Assessing the use of Radio Frequency Identification technologies as an alternative for insurance costs in hospitals

OBJECTIVES: This research assesses the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies as an alternative for insurance costs in hospitals. METHODS: Despite the advantages of RFID, this technology has not been applied in most hospitals due to implementation costs and amortization of RFID. In this paper, we intend to model the total profit of hospitals in three scenarios namely, application of RFID technology in the hospital, without applying RFID technology in the hospital and insuring patients and equipment in the hospital. RESULTS: We analyzed the aforementioned situations over a period of time to find out how they affect the profit of the hospital. Based on this analysis we concluded that if applying RFID technology is costly, it will be feasible for advanced hospitals with more beds. In the scenario of insuring patients and equipment, if insurance organization takes over a small portion of the cost of the mistakes and oversights, insuring patients and equipment will not be feasible for the hospital, and it is better to apply RFID technology Instead. CONCLUSIONS: RFID is among the technologies applied to reduce mistakes of the personnel in hospitals. Moreover, applying this technology has led to a decrease in the number of personnel required in hospitals. This study models total profit of hospitals in three aforementioned scenarios. Based on analyzing these models we conclude that if applying RFID technology is costly, it will be feasible for advanced hospitals with more beds.