Potential Challenges of RFID Implementation: A Survey in Teaching Hospitals

Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) can increase the quality of healthcareand improve patient safety by collecting information, automatically identifying patients,tracking patient movements and hospital equipment. However, successful implementationand adoption of this technology face several barriers. The objective of this study was toidentify and prioritize the potential challenges of implementing RFID in hospitals. This study was conducted on all information technology administrators andmanagers of educational hospitals in Kerman (n=43). Data were collected through a validand reliable (α=0.94) questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two sections with 33questions (4 questions for demographic information and 29 questions for implementationbarriers). T-test and one-way ANOVA were used to examine the relationship between thebarriers and demographic information. Financial (3.67), managerial-specialized (3.40) and attitudinal-behavioral (3.36)barriers had the highest means among the RFID implementation barriers, respectively. Age,gender, work experience, and organizational position had no effect on the prioritization ofbarriers (P<0.05). Failure to finance RFID implementation project, spending a lot of time andmoney to train RFID users, and unfamiliarity of users with RFID created the most problemsin implementing this technology, respectively. Therefore, making short and long-termpolicies to address these barriers are recommended. Hospital managers can overcomeimplementation barriers by making decisions based on a detailed and transparent analysis ofreturn on investment, allocating funds to implementation projects, and careful planning foruser training to improve their awareness and technical knowledge.