RFID use is expanding in healthcare. How do you see it improving patient safety and clinician efficiency?

Mary Lou:

AIM works with stakeholders at every level of the life sciences and healthcare supply chains, which gives us insight into many current and near-future RFID use cases. There is currently more activity focused on supply chain and material management use cases than on patient safety and clinician productivity. That is primarily because of the Unique Device Identification (UDI) and Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) programs. However, when RFID is used in the healthcare supply chain, patient safety and clinician efficiency benefit directly and indirectly.

The UDI and DSCSA programs are resulting in medical devices and medications being RFID tagged and the volume and scope will continue to expand; the growing interest we’re seeing in our VerifyReg^TM offering to help organizations meet DSCSA requirements confirms that. Concurrently, the ways hospitals are using RFID are changing slowly. Forty percent of hospitals had implemented RFID by 2022, and another 31% were exploring its use, according to a study by the ASHP Foundation. Those levels align with a 2024 report released by Zebra Technologies that found 68% of U.S. and U.K. hospitals planned to deploy RFID, and 69% planned to use real-time locating system (RTLS) technology, which usually includes RFID.

The UDI and DSCSA programs help prevent compromised medical devices and medications from reaching patients by guarding against counterfeiting and supply chain diversion and enabling effective recalls. Safer supply chains mean safer patients. Hospital professionals recognize this – 84% of respondents to the Zebra study said that their role in tracking and managing hospital inventory directly impacts patient safety. The ASHP Foundation study found a 72% reduction in expired medications among hospitals using RFID users and a 46% reduction in product shortages. Separately, many hospitals prevent medical equipment shortages by using RTLS to make sure medical devices and other assets are available when patients need them, which improves patient safety in a hard-to-quantify way.

There are several established RFID use cases for direct patient care. Surgical supply tracking is a mature RFID application for improving patient safety. Several commercial solutions enable surgical teams to wave a contactless reader to ensure no instruments or sponges were left inside the patient. Bedside medication administration is another RFID use case that saves clinicians (nurses) time while improving patient safety by incorporating automated safety checks into the process.

What are the current challenges in the adoption of RFID in healthcare?

Mary Lou:

Infrastructure is the most significant barrier. Most organizations do not have RFID equipment and processes in place, and the majority of medical devices and medications are not RFID tagged – the UDI and DSCSA programs allow RFID to be used but do not require it. Most organizations opt to comply by using bar codes instead of RFID. Bar coding works well for many of the supply chain and other use cases referenced. There is already extensive bar code infrastructure in place at manufacturers, distribution centers, hospitals and pharmacies.

Competing priorities are a perennial obstacle for hospital automation projects. Many hospital leaders wouldn’t frame their investment decision as RFID vs. bar code, but rather, RFID or bar code automation vs. using the budget to expand telehealth capabilities, or to invest in AI to enhance radiology or other clinical decision support, or something else. Hospital administrators have so many competing programs to manage – including many that put Medicare/Medicaid revenue at risk – that automation with RFID simply can’t be a priority.

Finally, it is very difficult to change the status quo in healthcare. The principle of First, do no harm extends to process changes. Healthcare professionals require clear evidence that a new way of doing things will be safe and effective before they change their processes and introduce new technologies. That slows RFID implementation but doesn’t prevent it.

Where do you see the future of RFID in healthcare?

Mary Lou:

As the number of items being tagged increases, supporting RFID infrastructure will continue to expand throughout the supply chain, including in patient care settings. We also know that healthcare-related RFID processes and standards will continue to mature. These developments will help create the critical mass needed for mainstream adoption in the sector, and the chronic clinician shortage will favor adoption for labor-saving use cases. The point of care may be one of the last places where RFID reaches widespread use in healthcare. Still, the hospital RFID adoption plans documented in multiple studies suggest momentum is growing for those applications.