20 Healthcare Barcode and RFID Articles
Are you a healthcare professional? Did you know that barcoding and RFID tags have significantly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of labeling and tracking for medical supplies, devices, specimens, and other items? Here are the top posts discussing the use of barcodes and RFID tags in the healthcare industry.
Barcodes Can Improve Drug Safety - The Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) has rolled out to some success, but end-to-end tracking validation is still a question. Which proven technology might provide the answer?
Three Reasons Why iPads are Improving Healthcare Delivery - Although the iPad has received criticism for a perceived lack of security, health care providers are finding them more beneficial than simply acting as clipboards. In addition to its mobility, the healthcare community has found two critical benefits of this technology.
Barcoding Drops Specimen Mislabeling by 593% - Did you know that each year over half of the 160,000 adverse medical events that occur result from improper specimen labeling? Pennsylvania Patient Safety Advisory found that a high number of failures are due to simply not following established labeling procedures. A 2012 industry review published in Clinical Biochemistry revealed some startling improvements as a result of barcoding systems.
How One Medical Products Distibutor Found Increased Efficiency Through Barcode Printers - An international distributor of blood screening, diagnostic and disease monitoring equipment was rolling out its new enterprise resource planning solution when executives realized barcodes were the key to efficiently tracking medical products and connecting multiple warehouses was standardizing their barcode printers. Which printer did they choose?
Veterinary Clinics and Pet Owners Have Peace of Mind - Pethealth, the second largest pet insurance carrier in North America, announced it had registered over seven million animals through its use of RFID tags. The company's 24PetWatch database now contains more than 7.3 million records thanks to the ease and security of RFID microchips for pet tracking.
Barcode Wristbands Ensure Medical Personnel Get it "Right" - Barcode techonology has been improving patient care delivery for years. Accuracy and patient safety have gotten better, and practitioners are able to improve the effectiveness of the "Five Rights" (Right patient, right medication, right dose, right time, right method of administration). What are best barcode practices when it comes to barcode wristband deployment?
QR Codes Empower Emergency Response Teams - QR Codes are poised to become an essential tool for the emergency response community. QR codes enable emergency responders to quickly access patient data using mobile devices then instantly share critical information with awaiting emergency rooms, improving emergency care delivery. Helping to connect physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare providers with vital patient information, QR codes are showing up on bike helmets, lunch boxes, canes and other personal items.
How RFID Wristbands Improve Patient Safety - Point-of-care use of RFID wristbands has risen quickly since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. These wearables are allowing healthcare providers to ensure greater patient safety and conform with the electronic health records (EHR) requirements in the Act. Find out four ways RFID wristbands are impacting patient safety.
New Wristband and Label Printer Released - Intermec, an Everett, Washington-based printer manufacturer, released its PC23D wristband and label printer for use in healthcare environments. Remote status update tools keep IT administrators informed in real time and helps to reduce downtime. See more barcode features and benefits of this compact yet industrial-grade system.
Barcode Scanning Patient Records From Your Mobile Phone - Electronic health records have become much easier to manage and, with the rise of mobile technology, easier to access. Accusoft Pegasus has developed a mobile barcode scanner that is making life easier for medical professionals. The mobile application can be used with either one-or two-dimensional bar codes, but it offers more than that. Healthcare professionals can also view and edit images, share PDF files, and add notations right from their mobile devices.
Blood Banks Rely on Barcode Wristbands for Record Management - Dracula wishes he had this kind of inventory control! Blood banks are able to manage blood donor records through the use of RFID tracking. Typenex and Precision Dynamics Corporation are leading a growing number of barcode equipment manufacturers serving this vital healthcare segment.
RFID Tags Provide a Potential Answer to Missing Surgical Tools - Throughout the U.S., surgical equipment is unaccounted for in one out of eight operations. Metal RFID tags could provide an answer to this wide-ranging epidemic. There are some challenges to overcome, but a company in Hong Kong thinks it has the right technology to help.
Where is my Patient? RFID to the Rescue - Medical errors would be the sixth leading cause of patient deaths in hospitals if it they were included in the Center for Disease Control's annual list. Many of those errors are due to patient misidentification. What are the problems that can arise from misidentification and how can RFID wristbands solve and how can RFID wristbands solve the problem?
Two Massachusetts Oncology Clinics Adopt Ultra High-Frequency RFID Solutions - In order to make life easier for oncology patients and medical personnel, Jordan Hospital and Lahey Clinic have installed passive UHF RFID systems at their campuses. The new RFID solutions are proving to be a big improvement over previously used scanning procedures.
Medical Inventory is More Secure with RFID - Before barcoding and RFID technology entered the healthcare industry, inventory shared by different teams such as medical researchers and healthcare providers lacked sufficient controls. RFID tracking now enables groups to access shared supplies while immediately updating inventory logs and communicating with purchasers. Users have experienced four crucial benefits to deploying RFID-based inventory management.
Electronic Registration, Barcoded E-Forms and Wristbands Improve Patient Care and Workflow - St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto, Canada took an important step in patient health record management. The hospital moved to a barcoded system of electronic forms and patient wristbands. Administrators and staff have embraced the change and transformed patient care.
Barcoding Blood, Bile and Brain - Fresno County medical examiners have a new barcode tracking system. Printers dispense case number, name and date of death along with weight and lab results on tags that help reduce errors and streamline processes. The units will be especially helpful in tracking the status of autopsies required for the average 30-40 body inventory the office maintains.
Can RFID Reduce the Number of Hospital-acquired Infections? - An RFID-powered product released by Matrix Product Development could help lower in-hospital infections caused by a lack of hand washing. Patients are at risk due in part to inadequate management of universal precautions. This new system was developed to alert hospital management about how well staff is following procedure.
Take Your Pick: UFO or RFO? - While some may fear an attack by UFOs, surgical patients are vulnerable to something much more real: RFOs. Each year, surgeries result in RFOs in many different healthcare facilities. Find out what RFOs are and how RFID is working to eradicate the issue from the face of the earth.
ROI for Hospital RFID Implementation? Priceless! - Healthcare administrators are realizing that the return on investment for deploying RFID technologies is real but at times hard to calculate. One center saw a reduction in administrative work by 15%, but the true return is often found in the most important result: successful treatment of the patient. And that return is priceless.
The Value in Barcode and RFID Healthcare Solutions - Barcode and RFID solutions have begun to saturate the healthcare industry. Administrators, physicians, pharmacists and many other practitioners have begun to realize the impact these technologies can have in many areas of the healthcare setting. See six function areas that benefit from barcoding and RFID technology.
Be sure to visit our Facebook page - see left side menu. You can also subscribe to Barcode.com to receive weekly or once a month updates. We never spam or rent our mailing list. See the Subscribe link on the left side menu above.
You can help keep this site free by letting vendors know you have seen them here. We rely on sponsors for support, and your kind words on our behalf mean a lot. Thank you.
About the image: Hans von Gersdorff (surgeon) Fieldbook of medicine (1517). Treatment of a skull injury. Wood cut work attributed to Hans Wechtlin. Image source: Wikimedia Commons