RFID Application in Hospitals: A Case Study on a Demonstration RFID Project in a Taiwan Hospital

After manufacturing and retail marketing, healthcare is considered the next home for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Although in its infancy, RFID technology has great potential in healthcare to significantly reduce cost, and improve patient safety and medical services. However, the challenge will be to incorporate RFID into medical practice, especially when relevant experience is limited. To explore this issue, we conducted a case study that demonstrated RFID integration into the medical world at one Taiwan hospital. The project that was studied, the Location-based Medicare Service project, was partially subsidized by the Taiwan government and was aimed at containing SARS, a dangerous disease that struck Taiwan in 2003. Innovative and productive of several significant results, the project established an infrastructure and platform allowing for other applications. In this paper we describe the development strategy, design, and implementation of the project. We discuss our findings pertaining to the collaborative development strategy, device management, data management, and value generation. These findings have important implications for developing RFID applications in healthcare organizations.