Role of radio frequency identification in improving infant safety and the extent of nursing staff acceptance of RFID at King Abdulaziz medical city in Riyadh

Objective: The main objectives of this study were to explore the role of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in improving infant safety in terms of mismatching, swapping and abduction; to determine the extent of nursing staff acceptance of this technology, and to evaluate workflow improvement following Infant Protection System implementation. In order to meet our objectives, an exploratory study was conducted in the General Obstetrics and Gynecology department at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. Methodology: To achieve the first objective, a repeated cross sectional design was used with two rounds of data collection. The first round looked at infant registration data before system implementation. The second round investigated infant registration data after system implementation. Then the comparison between rounds was applied to determine the similarity percentage of infant name, MRN and RFID. To achieve the second and third objective, a cross sectional design was used and self-administrated questionnaires were distributed to 237 nursing staff. A convenience sample of 190 nursing staff completed the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Java programing language. Result: The results of this study showed that 65.8% of nursing staff perceived that RFID technology is effective in tracking infant movement and 62.1% of them perceived that RFID is well in identifying the infants correctly. However, only half of the nurses surveyed showed acceptance of the infant protection system and only 39% of nurses perceived workflow improvement. The main reasons for dissatisfaction were found to be inadequate training and computer skills. Conclusion: This study supports the capability of an Infant Protection System that uses RFID technology to decrease infant mismatching, swapping and abduction. However, further computer skills and system training is essential to enhance nursing satisfaction of the system as well as improve workflow within the department.