The use of radio frequency based identification and tracking has been an intrinsic part of many businesses such as retail, healthcare, manufacturing and supply chain for obvious reasons. RFID tags on assets not only provide a unique ID to each asset but help businesses control their inventory, track items throughout the premises, ensure availability of critical assets, etc.
In healthcare, RFID technology has become increasingly vital for tracking equipment, patients, and inventory. While many hospitals use RFID-equipped wristbands to tag patients, they also use RFID smart cards for tracking the availability of doctors, nurses, and other staff at hospitals. RFID tags attached to medicines and medical instruments provide doctors and nurses with accurate descriptions of the medical tool and medicines, whether the medical instrument is safe to use, sanitized, and appropriate, and whether the medicine is right for the patient, not expired, and safe for the patients.
At EnCstore.com, we offer several types of RFID tags and labels that are procured by the healthcare industry for various purposes, from tagging vaccine vials, and blood test tubes to medicines and small and large medical instruments. We also offer a healthcare management system and necessary RFID readers antennas and cables for a successful implementation of RFID-based asset-tracking solution in a hospital.
Let’s take a look at the best 5 RFID tags suitable for asset-tracking applications in the healthcare sector.
As stated above, RFID technology is used in healthcare for various asset tracking, inventory management, and access control applications, simplifying how healthcare workers track and trace crucial medicines, medical instruments, patients, and bed occupancy. RFID smart cards, NFC cards, and UHF RFID cards are also used in healthcare for access control purposes.
RFID tags for healthcare contain a microchip and antenna where a unique ID is saved in the tag chip for each tagged asset. This data is retrieved when a user interrogates the tagged assets with an RFID Reader. It could be a handheld RFID reader like the Zebra RFD40 SLED or a fixed RFID reader, say Zebra FX9600.
RFID tagging in healthcare is crucial for it improves data capture and brings accuracy, eliminating manual data capture on paper or spread sheet. RFID removes human errors that are present in manual traditional methods.
5 RFID Tags for Asset Tracking Applications in Healthcare
Here are five notable RFID tags that are particularly effective for tracking purposes in healthcare settings:
The 5434 UHF RFID paper/polyester label is a suitable solution for tagging healthcare assets. This UHF RFID label comes in 54mm x 34mm size and works on UHF 865-867 MHz frequency. The label is designed to offer great read range with RFID handheld and fixed readers and can be easily attached to healthcare assets such as medicine packages, large medical devices and medical surgical tools.
The label follows the EPCglobal gen 2 v2 and ISO 18000-63 protocols for seamless RFID communication with all RFID readers. It is available in inlay, paper label, and polyester label for versatile use in the healthcare industry.
Applications of 5434- UHF RFID Label
1.RFID tagging of medical instruments
2. Medicine tracking
3. 7020-UHF RFID Laundry Tags for Linen Tracking
This is a type of RFID linen tag that is used for tagging and tracking uniforms and linen at hospital premises. Hospitals need to clean tons of linen to maintain the hygiene standards necessary for hospitals and maintain adequate linen stock. This RFID laundry label is easy to fix on uniforms for patients, doctors, and staff and necessary bedsheets, towels, and pillows.
The label comes in 70mm x 20mm size and it is designed to last long, easily handle high temperatures and strain during the laundry process. It supports up to 200 wash cycles. It enhances staff productivity by automating laundry tracking processes, which is crucial in busy healthcare environments.
Applications of 7020- UHF RFID Label for Linen
1.Tracking of bed sheets, pillows, etc.
2. Uniform tracking in healthcare settings
The UHF RFID on-metal tags are specially designed to be mounted on metal surfaces, making them suitable for tracking medical equipment in healthcare facilities. They help streamline inventory management and ensure that equipment is easily locatable.
The tags are designed with a thicker substrate backing than in normal RFID tags, which helps these tags overcome interference in metal settings. These tags are also known as RFID Anti-metal tags.
Various medical instruments are made of metals and these mount-on-metal tags are the perfect solution for tagging these assets. The cost of these RFID mount on-metal tags can vary, anywhere between INR30-INR40 per tag and you can procure these tags from encstore.com with great pricing on bulk purchase.
Applications of Mount on-metal RFID Tags in Healthcare
1.Identify and track metal medical devices
2. Manage inventory of medical devices
Used for patient identification and tracking, these RFID wristbands ensure accurate tracking of patients throughout their healthcare journey, including admissions, transfers, surgeries, and discharges.
These wristbands significantly enhance patient safety and operational efficiency.
UHF RFID Flag tags are designed to track a wide range of items in healthcare, including vaccine vials and blood and urine test samples. The flag design of the tag ensures that the RFID chip and antenna is away from the liquid in the container and the resulting interference from the liquid is minimized. This important applicability makes RFID flag tags a popular choice for comprehensive tracking solutions when it comes to tracking vaccines, blood test tubes, etc.
To summarize, these RFID tags not only improve operational efficiency but also enhance patient care and safety in healthcare settings. RFID technology is quite prevalent in healthcare sector and after retail, healthcare is the largest market for RFID tag consumption. As surgical operations and chronic diseases see an uptrend, the need for robust healthcare operations becomes necessary. Blood bags and blood test tubes can also be tagged using RFID flag tags and accurately tracked throughout the blood bank and blood testing labs and accurate results can be offered to patients.
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