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Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), also referred to as tracking technology, is improving information, productivity, and communication in healthcare. RFID describes a system, based on radio waves, that transmits the identity (serial number) of a person or object. Bar codes, retinal scans, and optical character readers are all categorized as automatic identification technologies. There are two types of RFID, active and passive. Active RFID refers to the automatic transmission of data or location information, while passive RFID necessitates a manual scan of a tag or label to capture the identifying data (such as a bar code).

RFID has been around for some time, but now computers, wireless data networks, and network integration have enabled instant data transmission and opened up RFID for new applications, especially in healthcare.

The overall U.S. wireless data networking and related service opportunity in healthcare “will grow to over $7 billion by 2010, with the potential to be much higher given proper development,” according to Research and Markets (“Wireless Data in Healthcare: A study tracking the use of RFIT, Wireless Sensor Solutions, and Telemetry by Medical Device Manufacturers, Systems Integrators, and Adopters,” wwwresearchandmarkets.com/reports/222417).

Some of the uses for tracking technology in healthcare are to track assets, such as furniture, medical equipment, and tools. Another use, especially for nurses, is to track patients, procedures, and beds. RFID helps nurses and other hospital personnel determine which beds are vacant and ready for new occupants, ensuring a quicker migration of patients from the ER into hospital units. Medical equipment can be tracked down more quickly with the use of RFID. Considering that hospitals can lose nearly $1 million a year in theft alone (http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/542901), being able to track items is a potentially huge savings. Being able to track assets also ensures that a hospital will be able to meet an auditor’s scrutiny regarding process compliance and record keeping.

HIM directors and anyone involved in medical records might be more interested in learning about RFID’s uses in their department. Tracking technology is a new tool in locating patient records easily, following patient test procedures, tracking immunizations as well as infections, and other aspects of patient care. This means that immunizations, procedures done, infections, and more, can all be referred to later for research, study, or in follow-up healthcare.

Another use for tracking technology within the HIM department is its ability to enable HIM directors and personnel to track dollars associated with recovery audit contractor (RAC) denials and approvals, and monitor the appeals process.

Medication administration, specimen collection and blood transfusion verification are all areas of increased safety through the use of tracking technology. Barcode scanners enable nurses to scan the patient’s wristband as well as the medication bottle to ensure that each patient is getting the right medication at the right dose and the right time. When any type of specimen is collected from a patient, barcode scanners, wireless data terminals and portable barcode label printers ensure that the right sample is being collected and labeled with the correct patient name. Scanning a patient’s blood bags at the bedside and his/her wristband helps eliminate time-consuming crosschecks and mismatched transfusions, and blood information, expiration date and serial number can all be accessed immediately if necessary. Again, all of this information becomes part of the patient’s electronic medical record (EMR) and available for referral if necessary anytime.

Tracking can also be done on the basis of type of request; whether you want to pull up all patients who received a blood transfusion on a particular day or within the past year, it is now much easier, thanks to RFID. Likewise, if you want to track all patients who received a vaccination from a particular batch, it can be done much easier.

Some companies have created medical record tracking and chart reservation software that utilizes the latest barcode tracking technology to manage the movement of patient charts in and out of the medical records department. These software programs are developed to improve HIM department workflow. Mobile scanning software tracks patient charts anywhere in a hospital or clinic. The software can also generate customizable “pull lists” to increase efficiency and can automatically create patient chart requests from appointments via interfacing with a scheduling system. The system notifies users when a returned chart has been requested by another person or department. Chart location and availability can be displayed instantly. The software even maintains a permanent audit trail for every chart in its system, and generates complete disclosure reporting. Some of these new programs also handle the hybrid medical record through integration with a healthcare organization’s EMR.

All of these functions and processes are great improvements not only in efficiency but in keeping track of medical records and locating them quickly.

While many hospital executives are concerned about lost medical equipment and thus, understandably want to use RFID to track equipment, HIM applications of tracking technology need to be considered as well. Perhaps a hospital that purchases software and technology to track medical equipment can be convinced of the practical applications for using tracking technology to locate and improve HIM processes and methods. The potential of this software is great when one considers tracking immunizations, infections, specific procedures, transfusions, and even bed locations.

How often have we seen TV movies or read a mystery novel that portrays something happening to the patient in a particular bed in a particular hospital unit? If the fictional hospital had tracking technology, it would know the names of all the patients that had ever occupied that bed in that particular unit, and thus be able to notify all of them of a life-threatening infection or exposure to a particular toxin living in that bed or that unit. This is the future of tracking technology in HIM.