Patient Tracking Devices - People Locators

After the success of RFID (radio frequency identification) in tracking many transportable materials that companies want constantly on the surveillance, the system had leveled up. Today, it is now used to track hospital patients and RFID is used as the patient tracking devices Melbourne.

With the proof of the technology’s success in tracking things (machineries, car, merchandise, etc.), it didn’t take long for the decision to use the system on people with some modifications. Starting with their staff, hospitals are now tracking hospital patients who are mostly mentally debilitated by memory loss (dementia, Alzheimer’s).

It could rightly be said that transport of equipments, expensive animals, machines, etc. has become routine. The tracking of the patients is insurance that they get their treatment and care on time. Any slip-up can mean more expenses and endanger the patient’s lives.

What it does

The wireless system of RFID has two parts. One is the tag and the other is the reader. The reader is the component equipped with antennas that emit radio waves and receives signals from the RFID tag component. RFID tags are the ones carried by machines (or persons).

The system uses radio waves to communicate with each other. The tag tells the reader their identity and other data or information. The tag can be passive or active. Active tags are powered by batteries and those that are passive are powered by the reader and do not have batteries.

These days, RFID tags are now able to store much information. This might be a simple serial number or it can carry several pages of data. The readers, on the other hand, can be mobile (they can be transported, or they can be mounted, or placed high on an overhead platform).

They can even be built into the architecture of a plain cabinet, a room or even in a building at the receiving end.

Medical uses

These tracking devices use radio waves in many different frequencies in transmitting and receiving data between tag and reader. Aside from the use on patients, the system is also widely used by hospitals, medical centers and other health institutions in locating their patients, equipments, and their staff on the move.

The use of the system on staff and patients gives it another role and makes it a personal tracker. The use of the tracker on patients is one important bodily monitoring system.

Right now, there are new innovations that identifies out-of-bed (and fall detection) and in-bed patients with erratic movements (wandering around with no apparent reason). The use of the tracker on the staff is for practical purposes where hospital administrators must know where their staff is at any give time.

Precaution

Health professionals and doctors had been informed on the potential dangers on the use of RFID system. The system can possibly interfere with critical electronic devices.

Pacemakers and defibrillators are some of the devices whose functions might be interfered with the use of RFID. (Both are implanted on patients.) In the end though, patient tracking devices Melbourne like the RFID system is one big help and boost to the healthcare industry.