Proof of concept : an RFID patient tracking architecture at Mater Dei hospital, Malta

Abstract

This research work revolves around the study, application and subsequent implementation of an RFID Architecture at Mater Dei Hospital, Malta. A key objective is to establish whether such an approach would be viable, also by evaluating the prototype architecture designed herewith. The benefits of the proposed approach include the ensuring of patients’ security and safety, maintaining an audit trail in the case of epidemics, as well as being crucial in emergency situations such as evacuations. Through conducting interviews with key individuals with a management role within the hospital, key aspects of the hospital operations were studied and reflected in the design of the proposed architecture. The architecture is based on the premise of RFID tags associated with patients as they are admitted. RFID readers placed in strategic areas throughout hospital read the RFID tags and store tag details in a database application where they are later queried from. To further evaluate the value proposition of this research, a number of web services were created to simulate a real environment where users would want to request patients’ location. One web service for example focuses on querying through the hospital’s IT systems via an API whilst another focuses on direct staff interaction with a GUI interface via a web-browser. Potential users of this implementation include nurses and other ward staff and the Bed Management unit. Tests conducted corroborated the validity of the system created in relation to both RFID hardware and the hospital environment and identified its benefits and limitations.