Alison Stace-Naughton with Alfonso Gutierrez and Alex Bredemus

UW-Madison E-Business Consortium RFID Lab

Health care facilities have had to develop complicated supply chains, using inadequate technology. A major issue associated with supply-chain management within healthcare involves mis-blood-transfusions. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a new technology, has the potential to track blood bags efficiently through the blood supply-chain and reduce the potential for mislabeling, which is the root cause for mis-blood-transfusions. Using “off-the-shelf” RFID passive tags on blood bags has the potential to track blood bags efficiently and accurately through the blood supply-chain. This is the first known research of its kind using passive tags. Three different variables were evaluated: tag placement, tag location, and bag orientation. Discussion of Experiment (DOE) methodology was used to optimize the combination of these variables. Testing showed there is a complex relationship between all three variables, which must be understood in order to create a viable and economical RFID Blood Bag System. The relationship between tag type and tag location is significant in all comparisons and affects the maximum read distance because each tag has a specialized optimal situation. Results show application of RFID in conjunction with passive tags is effective and efficient in minimizing risks in the blood supply chain and mis-blood-transfusions.