Consisting of a small chip and antenna, RFID tags can be active (Beacons) or passive, and are attached to medical devices for management purposes.
Both types of tags offer unique device identification and use radio waves to identify, and track and trace medical devices.
Beacon RFID technology can also gather and report information about status and condition, such as temperature or humidity.
RFID tags can fulfil a similar function to barcodes by providing identifying information. However, RFID offers significant advantages over barcodes.
Active(Beacon) tags for example proactively transmit a regular radio frequency signal with a unique ID which can be associated to a specific medical device. In contrast, passive RFID technology can enable more than a thousand tags to be scanned per second.
What’s more, scanning can take place even when privacy screens are drawn around beds, doors are shut ad rooms are occupied. This is because RFID readers do not require a direct line of sight.
RFID readers can scan an entire room or ward to detect and total all tagged devices, regardless of how it is occupied. The received signals are then passed to a central database wirelessly , for tracking and analysis by clinical staff and medical engineers.
