RFID analytics for hospital ward management

Abstract

In this paper, we present an RFID-enabled platform for hospital ward management. Active RFID tags are attached to individuals and assets in the wards. Active RFID readers communicate with the tags continuously and automatically to keep track of the real-time information about the locations of the tagged objects. The data regarding the locations and other transmitted information are stored in the ward management system. This platform enables capabilities of real-time monitoring and tracking of individuals and assets, reporting of ward statistics, and providing intelligence and analytics for hospital ward management. All of these capabilities benefit hospital ward management by enhanced patient safety, increased operational efficiency and throughput, and mitigation of risk of infectious disease widespread. A prototype developed based on our proposed architecture of the platform was tested in a pilot study, which was conducted in two medical wards of the intensive care unit of one of the largest public general hospitals in Hong Kong. This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of the implementation of this RFID-enabled platform for practical use in hospital wards. Furthermore, the data collected from the pilot study are used to provide data analytics for hospital ward management.

Keywords: Big data analytics; Healthcare management; Hospital ward management; Infectious disease risk mitigation; Real-time tracking and monitoring; Traceability.

Fig. 1

The major components of the RFID-enabled platform and its flow

Fig. 2

An RFID reader that was installed in a ward of our study

Fig. 3

The front and back of an active RFID tag that was used in the implementation

Fig. 4

The active RFID tags that were embedded in a plastic plate and the plates were placed on the medical equipment

Fig. 5

A patients was wearing a wristband which has an active RFID tag embedded

Fig. 6

a A graphical illustration of the person-to-person contacts. Blue nodes and yellow nodes represent respectively the caregivers and patients. The node size is proportional to the total number of individuals that the represented person contacted. An edge represents a person-to-person physical contact where the edge size is proportional to total the contact time. b An example to show the individuals that contacted Patient1 (Color figure online)

Fig. 7

Real-time visualization of equipment locations. The different colors represent different objects (Color figure online)

Fig. 8

Locations of the equipment for a selected day (at the top) and for a selected hour (at the bottom). The different colors represent different objects. The size of a circle is directly proportional to the total time that an equipment spent in the location (Color figure online)

Fig. 9

Paths that the equipment moved for a selected day (at the top) and for a selected hour (at the bottom). The different colors represent different objects (Color figure online)

Fig. 10

Usage time (in seconds) of equipment in a selected day

Fig. 11

Usage time (in seconds) of equipment for a selected day