RFID Healthcare

Everyday there are new advancements being made in the medical and healthcare fields. People are always looking for ways to improve the efficiency of hospitals and patient care, and have recently been utilizing Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID. RFID tags were first introduced over 30 years ago, in the 1970’s, but until recently, they were not very widespread. As RFID technology improves hospitals and healthcare professionals are beginning to make use of this advanced RFID technology. RFID technology involves a chip that contains information about an object or person, which is imbedded in or attached to a product, instrument, or person. A scanner is then used to retrieve the information from the chip. These chips can be used for a wide range of applications in the healthcare field, from tracking medications to maintaining patients’ records.

RFID healthcare is a quickly growing field. Hospitals around the country are beginning to use RFID tags to monitor equipment, medications and procedures. One hospital used RFID equipment tracking to control their inventory loss. In one year, this RFID equipment inventory tracking system reduced the loss of inventory from 10% to 5%. By tagging instruments and equipment, hospitals cannot only reduce inventory loss, but can also help locate and maintain various equipment. Some hospitals are now tagging instruments and equipment with RFID tags, allowing staff to easily locate them through a computer. RFID healthcare applications are creating a safer, more reliable system in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. By tagging equipment with RFID technology, healthcare professionals can have an accurate account of where their equipment is located and when it is due for maintenance, avoiding preventable equipment malfunction.

Another major use of RFID in healthcare is monitoring prescriptions and medications. RFID technology allows doctors to customize drugs for their patients, based on genetic make up and medical condition. This practice of creating “designer drugs” is referred to as pharmacogenomics, and is predicted to play a major role in the future of prescription medications. Another concern that RFID healthcare addresses is that of counterfeit drugs. The Food and Drug Administration loses more than $30 billion a year to drug counterfeiting. By using RFID technology, electronic records can be kept stating that the drug manufacturing company operated under secure conditions when producing and distributing the drug. These records can help track counterfeit medications, and control the process of drug manufacturing.

There are many more uses for RFID healthcare technology than are discussed here, and everyday people are finding more and more ways to utilize this growing system. Supply Insight is your leading RFID solutions provider. From RFID training to RFID hardware to RFID software, Supply Insight has everything your company could need to get started using this growing technology.