By Healthcare Facilities Today

The health-care industry is undergoing significant changes in information sharing and supply chain management, while the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is expected to swell the volume of patients.  With these changes taking place, radio frequency identification (RFID) can reduce the cost of supply chain management (for tracking inventory and locating missing items), according to a study from Marshall University, in Huntington, W.Va. 

According to an article on the RFID Journal website, however, whether the numerous changes facing the IT departments, as well as the impending volume of patients, will encourage or discourage RFID installations has yet to be seen, The need for electronic data management, in addition to the anticipated growth in demand for health care and health information technologies (HIT), creates what researchers call  "a perfect storm" that could either limit RFID deployment in the short term, or help to launch it.

Approximately 10 percent of hospitals have an RFID-based solution in place to track equipment and supplies, using either passive or active RFID tags attached to consumables and reusable assets, the artile said That percentage is likely to rise, according to the study, but how fast this will occur depends on multiple competing issues.

"The benefits from the application of RFID are potentially significant," said Alberto Coustasse, an associate professor of health-care administration on the faculty of Marshall's College of Health Professions, and a coauthor of the study.  He said that competition from other health IT programs, as well as the lack of standardization across the sector, may delay the technology's mass adoption in the health-care market.

According to Coustasse, the researchers found that RFID provides significant financial benefits by decreasing supply chain costs, while the greatest barriers to adoption include pending electronic management requirements, a lack o f interoperability with other systems, and the high cost of implementation without a clear return on investment (ROI).

The perfect storm the researchers see consists of  new mandates and incentive programs to better manage data that is putting pressure on hospitals' IT departments and budgets.

Read the article.