The Benefits of RFID in Healthcare with Debbie Greenway

On the latest episode of The Identify Podcast, Debbie Greenway, Executive Vice President of Feig Electronics joins host Justin Starbird to talk about an exciting topic for her. RFID in the healthcare industry.

She states, “RFID, in general, just eliminates the need for all the highly skilled, highly trained professionals in the medical field to spend their time double-checking things, calibrating machines, and looking for things.”

Debbie takes a deep dive into all the ways RFID is being used in the healthcare industry.

Safety is an important topic. Patient identification ensures safety for all. You will always know you have the correct patient. Also, tying into safety is something they refer to as “nothing left behind.” RFID can track sponges and materials during surgery. This can ensure that sponges or other materials are not left behind in the human body before it is closed up. This is inventory and supply chain management which can also be used in other ways as well and save time and money.

Saving time for healthcare workers is important as well. RFID allows for tracking if items have been sterilized or not. It also allows for medical device calibration. Instead of doctors having to program a machine, RFID can do that for them. Often a device can only be used so many times or for so long. This all needs to be accounted for by someone. RFID can track that for healthcare workers. The same goes for blood sample tracking.

Simply tracking who has which scrubs and when they are returned or not returned would save healthcare workers time and money. These are all things that RFID can do to help lessen the burden on the healthcare industry.

Debbie also shares her excitement for the future of RFID in healthcare and what could be coming next. Listen to The Identify Podcast for more.