How Can RFID Technology Benefit Healthcare Facilities?
RFID software has been gaining tremendous popularity in recent times due to its efficiency in tracking valuable assets and ensuring their security. The technology can also be beneficial to healthcare facilities in a number of ways.
In the modern world, the highly advanced and efficient technology of RFID is used in countless applications. It has helped big as well as small enterprises to make spectacular gains via its incorporation in various business processes within sectors such as transportation, retail, aerospace and automotive. In the recent times, the technology is also being accepted rapidly within medical and healthcare sectors.
The utilisation of RFID tags allow medical companies to track almost everything within the supply network, from transportation of medical supplies to delivery in the facility, in a cost-effective and affordable way. The technology is being embraced as the most effective solution for challenges previously faced in managing valuable implantable medical devices (IMDs). By attaching RFID tags on IMDs such as artificial joints, surgical mesh, heart defibrillators and cardiac stents, healthcare facilities access real time and accurate view of their inventory within catheterization laboratory and operating room, to know which items are available for use in procedures and which are about to expire. This helps medical staffs to be confident when going into a procedure because they know the parts that they require are available close at hand. On top of that, it also aids in cutting down labour expenses related to resupplying by almost 18 percent.
The utilitarian features of RFID softwares can be beneficial for ensuring safety of patients before as well as after completion of a procedure. In case of product recalls, RFID enabled medical devices will provide instant information about identity of a device, location of manufacture, healthcare professionals responsible for installing and maintaining it, and also patient health. Tagging IMDs will significantly decrease the chances of a recalled product being installed inside a patient even after the issuing of a recall.
Installing RFID tags on IMDs can also enable patients to discover quickly whether their implant was included or not. The tags would allow capture of data which connects a patient to their medical team, the medical device used, important notes associated with the procedure and its medical outcome.
In future, doctors can even use RFID technology for tracking infections or diseases occurring after any operation. Sensors having RFID chip might be able to gauge pressure on an implant, temperature and chemical balance of surrounding tissue, and also the existence of detrimental organisms. Accessing this information can allow doctors to treat dangerous potential infections even before they become serious problems and necessitate a second operation.
