RFID-enabled Locks Secure Bags of Blood

At the bedside, a nurse first uses the Palmed to read his or her own ID badge, which has an RFID tag attached to it. She places a Tiomed wristband containing an embedded RFID tag on the patient's arm, using the Palmed to read the unique ID number on the wristband's RFID tag. Tiomed buys these RFID-tagged wristbands from Precision Dynamics Corp. The nurse also uses the Palmed to read the bar code on the test tube filled with the patient's blood. The system then links all three numbers.

Another RFID tag, placed inside an adhesive label, comes attached to the blood-request form. (In Italy, hospitals are required by law to use paper request forms at transfusion centers.) The tag on the form has a unique code provided by the factory, as well as memory capability. The operator encodes the linked data (patient ID, test tube number and operator ID) to the RFID label on the form, again using the Palmed.

The request form containing all the data is then taken, along with the test tube, to the transfusion center's Tiomed workstation. The station is outfitted with a PC running Tiomed's Basic Hemo and Emoguard software programs, which manage the process; a Palmed; a supply of MediLocks; a "tagger," a small RFID reader connected to the PC and used to recall the information saved on the tag on the request form; and two other small devices connected to the back of the PC, called Medilinks. Medilinks use Bluetooth technology to allow communication between the Palmed, the MediLock and the PC.

In the next step, the operator places the form's tag on the tagger and reads it. The information on the tag is then transferred to the database and updated immediately. After filling out the form by hand, testing the blood in the tube for blood type and selecting a corresponding bag of donor blood, the operator uses the Palmed to read the tag on the request form and the bar code on the bag of donor blood. The bar code is a standard ID code for blood bags, used worldwide, and the Palmed communicates with it via the Bluetooth connection to the PC.

"In this way, we have assigned the bag, with its unique identification code, to that specific patient and linked it to the request form and to all the information gathered until that moment," says Rubertelli.