By Gina Shaw
The last time a major survey of health systems measured the pace of radiofrequency identification (RFID) adoption, it found that about 40% of respondents had implemented some form of the scanning and tagging technology at their institutions.

The survey, conducted by the ASHP Foundation, found that most of the remaining respondents were interested in the technology but had not yet committed or made a vendor selection. If you work at one of those health systems that is still on the RFID fence, here are some key factors to keep in mind when discussing RFID with your technology team, according to David Aguero, PharmD, the director of medication systems and informatics at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tenn., and a member of the report’s advisory committee.

1. Consider where to start. Code trays and boxes are the most common area where RFID technology is being used, with 84% of current users reporting such use. “However, use in kits [65%] and anesthesia trays [57%] continues to grow,” Dr. Aguero said. But other areas, including temperature-sensitive medications, hazardous drugs, patient-specific medications and ambulatory medication adherence, represent “novel uses to get important information for patient care.”

2. Keep staffing and training needs in mind. “RFID is not going to completely displace the staff that are supporting this part of medication use, but it is going to change when you need to staff different components of the process,” Dr. Aguero said. As for training, this is an important consideration inside the pharmacy and among end users. “They need to know how their workflows will change, and how they need to consume and return medications."

3. Assess vendor support. This is critical during implementation and long-term use. “It may be that you don’t have the project support in-house to get this technology implemented, and the vendor can support you there,” he said. “When it comes to repackaging and tagging individual medication units of use, rely on the vendor where you can.” 

4. Analytics capabilities. This is another key vendor/product feature to look for when evaluating an RFID package, Dr. Aguero noted. “These are extremely important in terms of optimizing the system after deployment."

5. Check on tagging capabilities. “The adhesive quality, the cost structure and active versus passive tags—these factors can have huge implications for implementation,” Dr. Aguero said. “If you’re implementing active tags for a real-time location strategy, then you’re going to need an adhesive that will stay on a pneumatic tube or infusion pump for years at a time. In passive RFID in medication repackaging, you still cannot have the tag come away from the medication, but you do not expect it to stay on for years at a time.” Ensuring that tags stay where they are placed “is especially true with products that require specific temperature-sensitive storage like refrigeration or freezers.”

6. Pretagged 503B medications. “This is a game changer for pharmacy,” he said. “The ability to get specific medications repackaged [from manufacturers and/or distributors] has safety and efficiency implications. The cost of performing this activity has been prohibitive but is quickly coming down, and manufacturers are starting to provide some of these medications pretagged.

7. Set firm goals. The goals of your RFID project will determine its scope and drive decisions. Inventory management, for example, was cited by the majority (73%) of respondents to the ASHP survey as one of their top two reasons for considering RFID, with reinforced safety, process standardization and recall management also being important factors.

Dr. Aguero reported no relevant financial disclosures.