The placement of implantable chips into patients for the purpose of accurately identifying patients and properly storing their medical history records has become a subject of a strong debate. Making sure patients are properly identified before a procedure and storing their health history records for future use has been difficult, if not impossible. The idea of being able to retrieve accurate patient’s medical history for a follow up care without relying on patient’s memory is a challenging task for many healthcare organizations. Many ideas and technologies have been introduced over the years to help solve this problem, but unfortunately the problem is still not fully resolved. There are still many errors in the healthcare due in part by improper record keeping and inaccurate patient identification. One idea that has being in discussion to eliminate these problems for good, is the introduction of a chip or radio frequency identification (RFID) technology implanted into human for the purpose storing medical data and accurately identify patients. VeriChip Corporation is currently the maker of this implantable RFID chip. They are the only corporation cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make this implantable radio frequency transponder system for humans for the purpose of identifying patients and storing their health history information. The chip was first developed for the use of radar systems by Scottish physicist, Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt in 1935 just before World War II. (Roberti, 2007). This technology helps identify approaching planes of the enemy from mile away. Today, RFID has several uses. It is used for animal tracking. It is attached to merchandise in stores to prevent theft. It can be instal...
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This technology assist the nurse in confirming patients identify by confirming the patients’ dose, time and form of medication (Helmons, Wargel, & Daniels, 2009). Having an EHR also comes with a program that allows the medical staff to scan medications so medication errors can be prevented. According to Helmons, Wargel, and Daniels (2009) they conducted an observational study in two medical –surgical units one in the medical intensive care (ICU) and one in the surgical ICU. The researchers watched 386 nurses within the two hospitals use bar code scanning before they administrated patients’ medications. The results of the research found a 58 % decrease in medication errors between the two hospitals because of the EHR containing a bar code assisted medication administration
Patient personalized health cards are also long underling technology that might provide patient a freedom of owning his/her PHI. Transferring data from one hospital to another wouldn’t be a challenge with this password protected health cards. Privacy wouldn’t be much of an issue as all the information is stored in the chip of the card that can be retrieve by a healthcare provider or by patient when needed.
What is this world coming to? When most of us think of tracking devices they think of primarily negative issues. But that has all changed now. A tracking device the size of a tic tack that can be surgically implanted to provide a tamper proof means of identification, enhanced e-business security, locating lost or missing individuals, monitoring heart rate, vital signs, tracking of the elderly, the location of valuable property, and monitoring the medical conditions of at risk patients, all at the convenience of a button or a phone call (www.allnet). It is called the GPM or as we know it the Global Positioning Microchip. Today I will discuss the ideals of the implanted microchip and some of the technical, social, economic, ethical and practical implications of its technology. Furthermore exploring some of the benefits and dangers of such a device. Invented entirely for animals man has expanded its uses to stolen cars tracking devices, criminal rehabilitations, and experimental animal observations. The chip has come a long way but where will it go from here.
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From watching this video, I learn how most medical errors aren’t always simply due to the caregiver’s performance or practice, but instead can be accompanied by the flawed systems. In the twins’ case the error was made due to human error, but the fact Hep-lock and Heparin were in a similar colored bottle and labeled similarly made it more difficult to distinguish between the two. I also learned about different techniques and technologies health care workers are trying to use to prevent medical error by improving old processes and systems or creating new ones. Check a box, save a life is one of the newer interventions, it is essentially a check list for resident surgeons (if used each resident is estimated to save a life). The barcode technology is also something newer that can help save lives by doing a safety check of the five rights for medication.
* Dipert, Brian. "READING BETWEEN THE LINES: RFIDs confront the venerable bar code. " Edn 14 Oct. 2004: 48-50,52,54,56,58.
For instance, the patient’s record can be filtered on registration to a holding up room, increasing proficiency. On the off chance that the patient gets a test in a medicinal facility territory, his/her full record can be accessible on landing of the patient so as to regulate the test under right conventions. In the meantime, at every RFID read point, the patient's spatial area is recorded. According to duty of doctor this device might be life-saving. Assuming that the doctor who might care of patient and RFID reader can give them information about
Within the scope of our findings, there were no major conflicting ideas about the use of electronic barcode medication-administration systems. One study even reported that there were no new types of error in the medication administration process after implementing the barcode medication-administration system into their care (Seibert,H.H., et. al, 2014). There were however some differences in the type of barcode scanning systems used in the research, which can cause some conflicting ideas as to which system was better for reducing medication errors or more user
Smart cards give emergency doctors more time for patients ... (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/5272 .asp
Smart cards also can provide complete identification in certain industries like healthcare. There are numerous benefits of using smart cards for identification. In circumstance like there is a patient who is brought in unconscious or unable to speak, these cards can be used by health professionals to identify him or her to give the appropriate treatments. Now, there’s smart health cards that can improve the security and privacy of patient information which can reduce healthcare fraud. They also support new processes for portable medical records and provide secure access to emergency medical information.
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a computerized ID innovation that uses radio recurrence waves to exchange information between an onlooker and things that have RFID gadgets, or tags, joined. The tags hold a microchip and receiving wire, and work at universally distinguished standard frequencies. Barcodes are much smaller, lighter and easier than RFID but RFID offers significant advantages. One major advantage of RFID is that the innovation doesn't oblige any observable pathway the tags could be perused as long as they are inside the range of the spectator, whereas in barcodes in order to read the barcode the barcode scanner should close around 10-15 fts. In RFID data, for example, part and serial numbers, assembling dates and support history is put away on the tags and catches which help in maintenance of equipments. RFID technology as high value for asset management and inventory systems
Advances in technology have influences our society at home, work and in our health care. It all started with online banking, atm cards, and availability of children’s grades online, and buying tickets for social outings. There was nothing electronic about going the doctor’s office. Health care cost has been rising and medical errors resulting in loss of life cried for change. As technologies advanced, the process to reduce medical errors and protect important health care information was evolving. In January 2004, President Bush announced in the State of the Union address the plan to launch an electronic health record (EHR) within the next ten years (American Healthtech, 2012).
It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).
RFID has taken strides from being a far off solution to becoming a mainstream application that helps speed the handling of manufactured goods and materials. RFID is an identification and tracking tool for a product using radio waves. It uses a microchip and a printed antenna that can be then packaged in several different forms such as a label or embedded between layers of a carton. These labels are then used to identify the manufacturer, product category and the RFID enables this identification from a distance and unlike earlier bar-code technology, it does so without requiring a line of sight. (Finkelzeller)
As you are well aware by now the world has become increasingly technology oriented. Every day we use technology in one way or another. Whether it be simply checking email or being able to turn our entire house on from the simple push of a button on our smart phone. Whether we like it or not, technology is there. One piece of technology that seems to be gaining attention and garnering more research is Radio Frequency Identification or RFID. Radio Frequency Identification is a form of wireless media where messaging and data are broadcast through the air. It is radio transmission that uses an RFID tag, RFID reader, and back-end system in order to communicate back and forth and requires no line of sight. As simple as it may sound, this technology has its fair share of complications and the security issues that have presented themselves are at the forefront of this expanding technology.