SATO CL408E User Guide

Page of 51
 
Version 0.8 
 
 
 
21/10/2004 
 
 
    Page 22 of 44 
 
 
 
 
In the past 10 years, erroneous patient data has become a major factor leading to serious 
medical mishaps. Research demonstrates that around 25 percent of patient deaths are 
caused by the errors in patient-data processing.  
Thus, the demand for fail-safe accuracy in managing patient data has become the driving 
force for RFID systems in the healthcare industries in the past few years.  
 
Q: How can RFID help to reduce human error in hospitals? 
Some of the key policies are to eliminate errors and infections caused 
by wrongly administered blood transfusions. Storing and handling 
blood and blood products expeditiously, like plasma, is critical. In 
RFID-equipped hospitals, patient wear wristbands with RFID tags 
containing encoded medical information. This secure patient-data 
system greatly reduces the possibility of human error and can prevent 
a majority of unnecessary medical mishaps as all prescription bags 
would also contain an embedded RFID tag containing details of the 
medication. Before any patient is given medication, an RFID reader 
tallies the information between the tags in the patient and the 
prescription bag. Information about the patient’s medical allergies, or 
other relevant patient care criteria, is also highlighted on the RFID 
host compute. By double-checking information between the tag on the 
patient and the medication, medical mishaps can be greatly reduced 
and even avoided. 
 
Q: How else can RFID help to prevent counterfeit drugs from entering the market? 
RFID could be used to create a “pedigree”, or a secure record documenting where the 
drug was manufactured and that it was distributed under safe and secure conditions. 
Reliable RFID technology would make counterfeit duplication of medications either 
extremely difficult or unprofitable. It can also protect consumers from acquiring access to 
dangerous counterfeit drugs and eliminate these counterfeits from the market altogether 
with an RFID solution. Improving the standards in the healthcare industry is a growing 
concern.  
 
In this application, the patient’s name and details, such as 
blood 
type, are stored in a database.  
 
A RFID tag number is created to correspond to that database. 
The 
13.56 MHz tag technology is selected because this frequency 
performs better near fluids than UHF. Each 13.56 MHz RFID 
tag 
contains information about the bag and its content. A hand-held 
RFID 
portable reader terminal simply reads each bag and 
immediately displays its details, avoiding mix-up.