Malaysia Hospital Asset Tracking System using RFID Technology (MHATS)

Abstract

This paper discuss on RFID technology that can be implemented for Government hospital in tracking assets to improve accuracy, safety, efficiency and quality of services provided by hospital in Malaysia. Type of asset that focused is tracking reusable sharing assets that can be categorized into queuing and non-queuing assets. For this proposed system the authors are considering on queuing assets such as portable X-ray, bed, wheelchair etc. Several private hospitals in Malaysia and China have already implemented RFID technology in different purposes and practices. Even though RFID technology already exist quite sometimes but this paper is introducing new idea of converging smart phones with RFID reader. Besides that, some challenges in adopting RFID in Government hospitals are also highlighted. Comparison of the two technologies which consists of RFID and barcode that are suitable to be used in hospital asset tracking system is discussed and reasons for choosing RFID for hospital tracking assets are emphasized. Primary and secondary data collection approach is used to collect requirement data for researching the usage of RFID in government hospital. Prototypes of the system implemented for desktop and mobile application are introduced.

Full text

Malaysia Hospital Asset Tracking System using
RFID Technology (MHATS)
Nor Azlina Abd Rahman, Zety Marlia Zainal Abidin and Hemalata Vasudavan
Faculty of Computing and Engineering
Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
nor_azlina@apu.edu.my, zety@apu.edu.my, hemalata@apu.edu.my
Abstract—This paper discuss on RFID technology that can be
implemented for Government hospital in tracking assets to
improve accuracy, safety, efficiency and quality of services
provided by hospital in Malaysia. Type of asset that focused is
tracking reusable sharing assets that can be categorized into
queuing and non- queuing assets. For this proposed system the
authors are considering on queuing assets such as portable X-ray,
bed, wheelchair etc. Several private hospitals in Malaysia and
China have already implemented RFID technology in different
purposes and practices. Even though RFID technology already
exist quite sometimes but this paper is introducing new idea of
converging smart phones with RFID reader. Besides that, some
challenges in adopting RFID in Government hospitals are also
highlighted. Comparison of the two technologies which consists of
RFID and barcode that are suitable to be used in hospital asset
tracking system is discussed and reasons for choosing RFID for
hospital tracking assets are emphasized. Primary and secondary
data collection approach is used to collect requirement data for
researching the usage of RFID in government hospital.
Prototypes of the system implemented for desktop and mobile
application are introduced.
Keywords-component; RFID,queuing asset, non- queuing asset,
hospital, tracking, reusable
I. INTRODUCTION
The healthcare industry in this century must be efficiently
managing their supply chain in facilitating patient and
resources. Just like any other business, government hospitals
need constantly evaluate their IT infrastructure to stay
competitive with technology advances. Supply chains in the
healthcare must be able to deliver cost effective service and
enable efficient control of the organization.
Nevertheless, for successful implementation of any supply
chain strategy, real time data and item visibility is imperative
– which is where RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
comes in. Some private hospitals in Malaysia, implemented
RFID technology in order to track its assets involving three
principle areas: people, medicines/drugs and equipments. This
is because, IT and its applications allow health care providers
to collect, store, retrieve, and transfer information
electronically.
RFID is a great tool for healthcare management. With its
capability to detect tagged humans and objects independently,
from certain distance of meters away, this radio waves
technology can help in equipment localization and protection,
prevention and containment of hospital acquired infections,
infant protection and improvement of the patient services and
safety. The acceptance of information system and information
technology and specifically RFID enable hospital to re-
engineer their business process in order to save expenses, track
hospital assets and improve good level of services to the
patients. However, there are many challenges that influence
government hospital in adopting RFID.
As stated [9] one of the challenges faced by hospital is
incentives to RFID technology is a major encounters for
hospital in adopting RFID. There are no specific incentives to
this kind of expenses. The cost became an issue to hospitals in
the developing countries especially in the government
hospitals. This is due to the high cost of purchasing RFID
technology, lack of expert and it is a struggle to the hospital
management in procuring the hardware and software when
there is no proper budget allocated for the system.
II. EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE
Based on the researchers’ observation and peer interviews,
barcode system has been used for equipment tracking and
inventory purposes in most Malaysia’s government hospitals.
Since there is not much information about using RFID in
government hospitals was found, the following discussion will
be focusing on the implementation of RFID technology for
tracking in some of the private hospitals. This section discuss
on several hospitals in Malaysia and China that already
implemented RFID.
A. Prince Court Medical Centre
The Prince Court Medical Center (PCMC) is one of the
private hospitals in Malaysia that employing RFID technology
to track equipment and other medical assets by using a
combination of passive and active tags. Besides that an active
RFID tags also being used to protect infants within its facility.
Since 2008, PCMC implemented RFID technology that
would reduce asset theft and as well as to prevent any risk of
baby abduction. An active Cadi Scientific battery-powered
Ultra-High Frequency (UHF)/IR Mother Tag will be given to a
pregnant woman who is admitted to the hospital and about to

give birth. The tag is attached to her wrist via a plastic band.
When she is giving birth, a similar active RFID/IR tag will be
attached to the ankle of the new born baby as shown in Figure
1, and the child's name and tag ID number are linked with the
mother's name and ID in the SmartSense back-end software,
which integrates with the hospital's Cerner patient-management
system [6].
When the baby is brought within close proximity to the
mother, the active UHF/IR readers as illustrated in Figure 2
will receive the signal of the baby's active tag, which forward
the child's tag ID to the back-end system. At the same time, the
readers will also receive the signal of the mother's tag, and then
the SmartSense software determines if the two tags are
permitted to be together. A green LED light is illuminated at
the mother’s tag if mother's and child's RFID tags are matched.
If the match is unauthorized, a red light is illuminated on the
mother's wristband, and an audible alarm is sounded on it as
well. However, there is limitation of the system where the
system unable to detect if the baby is picked up by someone
not wearing a tag, though it can determine if the child's tag is
tampered with or removed, or if it approaches an exit [6].
Figure 1. RFID tag attached to the baby’s ankle [6]
Figure 2.UHF-IR readers mounted over hospital’s doorways and on ceilings [6]
Both the baby’s and mother's bracelets each contain an
embedded circuit enabling the tag to issue a tamper alert if its
bracelet is cut, or if the tag is removed. The system is designed
to detect that the tag has ceased transmitting. If there is no
transmission after a predetermined period of time has elapsed,
an alert will sends to the nursing staff, the auxiliary police force
located on site, for immediate response. The system will
trigger the access door to lock, and will also send an e-mail or
text-message alert to nurses and police officers on site if the
baby is detected leaving the facility [6].
PCMC also implemented the RFID system to certain
hospital’s equipment as shown in Figure 3. The system able to
determines whether the activity is authorized or not when the
tag approaches an exit. If the activity is considered as
unauthorized, the system will issue an alert via e-mail or text
message to the finance department and other interested parties
[6].
Figure 3. Handheld reader used to read passive HF tags that fitted to
hospital’s equipment.
B. Pantai Hospital, Ipoh
One of the Pantai Hospital Group in Malaysia, Pantai
Hospital Ipoh initiate radio frequency identification (RFID) to
automate administration routine tasks in providing better
patient care. The hospital’s administrators have been facing
two fundamental challenges in the past decades: a growing
numbers of patients and at the same time lack of skilled
caregivers.
The management of Pantai Hospital Ipoh was seeking an
economical solution by considering of implementing RFID to
monitor patient temperature and location tracking. They
collaborated with Cadi Scientific, a Singapore firm which
focusing in wireless technology based in hospital. Patient’s
temperature can be monitored by pasting the disc-like sensor
on the patient’s body. The sensor will sense the temperature of
the patient and sent a signal wirelessly to a central server for
storage, automatic charting and real-time alert for timely
treatment. This technology enables the physician to
continuously monitor the temperature trend of the patient for
better data analysis. This system is effective as it able to
reduce labour, save cost, minimize cross infection and
significantly enhance patient care. This is due to hospitals will
be able to see tangible results on improved operational
efficiency and manpower savings, nurses can focus on
improving patient care quality and patients can have better
uninterrupted rest.
As a result, the technology did the routine task very well
and the nurses able to focus on the vital tasks which required
higher skills and time consuming [7].
C. Hospital in Hong Kong, China
Group of researcher in Hong Kong did a study on a
comparison between active and passive RFID to be
implemented in hospital. Based on the findings, passive RFID
is not applicable in a place where exposure to non-ionizing
became a major concern. In addition, the weakest point for

passive RFID is, its reader must always on and the radiation
can be up to 4-watts to stimulate its tag. So it may disturb an
electromagnetic interference on the normal operation of
medical equipment in the hospital. Therefore, it is not suitable
to use passive RFID in hospitals and sheltered place like
nurseries or elderly homes. They proposed a semi active RFID
prototype in the hospital to improve the treatment quality and
minimizing human errors such as giving wrong subscription of
drugs or performing incorrect surgery [8].
Figure 4. Semi-active RFID Reader
Figure 5. Semi-Active RFID Tag
As shown in Figure 4 and 5 are the prototype design of
RFID reader and tag. After a series of handshaking processes,
it will establish the signal and communicate with the active
tags. The RFID tag is embedded with two CR2025 batteries
where later on it will replaced by a thin lithium polyester
rechargeable battery that will be folded around the patient’s
wrist with comfort. It has a memory to store the bio-data of the
patient such as, details of registration, list of medical
prescriptions, pharmacists, nurses, medical history and others.
When it comes to the process of delivering medicine to the
patient, all tags in a ward will be fully charged by the wake-up
device attached on the ceiling. The nurse will carry the
portable reader and provide the medicine to the match
designated ID number of patient. Or else, the tag will display a
message with series of beep. The tag will turn off after the
delivery is complete [8].
III. ASSET TRACKING
In accordance with [1], basically RFID technology in
hospitals tracks patients throughout the hospital and links lab
and medication tracking through a wireless communication
system. On the other hand, another similar technology used in
healthcare environment is bar coding, where optical scanner
electronically capture information encoded in a product.
Usually hospitals use it for medication, for instance matching
drugs to patients by using bar codes on both medications and
patients’ arm bracelets. With RFID tags, each and every
inventory item has a unique ID number. In addition, barcodes
must be read with a reader in close proximity, one at a time,
which further limits functionality. RFID readers can read
literally hundreds of unique RFID tags in a single swipe –
from a distance of ten feet (three meters) or more.
Therefore, IT consultants bring a fresh perspective to a
hospital’s technology issues by objective assessment of
existing systems in order to address current needs into new
solution. Figure 6 shows how RFID can be implemented in
hospital environments.
Figure 6. RFID technology in health care [2].
In hospitals, high-value moveable assets like, IV pumps, beds,
wheelchairs, blood and others are often misplaced, lost, or
stolen. Surprisingly, it is a common for a hospital to lose 10%
of its inventory annually, with its employees spending 25 to
33% of their time looking for equipment [3]. Based on 2008
survey conducted by Spyglass Consulting Group, indicates
that there were significant growth of RFID investments among
large healthcare organization. This happen because in large
organization it is challenging to track and locate objects using
manual method. RFID tracking enables real-time asset to be
noticeable. Hospital staff can track and locate needed assets by
using a computer host embedded with RFID tracking system
[4].
Although the implementation of RFID sensor is possible in
hospitals [3], we are emphasizing in tracking reusable sharing
assets. Reusable asset is divided into two categories:

Queuing assets: For assets like portable X-ray, bed and
wheelchair, usually patient can wait for their turn and use this
equipment for a short period. These assets are also being
shared with one or more departments [5].
Non-queuing Assets: this is the most difficult asset to manage
in hospital because of the small size and critically needed in
patient care. These assets must always have enough supply in
the hospital and usually these assets will be with patients until
the treatment has completed [5].
Depending on the size of a hospital, queuing assets may be
shared by the entire hospital or by a set of departments in the
hospital. In the later case, each asset unit must have an
associated department list (departments to which the asset can
belong) so that only the personnel at associated departments
can see a given asset unit via RFID locators. This mechanism
allows logical partitioning of the asset pool between hospital
departments. The proposed RFID system is focusing on
Queuing assets as the movements of these assets are easier to
track [5].
IV. A SURVEY OF HEALTHCARE
This research study is based upon data which was gathered
in 2013. A survey questionnaire was conducted involving 5
government hospitals. There were 20 questionnaires
distributed to each of the government hospitals. Around 50
responses collected from the survey. The respondents of our
survey were doctors, nurses and administrative staff as they
were among the users who involved in using some of the
hospital equipment. For the purpose of data analysis, a
quantitative survey method was conducted to collect
information about methods that were being operated in
tracking hospital assets. It is essential to find useful
information on any research because failure to find important
information will lead to obscure understanding and
identification of user requirement.
The survey contained questions to collect information, ideas
and familiarity of the respondents on using asset tracking
system in their hospitals. Information collected was tabulated
and then analyzed using tools available in Microsoft Excel
2013. For the current mode in managing assets in the
hospitals, 90% of them claimed that the hospital was using
partial system whereby some equipment tracked using barcode
and others are manual tracking. For the equipment which
tracked manually, the staff will just record their loan in the log
book. Figure 7 shows respondents opinion on the current
tracking system in the hospital. From the survey, around 83%
of the respondents were only under satisfactory level. While
10% of them stated under average level and only 5% claimed
that the current system was good. Shrinkage and loss of
equipment are among the issues in the current system
limitations.
Figure 7. Current System Opinions
Next, the respondents were asked to evaluate the problems
encounter by the hospital in managing the assets. The criteria
used to measure were in a Likert scale of 1 out of 5 whereby
denotes 1 (Strongly Disagree), 2 (Disagree), 3 (Neutral), 4
(Agree) and 5 (Strongly Agree). The results are shown in
Table 1 in terms of mean values and mode values. Based on
the analysis, it indicates that respondents were aware on the
problems that the hospitals were facing in terms of managing
and tracking the hospital assets. The analysis shows increasing
in inventory cost and time consuming in searching for assets
are the major problems in the current system. This is due to
unable to track the assets on time.
Table 1. Issues in Current System
Besides that, the respondents were asked to state their
opinion for preferred technology in tracking assets such as
consumable assets, queuing assets and non-queue assets.
Consumable assets are consisting of blood blank, medicines
and around 45% of respondents chosen Barcode technology.
The next assets is queuing assets comprises of portable X-ray,
wheelchair and around 46% opted for RFID. Similarly, for the
non-queue assets such as blood pressure machine, IV pump
and around 46% choose RFID. By this the researcher
understands that most of the respondents prefer RFID
technology for queuing assets and non-queue which further
support the research. Table 2 shows the impact of RFID
technology in managing the hospital assets. Based on table 1 it
denotes that majority of the responses are positive in terms of
reducing problems in tracking assets. Thus, mean value for all
the impact is above 3.00 which state the supporting evidence
reducing over purchasing equipment, improve search time,
increase equipment utilization, automate inventory
management and reduce equipment shrinkage and loss.
Finally, the analysis also signify around 45% of the
0% 0% 10%
85%
5% 0%
State of efficiency in using the
existing system to manage
assets
Average
Satisfactory
Good
Excellent

respondents prefer to use mobile phone to track hospital assets
due to its mobility.
Table 2. Manual Consultation Method
Impact of RFID in managing
assets
Mean
Value
Mode
Reduce over purchasing
3.68
4.00
Improve search time and
waiting time
4.30
5.00
Increase equipment utilization
3.60
4.00
Automate inventory
management
4.50
5.00
Reduce equipment shrinkage
and loss
4.60
5.00
V. TECHNOLOGY COMPARISON
This paper is focusing on two technologies which are RFID
and barcode. These two technologies are being compared
because both of them are providing the similar functions and
features which is storing the data in the tag then allowing the
users to use the scanner to read the data and information in the
tag [13]. The comparison below is to identify how RFID can
give benefits to hospital and also shows how advanced is
RFID compared to barcode.
Table 3. Technology Comparison [12]
RFID
Bar Code
Line of Site
Not required
Required
Read Range
Passive RFID:
-Up to 40 feet (fixed
readers)
-Up to 20 feet (handheld
readers)
Active RFID:
- Up to 100's of feet or
more
Few inches
Read Rate
Hundreds at one time
Only one at a time
Identification
Can identify each assets
uniquely
Can only identify the type
of the Asset or product
Read/Write
Read and Write
Read only
Technology
Radio Frequency
Optical Laser
Automation
Don’t required human to
gather data. It’s
automated
Required human to gather
data
Lifespan
Longer because the
RFID tags are covered
with protective material
Barcode has unlimited shelf
life but it might get
damaged with handing
rigging
Hard because RFID tag
is using a UIC and serial
number from the
manufacturer.
(embedded within
microchip)
Weak because Barcodes
can easily be copied and
duplicated.
Cost
Expensive
Cheaper comparing to
RFID
Application in
harsh
Can work and use in
extreme environments
Can’t be used in extreme
environments. Also it can’t
environments
and they are very robust
to handling.
be read if the barcode label
became dirty or destroyed.
Based on Table 3, RFID is the most preferred tracking
technology for MHATS. According to InLogic Inc. [14], both
technologies serve to automate the process of collecting data.
Nevertheless, RFID has some advantages over Barcode except
of price. RFID is 15-20 times faster than barcode processes for
inventorying IT assets. Secondly, RFID application is
deployed for IT asset tracking. In advance to that, some
companies experience a 95 % reduction in time owing to
RFID. MHATS system is proposing to adapt Active Tag as
their RFID component because Active tag can reach longer
and wider range so that the equipments can be tracked easily
whiles them using the mobile application for tracking the
equipments. MHATS system is also able to provide real-time
information while tracking the equipment so that the users can
know where the equipment is located.
VI. MHATS PROTOTYPE
Based on research and analysis done, tracking system using
RFID able to help in locating and tracking equipments or asset
located in specific range in a short time.
This paper presents the prototype for Hospital mobile
application and office system that helps in tracking the assets
or equipments within the hospital and gain information in a real
time. Figure 8 show the overall system design of Hospital
office system.
Figure 8. System design for Hospital Office Application prototype
A. Functionalities of Hospital Office System
Prototype
 Manage Inventory and orders
The office system allows the managers to check the
availability of equipments such as in stock and out
stock inventory. In addition, the system will allow the

managers to order equipments and add them to
hospital stock automatically.
 Check equipment status and condition
The office system will allow the managers to track
and check the equipments status such as who’s using
the equipments and locate their positions within the
hospital. In addition, the system will allow the
managers to check the conditions of the equipments if
they are in good conditions or if they need maintains.
RFID provide just in time tracking of inventory that
able to show the inventory of the hospital equipments
are correct with quantity currently.
 Generate reports
The office system enables the managers to generate
several reports which are:
o Report of borrowed equipments.
o Report of available equipments
o Report of location of equipments
o Report of lost equipments
Figure 9. System design for Mobile application prototype
B. Functionalities of Mobile Application Prototype
The prototype of the mobile application (Figure 9) is being
developed using VB.net emulator and the functionality of the
application is as stated below:
 Manage borrow and return process
A mobile application allows the doctors and nurses to
search and book equipments through their mobile
phones and return them back to the Store room after
the usage (Figure 10). The borrowing process needs
the staff to enter the equipment that they want to
borrow. Then, the system shows the available
quantity of the equipment currently. If the user
decides to proceed with the borrowing process the
user needs to enter the quantity of equipment that
they want to borrow. The borrowing date will be auto
display by the system based on system date and the
borrower name will be display based on the user
login. Once the doctors or nurses confirm borrow, a
message will pop up showing the success of the
process. After that the doctors and the nurses can
locate the equipment that they borrowed by clicking
on the locating button. In addition, this system able to
show all the list of reserved equipments of the current
logged in users.
 Asset tracking
This system also able to track the location of the
equipments so that it will be easier for the staff to
identified the missing equipments. Figure 11 shows
location of the equipments based on the equipment
being selected as search criteria.
Figure10. Emulator for mobile application
Figure11. The system able to show the assets location
 Scanning and information store
The handheld device is embedded with RFID reader
that enables the information of the equipments being
stored into database by scanning process. This is
based on the latest technology where the smart
phones or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) can
become portable RFID terminals by installing
SDiD™ Card. This card is a RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification) Reader/Writer SD (Secure Digital)
Card that offers a safe, secure and seamless
management solution for real-time inventory, asset
and document tracking [16].
Choose product from drop down menu
Once the doctors or nurse pick the
product, it will show the available
quantity to borrow.
Locating button
Locating equipments

VII. BENEFITS OF MHATS
This tracking system will bring a lot of benefits to the users
and hospital. It is not only increase the productivity but it is
also increasing the performances of the hospital where the
hospital personnel able to find equipment efficiently by using
the computerized system. The doctor and the nurse will not
waste much time on finding equipment and they can provide
their professional skills to the patient, and will focus on taking
good care on the patients which will improve their service
performance besides the benefit above, this system is also able
to reduce human errors on the transaction of borrowing and
returning equipment’s.
Besides that, the current system which is based on manual
and paper base, it leading to mistakes such as forgetting to
record down the status of the equipment being borrowed and
loss of equipment which could not be track. By implementing
this system, the healthcare industry is able to eliminate on the
human errors or it can completely solved the manual resource
recording-record issues. RFID provide just in time tracking of
inventory that able to reduce the inaccuracies of hospital’s
inventory and provide simplification of business processes.
The other advantages of having RFID in the hospital will
reduce the duplication of data or redundancy data. Human
errors will mislead to this data redundancy case and also the
duplication on the records. Therefore, this system can help on
reducing and eliminating the data redundancy.
RFID is most low cost technology but with the robustness
strength to serve for the customers. It helps on fulfilling the
requirements of government Hospital on the tracking system
but it is with the reasonable cost.
VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The research starts with introduction which gives a clear
picture of hospital industry and company background and
using qualitative analysis to describe existing system in
government hospital. Then it moves to identification of
problem and investigating of suitable solution by comparison
of suggested technologies for efficient managing the hospital,
its assets, staff and its patients. After that, when suitable
solution was chosen, author has described implementation of
proposed prototype and defined adaptation to the hospital.
Based on the survey found that RFID applications in
government hospital is still very limited, nevertheless it has a
tremendous potential. There still are a number of unanswered
questions on issues regarding to privacy, security and cost.
Therefore future of RFID technology is very promising,
especially in government hospital environments, where
preventing even some deaths would more than just justify its
investment.
Some researchers also argue that high-tech support for
hospital management is lagging behind the current technology
and concludes that people in the ranks of hospital management
are ignorant of computer science or operation research [10].
The hospital personnel fail to understand or don’t know that
RFID technology will cater real-time inventory tracking
system and dynamic par level adjustment. Apart from this,
other obstacles that may prevent government hospital from
adopting RFID are data security and patient personnel
information. According to [11], although RFID has enormous
capabilities to manage medical data effectively and efficiently,
the widespread adoption of RFID in hospital beyond pilot
implementation has faced many obstacles, especially
concerning data security and patient privacy. This technology
which is based on radio waves it is flexible, expandable and
once the development in place, the devices can be used for
many resolutions. Health care lags behind other industries in
adopting information and communication technology by as
much as 10-15 years [12].
At the end of this research, author would like to announce
that Information technology has the potential to improve the
quality, safety, and efficiency of government health care. So,
over the year, RFID technology had proved its ability in many
applications such as tool collection, access management,
manufacturing and even assets tracking.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank the government hospital personnel who
participated in data collection and we are extremely grateful to
the doctors and nurses for their constructive comments and
suggestions that were vital in improving the quality of our
paper. The authors also wish to express gratitude to the
management of Asia Pacific University for their support.
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