| |December 201919catering facilities, patient rooms, treatment rooms) and the most optimal route to their destination leading to a better visitor and patient experience. The experience can be improved for an inpatient journey from admis-sion to discharge. The provided real-time data enables to identify, for example, how much time patients spend in waiting areas, how long they stay in examination/treat-ment rooms and where else they spend time during their hospital stay. This gives staff a better insight and allows taking measures to act on pain points that can be identi-fied using the data.6. Patient safety - In hospitals, it can be difficult to keep medicated or confused patients safe, preventing them from getting lost or entering restricted areas. Po-sitioning technologies like beacons can be used to locate patients as necessary and can be configured to send alerts if a patient leaves pre-defined areas. Patient monitoring can also contribute to fall prevention. An out-of-bed sys-tem that registers when a patient leaves his bed and a fall detection system immediately inform nursing staff and ensure fast medical aid. Other use case is to use it for maintain hand hygiene, where an alert goes in case the solution is not used before touching the patient.Challenges and Concerns:Every technology comes with some challenges. One of the biggest challenges reported regarding RFID tech-nology is the cost of the system and the system's return on investment (ROI). According to a recent study by Yazici (2014), the cost of an RFID tag can range from four cents per tag to upwards of $50.00 per tag, depend-ing on the capabilities. Tags can be reusable or dispos-able and have associated costs. Reusable tags are higher in price and require a standardized cleaning technique before the tag can safely reenter circulation. The size of most RFID tags are small and light in weight so as not to be cumbersome on equipment or a patient, however, it is easy for these tags to then be carried away from the hospital, causing a loss in tag inventory and there-fore an unexpected cost for the organization. The RFID tag readers can range from $1,000.00 to $3,000.00 per reader. A fully functioning RFID system requires tags, readers, infrastructure, middleware, printers, and so on.Technical limitations such as system errors, RFID tag readability, interference with medical equipment, and interoperability with other health information tech-nology also impede adoption. Technical issues with the RFID technology include dependency on wireless net-work connectivity, and the inability of the radio frequen-cy waves to reach some of the tags on the nurses and medication cart due to ceiling height. RFID hardware and software is yet to be standardized and therefore pre-sents potential for interoperability concerns across pro-viders (Coustasse et. al, 2015b).Healthcare provider perceptions of the utility of a system can present barriers for implementation if there is no buy-in or acceptance.In addition to organizational acceptance challenges and concerns, privacy and security concerns arise when considering RFID implementation. Yao, Chao-Hsien, and Li (2012) identified concerns for inappropriate col-lection, intentional misuse, or unauthorized disclosure of healthcare information due to inadvertent transmis-sion or deliberate interception of the tag information.In conclusion:While there are challenges to this technology, the ben-efits are far more as has been evident and tested in other sectors. It is time that the healthcare starts adopting this measure. Taking care of some points might be helpful in deciding the approach:· A thorough cost-benefit analysis of the business case. · Testing of the technology prior to widespread imple-mentation by doing a pilot study.· Assess that the desired product is able to meet the an-ticipated goal of the implementation.· Address limitations during the preparation stage. Ac-knowledgment of the limitations of the product will avoid over-expectations and define its capabilities to the users.· Education on technology prior to implementation is recommended to ensure staff is aware of its value in practice and can utilize the technology as it is intended.· Implementation of appropriate security measures to decrease the privacy and security concerns arising with availability of real time data in the system.· Ongoing monitoring and assessment of the perfor-mance of RFID technology can help to confirm a well-functioning system. While there are challenges to this technology, the benefits are far more as has been evident and tested in other sectors. It is time that the healthcare starts adopting this measure
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