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Excerpt from For The Record Maybe RFID? Healthcare Organizations Slowly Expanding Adoption of RFID Technology Whether it be active or passive, more hospitals are planning to install RFID systems. What are the technology’s potential benefits? And where can it all go haywire? Although the technology has been around for more than 50 years, radio frequency identification (RFID) has only recently begun making inroads into the healthcare arena, thanks in part to the development of standards and network models as well as a drop in prices. While most facilities that have implemented RFID have done so primarily to track physical assets such as equipment and supplies, a growing number of pilot projects are underway that are demonstrating the value the technology can also bring to patient care and safety. “Given the inherently mobile nature of healthcare, RFID offers potential benefits that can impact quality of care, outcomes, and healthcare delivery costs. Many activities that occur in healthcare require the coming together of a very specific group of workers and assets in order to run a diagnostic test or deliver therapy” such as cardiac catherization, interventional radiology, and gastroenterology studies, says Tim Gee, principal, Medical Connectivity Consulting. “Complex logistics are required to pull these events together, deliver safe and efficacious care, capture charges, and document everything. So tracking equipment, personnel, and patients throughout the care delivery process can greatly impact both clinical and financial outcomes.” A 2005 survey by Spyglass Consulting Group found that while only 10% of participating healthcare organizations were currently using RFID to track mobile equipment, 45% indicated they planned to implement RFID systems by the end of 2006. Further, while only 8% of responding organizations were using RFID for patient tracking, 21% anticipated they would be implementing them by early 2007. The Spyglass report also found that active RFID applications, which can be tracked on an RFID network, were far more popular than passive applications, which require a nearby reader. That is in spite of the higher price for active RFID tags—anywhere from $50 to $100 per tag, plus the network infrastructure, as compared with 50 cents or less for passive tags. “While it’s not a new technology, RFID is enjoying a renaissance,” says John Pantano, cofounder and vice president of marketing for Radianse. “Combined with specialty location software, RFID’s value goes up and, based on technology innovations, its price and size are going down. It’s truly a great problem solver. Attaching active RFID tags to equipment for tracking was an obvious application, but we’ve seen just as much, if not more, interest in benefits around patient location and flow applications. Radianse customers are applying RFID to make big improvements in their processes, including throughput and patient satisfaction. Three years ago, we were talking about the potential; today hospitals have proven ROI [return on investment]. The potential has become a promise.” Continue to full online article...
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