RFID in Health care: A review of the real-world application in hospitals
Ahed Abugabah, Ahmad Al Smadi, Luke Houghton
Abstract
Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been considered one of the most promising technologies in healthcare and has been recognized as a smart tool with the potential to overcome many challenges that health care encounters such as inaccurate pharmaceutical stock, inability to track medical equipment, difficulty in tracking patient locations, patient safety incidents, administration of incorrect drugs, medical errors including mislabeled blood samples, and drug quantities. This study builds on work of the author and looks at the real-world experience of adoption in hospitals via a systematic literature review. The findings uncover only a limited number of cases of RFID use in hospitals mainly in the form of pilot studies. Benefits are reported primarily in the area of improved safety, better management of equipment and better efficiency from improved patient flow prediction.