How Does RFID Play a Pivotal Role in Healthcare Facilities?
EMS, or emergency medical service, is integral to modern-day society. However, it may fail to function properly at times, especially when the inventory is not taken care of. Inventory management solutions have turned into a necessity thus. Among the various options available, RFID is considered the best to keep everything in order and track the record.
Be it patient tracking and locating equipment in real-time to facilitate extensive medical care, RFID technology has revolutionized the healthcare industry in many ways that one can imagine.
So, the next time you visit any healthcare facility and walk past an older adult at the hospital, don’t get surprised to see the person having an RFID tag wrapped on the wrist or the ankle. Even newly born babies experience their first interaction with this cutting-edge technology.
Talking about the statistics, as per the Grandview Research report, the global RFID healthcare market size was valued at 2.58 billion USD in 2018. It is expected to increase by a CAGR of 22.4% by 2025.
The Need of RFID in EMS
Real-Time Inventory Tracking
The hospital’s staff can benefit from regular updates about the medications and other items used in medical emergencies, such as first base treatment and first aid. Thanks to the automated inventorysystem, along with RFID hospital patient tracking, hospitals of healthcare facilities can put on notifications and alerts for the entire team. Whenever a stock is below the set parameter, the RFID will notify the concerned staff members so they can refill. This process is called the reorder limit.
Tracking Medical Equipment
RFIDs are known for assisting the hospital team in knowing the amount of critical equipment left at every site through comprehensive analytics. Having the data help you meet EMS requirements seamlessly. Managing the check-ins and check-outs of microscopes, stethoscopes, ventilators, MRI scanners, oxygen cylinders, etc., keeps the patients safe under all circumstances.
Asset Maintenance
In certain situations, having separate rooms becomes mandatory. For example, the current coronavirus outbreak forced hospitals to keep patients in individual rooms because keeping them in the same room increases the chances of contamination to a great extent. Separate rooms mean more assets that require maintenance. Warehouse managementsystems inform the staff about items that need cleaning or sanitization.
Zero Asset Loss
RFID has attained widespread popularity probably because it keeps track of asset movement. It captures the movement history and displays the complete synopsis of each asset. With RFID, you can know which asset was assigned for what purpose, which is in the storage unit, which made it to the shelf, etc. This ultimately decreases asset loss and increases reliability.
Temperature and Humanity Monitoring With RFID
Medication, vaccines and food storage must be at a certain temperature to preserve the product’s efficiency and integrity. Thus, it is imperative to look after the temperature and humidity throughout storage units. Different healthcare facilities have already started using a combination of RFID and Wi-Fi to monitor the temperature and humidity in different storage units, refrigerators and even in operating rooms.
This eradicates the need to monitor temperatures manually. Of course, this is not an ideal option for the best utilization of time. Automation of temperature tracking helps in meeting compliance and also protects perishable assets.
The RFID-powered tag transmits the overall temperature readings and sends them to cloud-based software in real time. In case the temperature exceeds or falls down the recommended setting, the system will notify or send text alerts to the hospital staff.
Ambulance Tracking
The experts offering personnel tracking systems powered by RFID said this technological innovation could track ambulances, one of the most important vehicles used by EMS providers.
Optimal dispatch of ambulances allows emergency medical services to reach more patients that too within a stipulated period. RFID monitors essential events like when the ambulance is used for pick-up, arrives at the concerned location, etc.
Apart from all these uses and applications, RFID technology in healthcare facilities can also help in measuring the performance of doctors and nurses. For example, how long does it take for a surgeon to perform a surgery, or how many patients does the nurse administer medication to? All these can measure the overall responsiveness to emergency events in healthcare facilities.
Emergency medical service providers want a solution that is easy and quick to use. They cannot waste time during a crisis or disaster. RFID combines speed, accuracy, and user-friendly elements, thus, is believed to be ideal for EMS facilities – hospitals and private clinics. Remember that the possibilities are innumerable, and we can witness more technological wonders in healthcare development services at any given point in time. It can be said that the scope for the improvement and new inventions are vast, and healthcare solutions powered by RFID are coming up. So, when making a purchase, please rely on someone with a credible reputation in the market. Please feel free to share your thoughts or add your insights below in the comment section.
