UPDATE2: RFID for the Mentally Impaired
This past week, Marshea Fenderson and I completed work on our business plan for a business seminar at the graduate school of North Carolina State University. As previewed before on the blog, Marshea and I contend that there is a strong market for RFID tracking in the mentally impaired assisted living facility industry.
Consider that more than 34,000 of the 5.25M people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in the United States wander out of their homes or care facilities each year (missingpatient.com). Elopement, as it is known in the industry, is a real problem. According to Dennis Thompson, Jr. in an article on everydayhealth.com, “fewer than four out of every 100 adults with memory impairment who wander away from home are able to return without assistance. ‘If not found within the first 24 hours, half will experience serious injury or death.’”
We propose using an active RFID tag on patients susceptible to elopement and then an array of readers to provide RTLS and zone access/restriction. Our analysis suggests that assisted living facilities will benefit from this type of setup in several ways. First, we believe that they can market this product to their patients and their families and markup the equipment that they purchase from us. This will provide an additional revenue stream. Second, we expect this type of product will reduce their staffing needs and may reduce construction costs of facilities. These costs would be replaced by the costs for the RFID solution, but would be passed directly onto their clients.
Also of note is the benefit conferred to the families of these patients. Our solution includes web-based platforms which family members could log into and see the current location of the patient. This will provide much needed peace of mind and a new way to stay engaged in the life of the patient.
