An Activity Theory Analysis of RFID in Hospitals

Although there have been many proposed applications of RFID in hospitals, few of those applications have received sustained use in hospitals, to-date. As a result, this paper investigates the use of RFID in hospitals in an emerging application, that of using RFID as part of the prescription process, including pharmacists generation of the prescription and nurses’ administration of the medicine. Using activity theory, activity templates are generated for pharmacists, nurses and the hospital to investigate the introduction of RFID. This paper finds that the introduction of RFID involves changes in the activities, as measured by changes in context variables, not just changes in technology. Also, the RFID-based approach eliminates substantial “medicine” slack. Further, using activity theory, the activity design for using RFID facilitates “technologically insulation” of pharmacists and nurses, from each other and doctors. Finally, such “digital specification” of activities likely leads to fewer errors, and constrains action, limiting inappropriate use of prescription drugs.