Small-scale testing of RFID in a hospital setting: RFID as bed trigger.
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RFID technology shows significant potential for transforming healthcare, yet few studies assess this potential. Our study measured the effectiveness of using RFID as a bed trigger: a tool to accelerate identification of empty beds. We made a small alteration in the discharge process to associate RFID tags with patients and created an RFID-based system that automatically determined discharge time. For each patient, we evaluated the difference in the discharge times recorded manually by the current process and the RFID-based system. The study was conducted on 86 patients over 2 months in 2 physically separate multi-specialty units. Compared to the preexisting process, the RFID-based system identified empty beds >20 minutes earlier 67% of the time with an average of 25 minutes and median of 9 minutes earlier. Hospital leadership defined an improvement of approximately 10 minutes as significant. With minimal investment, our small-scale study lead hospital leadership to begin planning RFID deployment. (+info)
Comparison of RFID systems for tracking clinical interventions at the bedside.
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In recent years, there have been high expectations for RFID technologies applied in the medical field, particularly for automatic identification and location of patients and medical supplies. However, few studies have measured the applicability of currently available RFID technologies in a medical environment. To determine the technical factors that affect the performance of RFID systems, we examined the performance of different types of tags for medications, medical equipment, nurses, and patients under different experimental conditions. Three kinds of passive RFID tags and one active RFID tag were used in our study. Passive tags were affected by materials such as liquid and metal. Tags based on 13.56MHz were most suited for identifying medications. Tag placement was one of the main factors involved in correct identification of nurses, patients, and medical equipment. The results of this study may help decision makers decide whether (which) RFID technologies are useful for tracking clinical workflow. (+info)
A geospatial analysis of persons opting out of an exception from informed consent out-of-hospital clinical trial.
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Proceedings from the 2008 Wisconsin Quality and Safety Forum, part II.
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In 2008, quality and safety improvement initiatives in Wisconsin focused on developing an organization-wide culture of quality, and implementing processes to improve patient care and satisfaction. Below are descriptions of improvement projects undertaken by hospitals and other health care organizations, and showcased at the 2008 Wisconsin Quality & Safety Forum. The projects are broken into 6 categories: clinical improvement, customer service, infection control, medications, performance improvement, and safety. The first 3 categories appeared in Issue 8 of Volume 107 of the Wisconsin Medical Journal. (WMJ. 2008;107[8]:382-388). (+info)
The Swedish personal identity number: possibilities and pitfalls in healthcare and medical research.
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