RFID Hospital Patient Tracking - Technology in Action

The radio frequency technology has been around for sometime, but it’s only been some few years back that it had surpassed its use with the development of RFID, or radio frequency identification device. These days, there is now the RFID hospital patient tracking Australia popularly used in medical facilities all over the world.

Hospitals are using them to reduce overall costs from both parties. It is necessary to track down ambulant patients (mostly those suffering from mental disabilities) for their continued care. It is also to avert costly lawsuits should there be untoward incidents to happen to the patients.

These days, they are even used to track down doctors and hospital staff and expensive medical equipments in and out of the hospital’s facilities. Usually tagged through the bracelets worn by patients, they provide electronic links for wireless communication of patient data.

Hospital management also wants to have constant knowledge regarding their expensive machines and equipments.

Benefits 

On the practical side, the RFID system is basically used for tracking and monitoring (and locating) wayward patients who are not in their beds or rooms or some designated places.

With the constant surveillance, patients can be restricted not to access or enter areas and places where it might be dangerous for them or for the facility. (High-threat places include pediatrics, medicine storage, sensitive equipments, and others.)

There are also areas that are restricted in certain emergency cases or situations within the hospital premises, which hospital personnel are also barred access. This will be in times of emergencies, terrorist threats, epidemics and such.

Applications

These days, the RFID system does not only track hospital patients but are used by the medical facility to track their own doctors and hospital staff and personnel. The main purpose is constant communications and better management of the hospital staff even if they are in constant motion (mobile) around the facility.

The RFID can also be utilized in tracking the patient’s medical files. The RFID is attached on the cover containing important documents and information (addresses, bills, prescriptions, clinical reports, pathology test results, etc.) of the patient.

This is for easy recovery of the many files stored with less manual errors and the locating time is reduced.

Emergency patients

The use of RFID had also been highlighted in emergency cases where the patient’s condition and present location (even if he is mobile inside an ambulance) are correctly tracked and in constant surveillance.

The tracking software is integrated with the ED system of the hospital, including those RFID tags worn by doctors and other members of the hospital staff. After the tags had been time-stamped, the rest of the patient’s information is sent to the system.

Patients with acute conditions are aided by the tracking system to get to the hospital’s critical quality metrics and are immediately administered with the proper procedures.

The tags on other patients who are moving around are still sending real-time updates. The staff can then view that patient’s location on a large-screen tracking grid at individual stations scattered around.

This is one sample on how rfid hospital patient tracking Australia in active mode.

RFID Patient Tracking - Electronic Portable ID

 In modern medical facilities all over the many progressive parts of the world, RFID patient tracking Victoria is now a standard procedure. These devices and its accompanying system are doing great service to the medical profession on all fronts – as a patient, as doctor, and as the hospital administrator.

As a patient, the continuous tracking and monitoring is definitely beneficial on all counts. As medical personnel (doctors, nurses, paramedics, caregivers), the technology cuts all unnecessary work for them. On the hospital side, savings in the form of reduction of unnecessary costs is certainly a boon, and this does not yet include reduced administrative and managerial work.

Portable ID

The RFID used in hospitals come in 3 different frequency levels (ultra-high frequency or UHF, 125 KHz, and 13.56 MHz) The choices were guided by such factors as being harmless to patients and the fact that they are compatible to several ISO standards.

The wristbands where the RFID is embedded can be adjusted to accommodate any size, i.e., from the small wrist of a newborn infant to those of large adults. The soft materials used on the wristlets work well with the infants.   

Benefits and more

These RFID tags are now used to properly identify hospital patients when administering medicine. Hospital insurance costs were unnecessarily raised before the use of RFID tags when sick patients receive wrong medications. With the right identification tags, wrong medications are reduced to nil.

With the storage of information and other medical data on the patient’s tag, the use has been extended to not just simple tracking but also to proper identification and treatment. The information that can be written on them includes schedules with the doctor, with an X-ray or an MRI scan without delay like in the past.

The information on the RFID tag can also include the present condition of the patient. On newly arrived patients, even information like status and the next schedules are also reflected in the information written on the tag. Emergency arrivals also have their complete medical information written on their tags so that speedy treatment (surgery and others) can be setup and prepared beforehand.

Other advantages

There are other important data written on the tracking device for easy reference to the concerned medical authorities. These would include EMR, schedules, lab tests and other necessary procedures that are relayed to the proper medical personnel fast and easy.

The process also speeds up the time spent on searching for people and needed things with the use of the patient tracking with the use of RFID. The entries are done automatically when integrated with other healthcare systems.

Historical analytics

With the data, the information gives out historical analytics of the patient which can be followed up with process improvement. The automatic system can give the medical personnel enough time to make their own real-time workflow and adjustments integrating the information from the patient’s end.

With RFID patient tracking, the safety and speedy medical attention is enabled all for the advantage of all three – the patient, the medical staff and the hospital facility.