RFID enables real-time tracking for hospitals and patients, providing increased visibility
The Indian healthcare industry, among all industries, had traditionally been a slow adopter of new technologies. This was due to a combination of reasons.
Some are financial. For example, it could be hard for the healthcare industry to agree on who should pay for investment in new technologies. Also, the current fee-per-service model doesn’t encourage adoption of technology as doctors are rewarded based on volume and cost of treatment, instead of quality of care.
Some are regulatory. The healthcare industry is tightly regulated, leading to the slow process for a substantial change to be introduced.
Last but not least, some challenges are habitual in nature. Many healthcare organizations are deeply entrenched in their old way of doing things, and it could be difficult to get them to try something new, without any incentives. In addition, doctors and nurses are usually not familiar with technology; it could take a while for them to master using a new software or device.
However, the scene is shifting; the healthcare industry has come to embrace changes promised by new technology. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the healthcare industry size is expected to touch US$160 billion by 2017 and US$280 billion by 2020.
Even though India is gaining a global reputation for being a medical hub, there are still many cases of medical negligence being reported. For instance, in a recent case, a surgeon from a leading hospital mistakenly operated on a patient’s wrong leg. Many more cases like administering wrong dosage of medicines or not giving adequate care to their patient have also been reported. These kind of incidents stir the growing need of improvement in healthcare services. In the United States, America’s Affordable Care Act, more familiarly known as Obamacare, punishes hospitals that readmit patients, and limits the sum of treatment charged. This movement has put hospitals under immense pressure to reduce costs and improve quality of service.
Other drivers include the need for better productivity due to a shortage of healthcare professionals, a growing aging population, and evolving disease patterns. The confluence of all these factors is steering healthcare toward leveraging technology.
Now healthcare has become one of the fastest growing verticals amongst all for technology adoption.
The rise of barcoding and RFID creates unprecedented opportunities for healthcare
In the healthcare industry, there has been a continual effort to adopt barcode technology to clamp down on medical errors and promote patient safety.
Medical error can occur at any stage in the medication process, from prescribing, order communication, product labeling, packaging, compounding, dispensing, distribution, to administration, and is generally regarded as “a preventable event”. A study conducted by Harvard University in 2013 estimated that 52 lakh injuries occur across India each year (out of the 430 lakh globally) due to medical errors and adverse events.
This is where barcoding can come to the rescue:
Take the example of Japan’s Nagasaki University Hospital, where barcoding technology is used. The hospital has been using Zebra’s TC55 mobile touch computer to read barcodes printed on tags since last year; now the device is part and parcel of the hospital’s three-point authentication workflow where a nurse has to check the Target – the wristband on the patient, the Administrator – ID card of a doctor or nurse, and the Object – the drug, before administering any medicine. This implementation has significantly reduced the time administrators take to check the patient and drug, as well as errors resulted from inaccurate medication administration. The mobile computer is also connected to Wi-Fi networks and can transmit data via Near-Field Communications (NFC) technology, which means nurses are able to perform data entry and recording simultaneously, in real-time. This has helped increased operational efficiency and accuracy in their day-to-day work.
Not only do barcodes help reduce medical errors, they can also be used to track a medicine or device to its source.
Recognizing this potential, from 2015, Pharmaceutical companies in India were directed to comply with mandatory bar-coding of medicine strips, as per directives of the Commerce Ministry. The medicine strip and containers are expected to have a “parent-child” relationship, meaning, that a barcode will ensure that every unique strip of drug will go into a unique secondary package. (Containing the primary pack of drugs with safety instructions, etc.)
Such labels allow more accurate reporting, reviewing and analysing of adverse event reports so that problem devices can be identified and corrected more quickly. They also reduce medical errors by enabling healthcare professionals and others to more rapidly and precisely identify a device and obtain important information concerning the characteristics of the device. These labels, as well as the printers and scanners used to create and read them, need to be able to withstand sterilization and cleaning agents used in hospitals, and last the life of product disposal.
In addition, every time medicine is administered on a patient, the information is recorded in its barcode, amounting to a wealth of data for healthcare professionals, including the drug that is used, the dosage, and for what disease. From there, healthcare organizations can analyze the data to determine their investment on a certain drug, its impact, and if they should change suppliers. In this way, healthcare information has not only translated into lives saved, but also business decisions.
RFID enables real-time tracking for hospitals and patients, providing increased visibility
Apart from barcodes, many verticals are actively adopting another asset tracking technology called radio-frequency identification (RFID), which uses a tiny computer chip and can convey information via radio waves. RFID’s applications are found frequently in our day-to-day life. For example, in India many highways are built with electronic toll collection systems with RFID technology so as to allow cars to zip through a toll booth without stopping. Also, manufacturers use them to track high-priced components. Everything is monitored and recorded in real-time.
The healthcare industry recognizes the potential and promise demonstrated by RFID in other sectors, and has been increasingly exploring ways to adopt RFID. Proponents of RFID cite many advantages it offers. For instance, RFID tags can both “read” and “write” information, making them more versatile. An RFID tag can communicate more effectively on its own by collecting and showing data instantaneously. In healthcare, many sensitive materials, such as blood, are critical data that have to be monitored constantly; RFID’s real-time tracking plays into its need. In addition, groups of RFID tags can be read simultaneously, as well as through materials such as boxes and textiles, enhancing productivity by a great deal.
An example of how RFID improves patient safety is via real-time tracking of patients who suffer from diseases that subject them to random relapses, or elderlies for their mobility level – a growing concern given the expanding aging population in many countries. As patient-monitoring systems become more sophisticated and widespread, they could potentially lighten the load on doctors for surgeries by reducing the need for routine check-ups, therefore carving out time for more patients.
RFID tags can also be embedded in various hospital assets for other purposes. Such RFID deployment has been carried out by the Danish hospital Det Nye Universitetshospital to track 20 different RFID tagged assets, from hospital personnel with staff names tags embedded with RFID to wheelchairs, beds, and medical equipment to labels used on patient specimen samples. This has helped staff quickly track and locate these assets through a map on their mobile devices, ultimately optimizing workflows, increasing accuracy, and improving patient care.
Furthermore, RFID assists in the medical supply chain by accurately managing demand and supply of medical supplies (e.g., cottons, towels, sponges and surgical instruments), and prescription drugs. It also helps manufacturers and distributors track their high-cost medical devices, including implanted devices like pacemakers, defibrillators, artificial joints, vascular stents, and intraocular lenses. Most importantly, it provides high traceability for human materials, such as blood samples and organs – sensitive resources that need real-time tracking.
Conclusion
The introduction of barcoding and RFID has caused a stir of interest and excitement about their capabilities, and the technology continues to deliver on its promise to the healthcare industry. Such visibility solutions enable caregivers to deliver the right care, to the right patient, at the right time – reducing waste and streamlining care. Apart from that, a comprehensive mobility platform – such as those offered by some of the leading technology companies – supports the five rights of medication administration to help increase patient safety while fostering clinical collaboration for staffers and driving better operational efficiencies.
Authored by Wayne Harper, Senior Technical Director, APAC, Zebra Technologies
