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Hospitals need RFID injection
But can they afford it?

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Friday 24 August 2007

RFID technology has significant benefits for the tracking of assets and patients in hospitals - but the cost is still high especially when compared to barcodes, according to research house Frost & Sullivan.

RFID tracking can save hospitals time and money which could be wasted looking for lost gear, with hospitals spending around 20 per cent of their capital on easily movable equipment, according to a Frost & Sullivan report.

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But, when compared to barcoding, RFID technology is a costly option for many hospitals and so could be used in conjunction with barcodes to keep costs down, the report said.

Sachin Thukral, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said there is a great need to locate people and equipment in hospitals in a timely manner.

Even as RFID technology matures, Thukral added, it is likely barcoding will continue to offer hospitals a proven, efficient and more cost-effective means of capturing data for a variety of applications.

RFID is more durable, accurate and reusable when compared to barcodes but it loses out because of the high cost and unproven ROI of the tags and other associated hardware, according to the Advances in RFID for Healthcare Applications report.

Both barcoding and RFID technologies should be used together to work towards an effective tracking system, the report recommends.

RFID tagging has recently been piloted in a UK hospital, with hospitals in Germany and New York already tagging their patients in the hope of reducing the number of clinical errors.