RFID Technology in Healthcare Industry: Its Challenges and Requirements

Nowadays, the health care providers are faced with limited resources and rising costs. Information technology (IT) provides tools and processes required for measurement and control of the process and ultimately improves patient care in the centers of healthcare provider. In this regard, RFID is one of the new technologies and applications that benefits the healthcare industry. But its application in healthcare industry is faced with a lot of challenges and requirements that are discussed in this study.
This compressive review aimed to determine the challenges and requirements for applying radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the hospital system. For this purpose, search engines and databases e.g., Scholar Google, Emerald, Science Direct, IranMedex, SID, Magiran, Pubmed using MESH terms and keywords related to RFID technology in the healthcare industry were used.
Despite the critical applications of RFID technology in the hospital system, such as tracking patients, equipment, medications, identification and authentication, recognition and enhancing quality, and patient safety, in order to enhance quality and patient safety, this technology is faced with challenges such as technological, economic, institutional, cultural, administrative, social and human problems.
The results show that the main challenges for applying RFID technology include project financing, technical limitations, concerns about privacy, lack of senior managers and decision makers’ supports.