MENLO PARK, CA – As hospitals move to invest money in radio frequency identification applications, they’re finding they need increased capital investments to enable the tracking technology to scale for use throughout a facility.
Results of a recent survey by the Spyglass Consulting Group show a tripling in the number of projects since 2008.
RFID healthcare investment also has been influenced by external market factors, including escalating healthcare costs, growing interest in patient safety and chronic labor shortages. The technology is used to track locations of people and moveable devices.
But most RFID projects have been made at a department level, such as by the clinical engineering department for asset tracking or in operating rooms for managing costly supplies, said Gregg Malkary, managing director of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based consulting firm.
Moving beyond certain department applications will require both a strong business case for doing so and more investment in supporting infrastructure, he said.
“RFID solutions can be very expensive to deploy,” he said. “The biggest expense is the build-out of the proprietary network or, if it’s based on Wi-Fi, you need more access points and more tuning of the network.”
That investment will need to grow in hospitals because future generations of RFID use will need more accuracy, and facilities will need coverage to areas outside their buildings.
“It’s a leading-edge technology, and organizations see the value, but we need more solutions, more embracing of healthcare by the vendor community,” he said. “There’s mounting evidence that the return on investment is achieveable and sustainable.”