RFID based Patient Registration in Mass Casualty Incidents

In MCIs (mass casualty incidents) the EMC (emergency medical chief) has to gain an overview on all patients at the scene. When using paper based patient tags the patient-related information remains at the patients themselves and the information relay is complex. We propose a mobile, RFID based solution, which makes the local patient-related information available to all relief workers at the scene. As a consequence all processes in an MCI are more transparent and the resulting medication and transport of the injured is more efficient. The introduction of RFID enhanced patient tags leads to various usability challenges which are discussed in this paper. Furthermore, three different implementations show, how these challenges can be solved in the future. These solutions have been evaluated in a disaster control exercise in order to get an impression of the practical suitability of the proposed solutions. The future introduction of RFID tags in rescue and emergency services can be based on this work.