By Sylvia Carr, 7 December 2004 16:10
NEWS Businesses peddling wireless tagging technologies - such as RFID chips - to the NHS and other healthcare providers will come up against plenty of resistance, but should not give up, according to a recent report.
There are ways to overcome the public's fears, according to a forthcoming report from UK consultancy Wireless Healthcare.
One is to point out the technology's benefits - which include providing safer, more efficient care to patients, saving money and giving patients more detailed information about their treatment, the report says.
Healthcare providers such as the NHS tend to resist technology such as wireless tagging because they believe healthcare cannot be automated and fear job losses.
But no one's looking to make a hospital akin to an automobile factory, the report says, just to automate certain processes and repetitive tasks.
Tagging systems could ensure, for example, that nurses wash their hands after dealing with a patient and that the correct medicines or blood type are given to each patient.
With the promise of automated records offered by the NHS's National Programme for IT, wireless tags could provide even more benefits as the information they hold about medications delivered or procedures performed could be integrated with the rest of a patient's record.
While jobs may be lost, Peter Kruger, senior analyst at Wireless Healthcare, said "the benefits are too great" to let that stop the technology from taking hold.
Though healthcare providers often say they are concerned wireless tagging will violate patient privacy, the report claims the technology could actually make hospital visits more pleasant for patients. Kruger believes patients will desire and even demand the detailed level of information about their care tags can provide.
"And if public providers such as the NHS don't meet patients' needs", said Kruger, "then there is scope for private operators to move in.".
Kruger pointed out that technology adoption is generally driven by what's convenient for the healthcare provider while "benefits for patients are continually overlooked". But, he added, "you can't deploy technology merely for healthcare provider - you have to deploy it for patients as well".
He sees the move toward automation in healthcare as inevitable, given that it has already happened in the manufacturing and financial services industry.
The US is ahead of the UK in terms of accepting wireless tagging, as the FDA has already approved the use of RFID for medical purposes and is calling for RFID labelling to be used in the pharmaceutical supply chain by 2007.
The report, Selling Wireless Tagging to the Healthcare Sector, is set to be published later this week and is available from the Wireless Healthcare website.
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
OK so I'm dim - tell me how does RFID tagging ensure that a Nurse washes her hands properly after dealing with a patient?
Please educate me
2. anonymous
It doesn't.
But... it does show if the nurse (or whomever) has visited a washroom.
But so would a swipe card on the washroom door.
3. anonymous
There should be hand-wash facilities in every ward, so visiting the washroom should not be necessary in most, if not all NHS Hospitals!
It is even more difficult in NHS Hospitals now anyway. As part of the drive to promote cleanliness, there should now be hand-cleanser dispensers by every patient bed, therefore there would be no need for clinicians to even visit the ward hand-wash facility.
The cost of "proving" that a clinician has washed his/her hands after attending to a patient, therefore increases from one sensor per clinician wash-room, via one per ward, to one per bed!
4. anonymous
Kruger would say that, wouldn't he?! In the same way that it's the Halifax who tell us that house prices are going up when they're not - it's in their interest for that to be the result. But talking it up doesn't make it happen.
The main issue is one of what's best for the patient, including the patient's dignity and privacy. I remain to be convinced that RFID offers much, if anything.
5. Dermott Reilly
RFID will become a godsend for every busy hospital. The interesting issue is the increasing number of sensors developing around RFID technology. Some UK labour-intensive food processing companies have seen a ROI within three months. ROI from RFID in some USA hospitals has been 450% per year. If anyone wishes to see a presentation on how hospitals can save funds deploying RFID please shout. Email: dermott.reilly@wanadoo.fr
6. Dr Lawrence Wasserman
RFID is exapnding in the health and hospital community. There is a need for training that is orientation for administrators and managers to understand the concepts and applications i.e. advantages and disadvantages of RFID.