Wireless Tagging in Hospitals is 'Inevitable'

[OhioChick]

Businesses peddling wireless tagging technologies - such as RFID chips - to the NHS and other healthcare providers will come up against plenty of resistance, but should not give up, according to a recent report.

There are ways to overcome the public's fears, according to a forthcoming report from UK consultancy Wireless Healthcare.

One is to point out the technology's benefits - which include providing safer, more efficient care to patients, saving money and giving patients more detailed information about their treatment, the report says.

Healthcare providers such as the NHS tend to resist technology such as wireless tagging because they believe healthcare cannot be automated and fear job losses.


Prepare to be "chipped"

http://hardware.silicon.com/storage/0,39024649,39126387,00.htm

[Trillo]

1. Hospitals are already like jails. Why make it moreso?

Just say no to RFID of people, ESPECIALLY in hospitals.

[NYC Liberal]

2. Maybe...just maybe...there's a reason there's a lot of resistance?

[54anickel]

3. GACK! The Mark, the Mark of the Bushco!!!...n/t

[TahitiNut]

10. Yup. RFID#=666

:scared:

[Old and In the Way]

4. Hospitals are embedding their equipment with RFIDs.

When equipment is needed in a hurry, assets can be tracked down by checking the location on the computer. I think that's an excellent application for tracking equipment....when seconds count.

[VegasWolf]

5. We are all looking at this backwards, just put a chip in every baby

born and be done with it.

</freeper knuckle dragging mode>

[rooboy]

6. They should just "RFID chip" the doctors' wristwatches...

so at least they can find out which patients they left them in. That might bring insurance premiums down a little bit... :)

[phaseolus]

7. Automobile Tires are RFID tagged

...or, at least, were about 5 years ago. Not sure if they currently are.

I was working on a project back then & the only tags that we found that could stand up to the environment we were working in (270°F, 30 psi) were some tags that were developed to be molded into tires.

Now, if you really wanna go off into tinfoil hat psychosis, consider that 1.) each tire has a unique serial number, 2.) records are kept of who purchases each tire, so they can tell you about recalls & maybe so they can come after you if you dispose of them improperly, and 3.) you can notice little rectangles in our roadways in big cities where they've embedded sensors and stuff to keep track of traffic. Put it all together, replace some of the sensors with RFID antennas, add some computing hardware & software, and it should be possible to track the movements of practically anyone who drives a car...

Kinda doubt it's being used for this -- you'd have to make sure every tire mfg embeds these tags, and distributing antennas everywhere & setting up the database & communications networks would be pretty expensive. There are almost certainly better, cheaper ways to track people.

Food for thought, though.

[arwalden]

8. RFID Tags On Surgical Instruments And Sponges Is A Good Idea

... before they zip you up, they can check to see if anything extra was left inside.

[TahitiNut]

9. Heaven forbid actual human beings care for those icky patients.

That's no way to empty their wallets! Besides, those human beings are busy maintaining the Paperwork Disneyland that makes the profiteers beneficent owners safe from those nasty regulators.

[woodsprite]

11. They're RFID'ing patients in DE

My friend is an ER nurse. Said it was so nice because you can bring up on the screen at the nurses station EXACTLY where a patient is. Say a hubby has been taken to the ER for a heart attack and they've sent him down for an EKG. His wife arrives at the desk asking where her husband is, they can get the info right away and say he's the 3rd patient on the right side of hallway D waiting for an EKG. They can actually watch the blip be wheeled down the hall.

Ughhhh. You know those tinfoil hat, endtimes theories don't seem so far fetched now either.