For Improving Elderly Care, RFID is on the Button

The buttons are typically encoded with the necessary information using the handheld RFID interrogator, then affixed to the clothing on the care label of a garment or on a seam, in the resident's room, with that client present. That way, the belongings need not be taken away, which the resident might find distressing. After laundering (the clothing of several residents is washed together), the items are then ironed, scanned with the handheld reader, and sorted by owner.

When residents leave the facility (some stay only for short-term durations), the buttons are removed. Although there is no limit to the number of buttons a resident can have, Fisher says the average is about 30 to 50 per person. Undergarments are washed separately, with each person's items placed in net bags that have the buttons attached to them.

For long-term residents, in addition to their names being encoded onto the buttons, other information (such as any allergies to detergents) is encoded into the system as well. For short-term residents, only each client's room number is encoded to that person's buttons.

Radio frequency identification has become an increasingly popular tool for companies with large inventories of linens or uniforms, such as hospitals. The 352-room Star City Casino, located in Sydney, Australia, manages a wardrobe inventory of thousands of uniforms and employs a wardrobe control system that involves having RFID chips sewn into clothing so each garment's movements can be tracked down laundry chutes, into washing machines and back into stock (see As You Like It).

In addition, RFID is being used in other ways at residential facilities, to help improve the care of patients suffering from dementia. At the Nesconset Center for Nursing & Rehabilitation, on New York's Long Island, employees are utilizing an RFID-enabled real-time location system (RTLS) to keep patients safer by tracking their whereabouts and alerting staff members if they wander off (see Rehab Center Monitors Patients With Ultra-wide Band).