed out to be network infrastructure. The various health care providers were noted to be in need of the ability to use the FRID systems in their wireless networks as opposed to the acquisition of expensive dedicated RFID network infrastructure for the purpose of patients tracking. The problem that would results from such a system or preference would be the inability of the network infrastructure to track thousands of patients and hence its susceptibility to frequent outages and general failures as a result of overloading. The implications of such a failure could be enormous.

The other issue that has been extensively debated on various literature regards the inability of the RFID systems to be used effectively in the management of patient who are located outside the predetermine patient and physician locations. This would mean that there would be no coverage in areas such as storage rooms, staircases and locations that are far from the hospital itself. The other stated problems that affect the implementation of the RFID technology include lack of funding, the use of premature technology as well as barriers associated with the integration of the system with various workflows. The various costs that are associated with the implementation of the RFID technology include the process of the tags, the RFID readers as well as the applications to be used in the monitoring of the FRID system. The cost of the wireless infrastructure upon which the RFID system rides is also pointed out to be a major cost associated with the rolling out of the RFID system (Baker,2005).

Sini et al. (2008) studied how the RFID technology can effectively be used in the management of various clinical processes in various health care facilities. Their focus was however in an Italian health institution and they categorically noted that the rolling out of thr RFID technology in the institution resulted in the achievement of greater capacity in terms of the controlling and well as the monitoring of the institution's transfusion system. The main aim of the RFID system in the institution was to enhance safety, quality as well as transparency. The RFID tags were placed on various blood bags as well as the wristbands of various patients. The hospital staffs were also provide with RFID identification cards as well as PDAs that were equipped with a suitable software application. The system allowed the staff to promptly register patients after they arrive in the institution. It also aided in the process of verifying their blood-type as well as recognizing the patients with their transfusion units at any given moment.

It has been widely acknowledged that the next frontier for the RFID technology is in the health care industry (Ericson,2004). This is just after other application in both the manufacturing and retail industries.There has been a general trend in the health care industry that suggests that there more money is to be invested in the acquisition of various Information Technology (IT) systems in an effort of reducing the various operational costs as well as the improvement of the safety of patients in the health care facilities. The use of the RFID technology in the health care industry is mainly targeted towards the achievement of the above mentioned main goals (Anonymous,2004). The use of the RFID technology is therefore expected to rise in various health facilities. Certain health care providers have been noted to be involved in the testing of their own RFID systems. This is however in a small scale basis. It is worth pointing out that a certain level of bureaucracy exists that may hinder the implementation of this new form of technology in various hospitals. This is as pointed out by Southon et al. (1997) whwn they pointed out that "the hospitals have the form of a professional bureaucracy in that clinical staff, especially medical staffs, act with a considerable level of autonomy." This is therefore one of the reasons to suggest that the rate of implementation of the RFID technology in various hospitals has been low and certain case of failure have also been reported by certain scholars (Aarts et al., 2004).The other causes of RFID technology failure in various health care institutions include physician resistance, technical issues, organizational as well as implementation issues have also been noted.

In regard to the application of the RFID technology in various health care institutions, various literatures have explored this into great depths. The RFID system has been pointed out clearly to be the best application in the real time storage as well as retrieval of patient data in a wireless network environment (Fanberg, 2004). The technology has been pointed out to be better that other forms of tracking such as the use of bar codes in the management of patients. This is because the RFID system does not rely on the availability of a direct line of sight as opposed to the bar code system. There are expectations that the RFID system will result in boosting the supply chain efficiency, security improvement among other things in the management various systems in different industries. Our focus is however in the health care industry.

A study by RAND (2008) was focused on the study of the various applications as well as the requirements and options that are needed for the adoption of RFID applications in various healthcare settings. Their report presented their findings with the aim of identifying the various policy options that are relevant in the aiding of the developments as well as the implementation of various RFID applications in the health sector. The technical report was targeted towards the identification as well as a discussion of the relevant issues that are important in the implementation of the RFID technology in various health care settings.

Their technical report was also aimed at shedding some light on the most crucial factors that enable and hinder the use of the FRID technology in the health care setting. The uncertainties in the use of the technology are also discussed. The RAND technical report also presented the various alternative technologies to then RFID system. The RAND report indicated that the main RFID enabling function is tracking when applied in the case of assets and staff. The report also indicated that when used for the management of patients, then the key function would be identication as well as authentication. In the case of clinical trials the RFID technology would be used in enabling the automatic collection of data as well as the transfer of the data collected. The RAND report identified 5 main enablers of the RFID technology in healthcare settings. These are:

The provision of improved health care service delivery

The presentation of clear business scenario for the various RFI applications

The making use of very sound approaches in the implementation of the RFID technology

The superiority in terms technology of the RFID applications

The introduction of various government incentives as well as support of various RFID systems in the healthcare settings (RAND,2008).

There are various applications of the RFID technology in the healthcare. These are explored by a HIBCC,(2006 ) report that studies the application of the RFID technology in the healthcare setting with emphasis on its benefits, limitations as well as recommendations The report categorically pointed out that that the applications of the RFID technology in the health care settings are numerous. They range from being used in the management of the hospital's supply chain to the management of the patients themselves. In terms of the supply chain management, the RFID technology can be used in the organizing the delivery of supplies such as pacemakers, artificial limbs as well as defibrillators. This is because the supply chain of these crucial items is very complicated and requires the timely delivery of the consignments. The high degree of traceability that is needed to track the shipments from the supplier up to the time the consignment reaches the patient is another reason for adopting RFID for the management of these supplies. The report also presented the applications of the RFID technology in the management of patients. This category involved the use of the technology to in the improvement of the identification of the patients by means of wristbands. The other application of the technology according to the report includes the application in the quality assurance departments of the various hospitals. This includes the use of RFID in the process of tacking various equipment in their process of getting sterilized. The use of RFID fitted trays is an example of such an application. The trays can then be tacked by the relevant administration as they get sterilized in special department of the health facility.

Extant literature has been dedicated towards the study of the various limitations that affect the implementation of the RFID technology in various healthcare settings. A HIBCC (2006 ) report clearly outlined some of these limitations. The report stated that cost was a main hindrance to the use and implementation of the RFID systems in various health centers. This is because the RFID systems are very expensive to install and maintain. This therefore means that the process of implementing the system in large scale is enormous. The various envirnonmental conditions under which the RFID system should operate is another limitation.This is because the reliability of the tags is heavily affectedly the presence of certain unfavorable conditions such as high humidity. The RFID tags in use are not suited to function well in environments of high temperature. They are therefore not easy ti implement of devices suchas surgical items that are frequently exposed to extremely high temperature. The RFID technology also suffers from a lack of sufficient applications. This is brought about by the fact the it is not easy to use the surgical tags of on metallic surfaces or in fluids. The other limitation to the adoption of the technology is the technological incompatibility that exists in the use of the technology. There is a high level of technological incompatibility between the various RFID standards. As an illustration, it is not possible for a single reader to read from tags that operate from multiple frequencies.

ECI (2009) presented a multilevel analysis of the impact of RFID- enabled process capability as well as its impact on the performance various healthcare processes. They made use of various IT0nabled processes in the evaluation of the capabilities of various healthcare processes (Sambamurthy et al., 2003 and Rai et al., 2006).his was used in the study of the various impacts of the RFID technology in the field of healthcare. The main focus was in the inventory management which of course is also linked to the quality of services given to the patients. The perspective presented in the report included the reference of the various assets in the firm as being investments in its IT infrastructure. The report categorically pointed out the fact that several technologies are in existence to be used in the management of various aspects of the healthcare inventory. They cited an example which involves the use of a combined system having bar code system in the management of the health facility's inventory. The report however clearly pointed out that the RFID system presented a unique qualities and capabilities that were better to be embraced in the process of streamlining the various healthcare inventory management issues (Dutta et al., 2007).

Chin Lin (2009) examined the effectiveness of an RFID-enabled system in the care coordination as well as the patient flow in an ambulatory care. They found that the use of the RFID technology resulted in a considerable reduction in the total wait time for patients to receive their admissions. The technology resulted in a 45% reduction in the total wait time.

Recent literature also pointed out that there is a considerable adoption in the use of the RFID technology in various healthcare facilities all over the world. The rate of adoption has however been noted to be a bit cautious as co pared to the rate of adoptions in other sectors ( Evans et al., 2005).There are about five key areas that have been documented to be of utmost importance in terms of the application of the RFID technology in the health sector. These areas can be referred to as functional areas as pointed out by Ingeholm et al. (2006);

The first functional domain of RFID application in the healthcare industry is the management of assets. In this domain, the RFID is used in order to ensure that the various health facility assets such as defibrillators are efficiently utilized. This results in reduction of operating costs of assets, higher visibility as well as theft reduction Chin Lin (2009).

The second functional area of RFID application in the health care setting is the improvement of patient care at the point of care. This is achieved by the reduction of various forms of human error in the process of drug administration and the management of blood transfusion in the hospitals. These functions were basically automated by means of bar coding technology (Roark, 2004).However, the use of the RFID technology in these processes has increased their accuracy and promptness as a result of the advantages that the RFID technology has over the bar-coding systems.

The third functional area that is improved through the adoption of the RFID technology in the healthcare industry is the optimization of workflow. This is because the active RFID systems are able to allow for the retrieval of various identification as well as location information on every tagged patient or equipment in real time. This has the added advantage of allowing the hospital administration to effectively monitor all the functions and patients in their facility seamlessly. The overall result is an increased workflow.