THE VALUE OF RFID TRACKING SYSTEMS FOR INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE

摘要

Previous studies have shown that RFID, when used for hospital services like patient tracking andinventory management, has the potential to improve the quality of healthcare. In this study, weevaluate the economic benefits of RFID tracking systems for inventory management (IM)purposes in healthcare through a study at a Midwestern hospital in the USA. Using value streamanalysis, we consider the hospital's IM needs and perform an economic analysis of an RFIDbasedsystem for managing biomedical equipment. The results show that when compared to abarcode system, the net present value of an RFID system is 42% more than a barcode systemover a 15-year period.