Radio-frequency identification (RFID) has been used in many industries to track materials and supplies from production to distribution, but until now there had been little evidence to support its use in the healthcare industry. IBM, in partnership with the Mount Sinai Medical Center, conducted a study to measure the effectiveness of using RFID as a bed trigger to accelerate identification of empty beds. With minimal investment, our small-scale study proved to be a significant improvement in empty bed identification over the preexisting process and caused hospital leaders to begin planning a RFID deployment.
