Hospital on track to extend trial of RFID

Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley is to extend a pilot of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track potentially life-saving equipment across several departments.

The Scottish hospital is nearing completion of its initial pilot, which tracks portable devices through three wards. It now plans to monitor equipment between the accident and emergency (A&E) department and patient recovery wards.

Clinical scientist Jason Britton says the trial was successful in identifying potential technical and operational difficulties.

‘The pilot began by using readers and tags from one manufacturer, but we had issues detecting some portable medical equipment such as infusion pumps,’ he said.

‘We thought that metal in the devices’ casing interfered with the signal from tags.’

The hospital is now getting better results using existing Mantic Point software and Wavetrend RFID tags and readers, which are designed to work with devices in metal casings.

Britton says that during the trial, the A&E department identified equipment being misplaced when patients were transferred to wards.

‘RFID will allow us to track the equipment as it moves throughout the hospital,’ he said. ‘We hope to have the extended trial in by the end of the financial year.’

Britton says RFID could allow the hospital to create a virtual medical equipment library.

‘It should cut the time spent trying to find portable medical devices,’ he said. ‘Maintenance staff also benefit from knowing exactly where equipment is when planned maintenance exercises are conducted.’

Peter Harrop, chairman of RFID analyst ID TechEx, says hospitals can lose up to 15 per cent of assets through loss or theft.

‘It is common for staff to hold on to equipment or hospitals to buy redundant devices so they can always locate it when needed, but this can be expensive,’ he said.

AMR Research analyst Nigel Montgomery says that given the cost of medical assets and the danger to a patient if staff cannot find equipment during an emergency, the business case for hospitals is easy to make.

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