Abstract
Information technology (IT) in general, and
radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in
particular, are considered as key enablers of
healthcare sector transformation in terms of better
quality of care, improved patient management, and
increased healthcare efficiency and effectiveness.
There is, however, a shortage of studies on the impact
of RFID technology on patient management-related
processes. This study intends to fill this knowledge gap
in literature by unveiling the potential of RFIDenabled
intelligent patient management. Twelve patient
management-related processes are identified, followed
by the assessment of the impact of RFID on the said
processes by a panel of experts using a three-round
Delphi study. The study identifies the top five processes
that may benefit from RFID technology as follows: (1)
accurate patient identification for medication safety;
(2) patient identification to avoid wrong drug dosage;
(3) accurate patient identification; (4) infant
identification in hospitals to avoid mismatching; and
(5) tracking of drug supplies and procedures
performed on each patient. Furthermore, the
evaluation of standard deviation variation shows a
high convergence of consensus among the members of
the panel with regard to nine of the twelve processes.
Finally, the paper discusses future research directions.