Apr 29, 2010RFID Journal today announced that registration is open for two one-day conferences focused on helping health-care providers understand how radio frequency identification can help them improve supply chain efficiencies, hospital operations and patient safety. RFID in Health Care West will be held on June 15, 2010, at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa, in Los Angeles, and RFID in Health Care East will be held on Oct. 12, at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel, in Philadelphia.
"The application of RFID in the health-care sector is a very hot topic today, due to the increasing cost pressures on hospitals," says Mark Robert, RFID Journal's founder and editor. "We are launching these events in response to the demand for information by health-care professionals. As with all of our events, we will feature end users presenting objective case studies about how they are utilizing different types of RFID technology to optimize their operations and improve patient outcomes."
Educational seminars at this year's RFID in Health Care events will cover the following topics:
• Patient Monitoring: Hospitals are employing RFID to track patients from check-in to checkout, thereby reducing the time nurses spend collecting information and confirming patient identities.
• Asset Tracking: Medical facilities often have many assets that are underutilized. Real-world case studies will show how RFID systems can be employed to track assets in real time, thus improving asset utilization, lowering maintenance costs and decreasing the need to purchase additional assets.
• Supply Chain Tracking: Hospitals purchase high-value pharmaceuticals and other supplies that can be stolen, lost or misplaced. RFID can help organizations better track goods from major suppliers, as well as reduce costs and shrinkage.
• Patient Safety: RFID can be used not only to ensure that patients are never administered the wrong medications, but also to prevent the misidentification of surgical patients, make sure sponges are not left in patients and ensure that surgical instruments are properly sterilized.
• Automated Billing: Some hospitals have begun utilizing RFID to automatically identify patients, the procedures they undergo and the drugs they are given, so that bills can be generated automatically, reducing labor and ensuring that the facilities are paid for care delivered.
"There is no doubt in my mind," Roberti states, "that attendees to these two events will come away with information that will generate tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars in annual savings for their organizations."
