With the continuous advancement of medical technology, hospitals' needs for medical products have become increasingly complex and diverse. Tens of thousands of medical products are used in hundreds of different procedures to meet the unique needs of a variety of patients. However, how to effectively manage these products and ensure their safety, timeliness and traceability has always been a challenge faced by medical institutions. In recent years, the introduction of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has brought revolutionary breakthroughs to hospital inventory and supply chain management. Loma Linda University Health Loma Linda Hospital (LLUH) in California has successfully implemented an RFID automated inventory management system at the International Heart Institute (IHI). The system converts various spaces or rooms within the hospital into RFID controlled areas by installing lightweight RFID readers, enabling comprehensive monitoring of inventory and its movement. The introduction of this technology not only improves patient safety, but also effectively controls the expenditure and use of consumables, and optimizes the scale and composition of inventory.
The core advantage of RFID technology is its ability to achieve automatic, contact-free data capture. By attaching an RFID tag to each product, when the product enters the supply room or operations room, the tag's unique ID is captured by an area RFID reader and associated with the product's details. This process requires no manual intervention, greatly improving the accuracy and efficiency of data capture. At the same time, readers installed in corridors can also capture the movement of tagged items from one area to another, providing the hospital with real-time inventory flow information. This data is critical for hospital inventory and supply chain management. They enable hospitals to track product expiration, provide a basis for product reordering, ensure accuracy of billing and expense records, and improve clinical documentation at the point of care. Additionally, by understanding how frequently different supplies are used, hospitals can ensure adequate inventory of needed products while reducing inventory levels above recommended standards, thereby reducing inventory costs. More importantly, RFID technology also enables hospitals to accurately capture the unique device identification (UDI) data of each item and track their location at any time. The data includes details such as the product's manufacturer, description, batch number, serial number and expiration date, providing hospitals with comprehensive product traceability capabilities. In emergencies, such as product recalls or expiration dates, hospitals can quickly locate and handle related issues to ensure patient safety.
In addition, the application of RFID technology also improves the hospital's internal workflow. The traditional tedious manual recording system is replaced, allowing medical staff to focus more on patient treatment and care. At the same time, the system's transparency and visibility make it easier for clinicians and managers to monitor and manage the usage of consumables and discover and solve potential problems in a timely manner. Traditional supply chain management methods often suffer from problems such as lack of information flow and poor collaboration between various departments. The application of RFID technology enables information sharing and collaborative work among clinical departments, supply chain, finance and IT departments, greatly improving the overall operational efficiency of the hospital. The application of RFID technology has brought unprecedented changes to hospital supply chain management. It not only improves the transparency and efficiency of the supply chain, but also reduces operating costs and improves the quality of medical services. As a result, hospital supply chain executives hailed this as a turning point in hospital operations and viewed the system as a benchmark for other inventory systems. By reducing human intervention, the system improves management efficiency and has a significant positive impact on the hospital. In the future, with the continuous development and improvement of RFID technology, I believe it will play a more important role in hospital operations and inject new vitality into the development of the medical industry.
