An empirical study of RFID-enabled mobile healthcare

In recent years, healthcare organisations have begun to invest in RFID-based systems to control costs and improve efficiency and quality of care. The purpose of this research is to study the influences of technological, organisational and environmental variables on the adoption of RFID in terms of the transformation of healthcare processes, based on the diffusion of innovation theory and the technology-organisation-environment framework. For the purpose of this analysis, 131 cases (including 61 RFID-based applications) from four consulting and solution vendors including RFID Journal, SAP, Oracle and Cerner, have been classified into three categories, namely, asset management, patient management and staff management. A multi-method approach to explore the research questions guiding this study has been adopted. Our findings indicate that RFID capabilities positively affect the adoption of RFID in healthcare settings, whilst the environmental and organisational contexts have significant impacts as well. This research contributes to a growing body of study related to the impact of RFID in the healthcare sector and the enabling role of RFID in enhancing process performance.