Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tracking in Health Care

26/04/2019

Did you know that according to research, carried out by “Gartner’s, hospital staff spend 72 minutes a day searching for medical assets?

Here at Bannerbridge Plc we have a solution readily available to help medical professionals avoid just that.

It is no surprise that an increase in hospital admissions and manual data capture processes that still exist in many hospitals, can put enormous pressure on medical and administrative health professionals. This can lead to serious consequences in patient care, and effect operational practise and efficiencies. That’s why it is crucial for health professionals, to invest in solutions to reduce time spent on things like tracking down medical samples and vital equipment. 

Summary of benefits of RFID in Healthcare

  •  Improves patient care and safety
  • Reduces time wastage
  • Real-time information on patients and assets
  • Improved and more efficient inventory control

RFID - The detail…

RFID hospital asset tracking

Asset Tracking

In such a faced paced environment where life-threatening emergencies are a daily occurrence, the ability to locate medical assets and devices when it is needed is crucial. 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.

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.

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.