Key drivers for the continued use of RFID technology in the emergency room

Abstract

Purpose -More hospitals and caregivers are realizing the importance of radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology in the face of increased healthcare costs, medical errors, and pressure of governmental mandates. The necessity for and awareness of RFID has yet to drive its widespread adoption in the healthcare industry. As such, this study aims to examine key factors that contribute to the intention to continue using RFID. Design/methodology/approach -The paper adopts the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) to study the intention of caregivers to continue using RFID as a vehicle to deliver emergency medical services. It is theorized that perceived usefulness of front-end interoperability and backend interoperability along with performance expectancy contribute to confirmation experience, which in turn leads to satisfaction and ultimately to intention to continue to use RFID. The study surveys caregivers and staffs in the emergency room department of five hospitals in Taiwan. Findings -Perceived usefulness of front-end interoperability and performance expectancy both have significant relationships with confirmation experience; confirmation experience has a significant relationship with satisfaction, which in turn relates to intention to continue using RFID. The relationship between perceived usefulness of back-end interoperability and confirmation experience is not significant. Research limitations/implications -This study explains RFID adoption behavior using the ECM. Limitations of the study and possible future research direction are discussed. Practical implications -The results of this study should help hospital management to build commitment to the RFID system and help equipment vendors to build loyalty to the technology. Originality/value -This study represents a novel attempt to explain RFID adoption behavior using the ECM. It is expected that the proposed framework and empirical findings can contribute to further understanding of how RFID is adopted and used in a hospital environment.

An exploratory analysis of hospital perspectives on real time information requirements and perceived benefits of RFID technology for future adoption

“…Patient identification and monitoring during treatment were found to be the most agreed upon real time information requirements, followed by staff workflow requirements. This corroborates with several studies describing RFID applications at the bed side, emergency room patient care, tracking surgical patients, monitoring of high risk patients and communication of medical personnel (Bacheldor, 2007a(Bacheldor, , 2007b(Bacheldor, , 2007cChen, Wu, Su, & Yang, 2008;Fosso Wamba et al, 2013;Huang et al, 2008;Murphy & Kay, 2004;Mehrjerdi, 2011;Mogre et al, 2009;Ohashi et al, 2010;Steele et al, 2009;Viswanath et al, 2010;Yao et al, 2012). With respect to asset related requirements, the need for tracking materials such as IV pumps, implants and biologicals that come in contact with patients is followed by archiving and retrieving patient charts.…”

Using Survey Data to Design a RFID Centric Service System for Hospitals

“…Recent academic literature is also exploring the process of adoption of such technology. Chen et al (2008), via interviews of doctors and caregivers, identify good interoperability between tags and readers, advantages of the technology over the bar-code and good prior experiences with the technology as key drivers for the continued use of RFID technology in the emergency room. Fisher and Mohan (2008), via interviews with technical hospital staff members, physicians and nursing, highlight that RFID projects implies a Business Process Reengineering activity that needs to rethink the organization of the personnel, and how its work is managed and evaluated.…”

Understanding the Determinants of Adoption and Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Emergency Management: Proposing a Research Agenda based on Existing Academic Literature

“…Ahmed and Sugianto [3] show how RFID fits four task characteristics of emergency management (authentication, automation, tagging or tracking, and information management) results in higher compatibility and lower cost to adopt and use RFID in the whole life cycle. Such new mobile technologies are perceived by staff in emergency room to have compatible data formats or interfaces with existing operation systems so that staff can easily transmit information within organizations for effective emergency response [3,15]. Contrarily, due to the lack of compatibility with their preferences and experience, firefighters may find it challenging to effectively utilize novel firefighter information systems [60].…”