Evaluation of RFID and Wi-Fi technologies for RTLS applications in healthcare centers

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technologies for the Real-time Location System (RTLS) applications in healthcare centers/hospitals. Focus is on the 5 criteria and 9 sub criteria for choosing a RTLS and the research about the features of RFID and Wi-Fi technologies is done. Firstly, these criteria are used for the evaluation purpose based on literature review; secondly, the RFID and Wi-Fi technologies are compared by listing out the facts, pros and cons, according to the problems found out during the investigation about the technologies and the result of interviews with the IT experts in healthcare centers/hospitals, nurses, vendors and engineers of RTLS. Finally, an information retrieval guideline for the RTLS solution selection is given out and demonstrated with RFID and Wi-Fi technologies.