BUILDING SMART SAUDI HOSPITALS USING RFID

TECHNOLOGIES

Deena M Barakah and Ali Al Kinani

Department of Health Information, School of Public Health & Health Informatics,

King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences

Keywords: RFID Hospital Applications e-Health , Smart Hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

Abstract: With the more advancement in impeded computing, RFID technology are gradually begun to be a necessity

for improvement of medical service quality and patient safety. Nowadays, RFID helps optimizing business

processes in healthcare, improve the patients’ care, reduce operating costs, helps avoiding severe clinical

errors and reduce costly thefts or loss of facility equipments. For this , healthcare is predicted to be one the

major growth areas for RFID. However, a real challenge still exits. That is, how to incorporate RFID

successfully into medical practice, especially when relevant experience is limited. To investigate this issue,

this paper surveys how RFID emerging technology is currently used to build smart Saudi hospitals. It

describes in detail some of its interesting applications and its promising perspectives in several leading

Saudi health care facilities. The study is expected to have several important implications for developing

RFID applications in Saudi healthcare organizations.

1 INTRODUCTION

RFID is Short for radio frequency identification

device, and is used to describe various technologies

that use radio waves to automatically identify people

or objects. (Wang et al., 2006) (Juels, 2006). An

RFID system consists of an antenna and a

transceiver or RF tag which contains the RF

circuitry and information to be transmitted. The

radio waves reflected back from the RFID tag are

converted into digital information that can then be

passed on to computers that can analyze the data.

RFID tags can be passive tags with their data

permanently burned into the tag, or can be active

tags which are much more sophisticated and have

on-board battery for power to transmit their data

signal over a greater distance.

As RFID systems can be used just about

anywhere, and because RFID are constructed from

simple components, RFID is an ideal choice for

hospital healthcare system. Nowadays, it is widely

used in hospitals to provide real-time tracking of the

location of patients, doctors and nurses in the

hospital (Glover et al., 2006). In addition, the system

can be used to track the whereabouts of expensive

and critical equipment, and even to control access to

drugs, pediatrics, and other areas of the hospital that

are considered "restricted access" areas. RFID may

also be used in hospital stores to offer real-time

inventory tracking that allows hospital management

to monitor and control inventory supply at all times.

Particularly important will be item level tagging of

drugs and to reduce incidents such as surgical

sponges being “forgotten” inside the patient, or to

protect babies from kidnapping.

Due to its several advantages , many healthcare

organizations have deployed various RFID solutions

to enhance patient safety, increase operational

efficiency and optimize business workflow

processes.(Garfinkel and Rosenberg, 2006) (Hersh,

2004). At the same time the market for RFID tags

and systems in healthcare is predicted to skyrocket

from a hundred and twenty million in 2008 to about

two billion in 2018, according to IDTechEXa market

research firm focusing on RFID technology.

(marketresearch.com/) RFID is said by many in the

health industry to be the frontrunner technology for

automatic identification and data collection.

Considered optimal transportation and identification

tools, they have become a symbol for modern

hospitals. However, until there are more proven

examples of its applications within the health

industry and only after the benefits of RFID pay for

Al Kinani A. and Barakah D.

BUILDING SMART SAUDI HOSPITALS USING RFID TECHNOLOGIES.

DOI: 10.5220/0003267100320036

In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Informatics and Semiotics in Organisations (ICISO 2010), page

ISBN: 978-989-8425-26-3

its relatively high implementation cost, RFID

systems may not reach their full potential. To

explore this issue, a project study is currently

conducted to investigate the integration of RFID into

the medical and health facilities at Saudi hospitals.

Our project aims toward investigating how RFID

can be deployed to meet the needs and practice of

medical services in Saudi hospitals. It also aims

toward investigation of some open problems to be

solved, and the barriers it has to overcome to be

fully integrated in eHealth applications in the Saudi

healthcare community.

For our case study, the following methodologies

are used:

• Data collection from various sources such as

official records, Saudi health organization

proposals and other relevant materials

• Interviews with major related participants,

including top managers of the hospitals, and

senior management information systems (MIS)

staff

• Reviewing recent publications and brochures of

firms that manufacture or implement RFID

devices.

• Visits to the sites where RFID devices were

installed

• Establishing a case study references and reports

database

Throughout this research project, Several RFID

applications in Saudi hospitals were addressed.

These include:

- Tagging of new born children in hospital

- Assets tracking to help locate and manage

portable machines and other equipments.

- Reducing medical errors and enhancing

patient safety in clinical process such as

blood transfusion, etc

- Patients monitoring : to track patients

throughout the hospital facility

- To collect health-related data in daily

environments such as drug pedigree, to

overcome the problem of counterfeiting

Details of some these applications are discussed in

what follows.

2 RFID INFANT TRACKING AT

RIYADH ARMED FORCE

HOSPITAL

The Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital (RAFH) is a 770

bed hospital and located in Riyadh City, The capital

of Saudi Arabia. It’s the flagship of the Medical

Services Department of the Ministry of Defense and

Aviation (MODA). RAFH was officially opened

December 1978. RAFH provides a major portion of

the medical services for the military personnel and

their dependents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

through a full range of diagnostic and management

facilities for patients ranging in age from the neonate

to the elderly. (rkh.med.sa/RMH.Website/English/).

The institution has a reputation, both in the

Middle East and in the West for the quality of

patient care provided, annual symposiums and for

the research papers published in most reputable

journals. RAFH administration requires that the

quality of services rendered and the general

operating standards of the center to meet the United

States Joint Commission on the Accreditation of

Health Care Organizations (JCAHO ) standards. In

addition to providing excellent care for patients, the

RAFH trains appropriately educated Saudi nationals

for administrative, professional and technical

positions through continuing education programs

and specific training program for Saudi Nationals.

A full range of clinical services are provided by

RAFH, including General Medicine, dermatology,

Hematology, Neurology, General Surgery,

Pediatrics, Orthopedics, Neurosurgery,

Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Oncology, Nephrology,

Plastic Surgery, ENT, Urology and Oral Surgery.

The hospital also houses a large laboratory service

and Nuclear Medicine Department.

Since 1981, other services are provided by

RAFH, including Obstetrics, Psychiatry,

Rehabilitation, Renal Dialysis and Extended Care.

To further advance the health care services provided

by the program, additional services are now fully

operational such as Bone Marrow Transplant Unit,

Artificial Heart Transplant Project, Magnetic

Resonance Imaging (MRI), In vitro Fertilization

Project and Linear Accelerator Project.

RAFH was among the early organization in the

kingdom to introduce radio frequency identification

technology in its health service. RAFH implanted

RFID solutions for tagging of new born children in

the hospital. Infant tracking is fatal to monitor newly

born babies' movements and match them with their

mothers. RAFH Riyadh Hospital has applied an

infant and pediatric RFID security system that alerts

staff members if a patient's ID tag is tampered with,

or if that tag approaches an exit. The system enables

employees to determine which patient triggered an

alarm. In order to select the best system, various

systems offered by different vendors, were

BUILDING SMART SAUDI HOSPITALS USING RFID TECHNOLOGIES

evaluated. The chosen system was superior in its

band-cutting technology—which transmits an alert if

a band is tampered with—and because RF

technologies offered includes training and follow-up

customer service.

The system consists of RF Technologies with

RFID interrogators deployed throughout the

women's and children's wing of the hospital, located

on the main hospital building. RFID tags are

deployed throughout the paediatric, obstetrics and

infant intensive-care units, as well as to sound alerts

if the tags approach an exit. The tag or bracelet is

attached shut on a patient in order to operate. If a

person attempts to remove the bracelet, thereby

breaking the connection, the tag immediately sends

an alert to area interrogators that transmit data to the

server. RFID Technologies software interprets that

information, enabling the system to sound an audible

alarm at nurses' stations. In future improvement of

the system, staff members throughout the wing can

view computer screens to see which zone the patient

is in, as well as that patient's identity.

Upon its application, the RFID system however,

had several false alarms caused by human error. For

instance, a patient may attempt to remove an infant's

tag to readjust the fitting, thereby setting off an

alarm. Such false alarms are treated by providing

more education by the staff to patients regarding

how to adjust the RFID fitting.

3 RFID APPLICATIONS AT

NATIONAL GUARD KING

ABDUL-AZIZ MEDICAL CITY

The Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) Health

Affairs supervises and administrates King Abdul-

Aziz Medical City, a 1025-bed hospital based in

Riyadh the capital and the Central Region of Saudi

Arabia. (hospitalsoup.com/listing/48187-national-

guard-king-abdulaziz-medical-city). This hospital

provides healthcare to SANG personnel, their

dependants and other eligible patients and also

provides academic opportunities, conducts research

and participates in industry and community service

programs in the health field.

SANG medical city hospital provide mainly

primary care, but offer tertiary care services as well,

and are fully equipped with highly sophisticated

technology.(hospitalsoup.com/listing/

48187-national-guard-king-abdulaziz-medical-city)

It includes new state-of-the art developments

such as cardiac and liver center; 21 bed Intensive

Care Unit (ICU), long term care/ rehabilitation,

outpatient dental service , emergency care, surgical

and medical wards, and trauma centers. Other

adult and pediatric services provided include:

Obstetrics and Gynecology (Labor and Delivery,

Oncology, Antenatal and Post Partum wards);

Pediatric Oncology and Pediatric ICU, Neonatal

ICU, Operating Rooms, and Ambulatory Care

Center. RAFH was the first organization in the

kingdom to introduce radio frequency identification

technology in its health service. RAFH implanted

RFID solutions for tagging of new born children in

the hospital. The system implementation is similar to

the one previously described at RAFH. Besides,

SANG has adapted active RFID to help locate and

manage portable devices and other equipments at

King Abdul-Aziz Medical City Cardiac Center.

Details of this follows.

3.1 Assets tracking at National Guard

King Abdul-aziz Medical City

It is very common for medical instrument to

disappear in hospitals. RFID solution is

implemented to identify various small expensive

devices at SANG center. The RFID vendor and

solutions provider, worked with the SANG hospital

to set up an RFID portal in its hallway, through

which all devices leave Cardiac Center are moved,

to other hospital sections. Now, if a tagged device is

pushed through the portal, it detects the tag and

sounds an alarm. At the same time, the portal

captures the tag reads and communicates that

information, to the Healthcare server application,

which automatically alerts the appropriate personnel.

It is planned that RFID will also be used in future

to keep tags on approximately hundreds of SANG

hospitals expensive medical devices, such as

infusion pumps, and expensive surgical probes that

worth thousands of Saudi Riyals and can by mistake

end up in the trash.

According to a SANG Health Affairs key

official, SANG also plans to expand its use of RFID.

The plan is to enhance RFID solutions further in

Riyadh hospital, to upgrade IT infrastructure in all

of SANG hospitals, and then moves RFID

implementations to other SANG hospitals

throughout the Saudi Kingdom.

ICISO 2010 - International Conference on Informatics and Semiotics in Organisations

4 PATIENTS MONITORING AT

KING FAISAL SPECIALIZED

HOSPITAL

(BPORTAL.KFSHRC.EDU.SA)

King Faisal specialized Hospital and research center

(KFSH&RC) which is multi-entity tertiary care

hospital and one of the leading highly specialized

healthcare institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia, has rolled out radio frequency identification

technology to track hundreds patients files

throughout its facility. The hospital is also planning

to expand the system to include active RFID tag for

real-time patient tracking, in order to remove

inefficiency associated with bed allocation and inter-

departmental communication, and improve patients'

access for admission. Tens of smart node RFID

interrogators will be deployed throughout the

hospital, and Smart Tags will be added to patients'

identification bracelets in order to track those

individuals as they moved around the hospital

facility. By knowing the real-time location of a

patient, KFSH hospitals will be able to embrace

other features and make more productive use of

radio frequency identification, such as improvement

of patient blood-handling process, monitoring

patients' body temperatures, and for real time

tracking and recording a patient's vital signs.

Blood transfusion errors have long been a source

of concern for KFSHRC hospital staff as the blood-

handling process contains a number of manual steps,

which can introduce human error.

To reduce blood-handling errors at King Faisal

Specialized Hospital, the hospital is planning to

introduce a program to use (RFID) technologies

verification to address the sources of human and

systems error in the blood transfusion process.

Working with their technology partners, the program

will be implemented at the 894-bed multi-facility

Riyadh Hospital, where each year hundreds of blood

transfusions are delivered.

According to a KFSH head of IT department, the

RFID system, after being fully implemented, is

expected to provide a number of benefits, from

increased staff efficiency to improved

communication, faster bed turnover and reduced

patient waiting times.

5 PROJECT INITIAL FINDINGS

The early findings of this research showed that

Infant tracking at RAFH Riyadh hospital was very

effective in monitoring newly born babies'

movements and match them with their mothers.

Ongoing monitoring will be carried out to assess

data for this important RFID application over a

longer time period.

The Assets tracking at National Guard King

Abdul-Aziz medical City has already earned its

keep. The RFID server successfully tracked a variety

of expensive medical devices that got moved around

or misplaced.

The patient files track throughout KFSH&RC

facility, was also very successful and was able to

effectively locate them immediately when required.

Since its application, very few files were missed.

Upon completion, this research project is

expected to have several important findings for

implementation RFID applications in Saudi

healthcare organizations. It will help to in finding

answers to important issues arising from this

implementation, including:

1. Penetration rate of RFID in Saudi hospitals

2. Evaluation of acceptance and resistance level of

RFID from medical staff and health managers

3. Analysis of Patients users perceptions and

behavior towards RFID

4. The influential factors in the decision-making of

RFID adoption for Saudi healthcare

organizations.

5. Security applications related to information

stored in the RFID smart cards. (Juels, 2006).

6. Level of automation of Saudi hospitals clinical

analysis laboratories using RFID (Florentino et

al., 2008).

6 CONCLUSIONS

RFID experience a fast development and

implementation and Saudi healthcare is predicted to

be one of its major growth areas. In this paper, we

surveyed several applications of RFID in Saudi

health care facilities that helped in saving costs and

resulted improvement of these hospitals patients

safety and privacy.

The paper describes how this emerging

technology are used in leading Saudi hospitals to

build a smart infant tracking, for assets tracking

application and the plan to implement RFID for

real-time patient tracking and reduction of clinical

errors.

Based on our findings, it can be easily

concluded that RFID helps optimizing business

processes in Saudi healthcare and improved its

patient safety.

BUILDING SMART SAUDI HOSPITALS USING RFID TECHNOLOGIES

REFERENCES

Shang-Wei Wang; Wun-Hwa Chen; Chorng-Shyong Ong;

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Annual Hawaii International Conference on System

Sciences, 2006. Volume 8, Issue, 04-07 Jan. 2006.

Juels, A., RFID security and privacy: a research survey .

IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications,

Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Feb. 2006 , page(s): 381 - 394

Glover, Bill; Bhatt, Himanshu, RFID Essentials, O'reilly

& Associates, February 2006.

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(July 16, 2005).

Hersh, W., "Editorials: Health care information

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American Medical Association (JAMA), vol. 292, no.

18, 2004.

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ICISO 2010 - International Conference on Informatics and Semiotics in Organisations