No room for error: RFID-enabled smart point-of-care medication process in hospital wards

Abstract

This paper proposes a framework and prototype for RFID-enabled mobile smart point-of-care medication process to prevent potential errors in hospital wards. RFID tags are attached to resources in healthcare environment such as human (caregiver and inpatient) and materials (drug, drug drawer, and medication chest). These resources can therefore be detected automatically without human intervention, greatly eliminating the possibility of error. Beyond that, point-of-care medication processes can be supervised at multi-level by adopting services provided by this prototype, just in case of mistakes. Any discrepancy will be alarmed by sound and arresting messages. The point-of-care medication process can't be executed until the discrepancy is annihilated or eradicated. Consequently, the inpatient safety can be guaranteed. It is the vital value in healthcare. © 2011 IEEE.