RFID Monitoring and Traceability of Hospital Equipment: Methodology Proposal for the Implementation of RFID-Chip Technology in the Control of Hospital Equipment Evasion

The rising costs of providing healthcare services mean that hospital managers have to look for better practices in the administration and management of hospital supplies and technologies. One case in point where significant reductions in operating costs can be achieved is the proper management of hospital linen. In Brazil, the most widely used techniques for monitoring hospital linen are the use of barcodes and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). Barcode is considered to be the cheapest per unit, but has the restriction of handling dirty items. The use of RFID allows for good monitoring of hospital linen, as it introduces mechanisms that allow proper monitoring and control of items with reliability and speed in data collection. The RFID system is proving to be a more suitable resource than the Barcode technique, but it is still considered ‘high cost’. And this cost is not yet well determined because its evaluation depends on the focus and scope of hospital wardrobe management. The main objective of this study is to develop a methodology for implementing RFID technology.