| We started tracking railroad cars in the 1960's and | | | | Barcodes make excellent visitor tracking systems and |
| today we track everything from hospital patient's | | | | can be quick and easy to use. This is important if you |
| prescriptions to chain-of-custody crime evidence. | | | | need information about who visited, how long they |
| Barcode applications are used anywhere information | | | | stayed, and who they visited, and you find it saves you |
| needs to be tracked. In today's world, that doesn't | | | | money to have this information entered into a |
| leave much out! | | | | database automatically. Obviously, this would be |
| Barcode tracking software is used in law enforcement | | | | important in high traffic sensitive areas. |
| to keep track of evidence; who's is it, where was it | | | | We also have technology today that has the capability |
| found, the officer in charge, etc. These applications are | | | | to track items without scanning. It uses radio |
| basically database programs that manage all the | | | | frequencies to identify objects with attached Radio |
| information related to the evidence for a particular | | | | Frequency ID tags (RFID). |
| case. The best programs give adequate flexibility for | | | | RFID is much more expensive per unit and to |
| designing the labels and printing. | | | | implement than barcodes but in certain situations it |
| In the medical industry, keeping track of patient charts | | | | makes sense. Take for example an unattended 24/7 |
| has always been a major problem. The reason is clear | | | | equipment room containing very expensive tools. A |
| when you see how many people handle these charts. | | | | simple solution is to fit an RFID sensor in the door way |
| The design of a medical chart barcode system | | | | that detects the movement of equipment in and out of |
| obviously needs to connect the chart to the person | | | | the room. The door is locked until the technician swipes |
| who has checked it out and the time it occurred. This | | | | a bar-coded ID badge or an RFID tag. This way, the |
| requires a scan of the medical staffer's ID badge and | | | | system knows who opened the door and what |
| the chart code. A good system then needs to run | | | | equipment left or returned, and at what time. |
| periodic checks of the chart room to look for the | | | | This type of system could be used in unattended |
| inevitable discrepancies. | | | | medical chart rooms too, but the problem is the |
| As with any barcode system, having access to solid | | | | number of charts is enormous and would require a |
| reporting capabilities is mandatory. What good is | | | | relatively expensive RFID tag attached to every single |
| information if it it's not easily accessible? Common | | | | chart; so this would not be cost effective under these |
| report queries might be: | | | | circumstances. |
| * Active File List | | | | With today's PC technology, easy database tools such |
| * Current Location of Files | | | | as Microsoft Access, barcode label software, and |
| * Last Location | | | | scanners, many barcode applications can be |
| * Time of File at Location | | | | developed easily and cheaply saving businesses an |
| * Reserved List | | | | enormous amount of money each year. |
| You may have heard the term, "License plate" used in | | | | If you are currently paying someone to enter data into |
| connection with barcodes. This simply refers to the | | | | a computer you may want to look into the merits of a |
| idea that the information in the barcode is a database | | | | barcode management system. We have read studies |
| key that points to more detailed information. Some | | | | that show barcode scanning is about 10 times faster |
| medical barcode applications are flexible enough to be | | | | than a typist and about 10,000 times more accurate! |
| used in insurance offices as well as hospitals. In these | | | | Some interesting facts about bar-coding is that almost |
| cases the insurance claim number may be used as | | | | every company that has installed a barcode system is |
| the key instead of the patient tracking code. You can | | | | looking for other places to use it, and the return on |
| save your business a considerable amount of money | | | | investment for an automated data collection system is |
| by uses a good quality generic application and | | | | typically one year, and often substantially less. |
| modifying it to work in your situation. | | | | |