HID Global buys GuardRFID to expand its healthcare offering

The addition of GuardRFID expands HID’s offering and relevance in the active RFID and RTLS space, including the support for new use cases catered to the needs of healthcare facilities.

Suite of active RFID tags, readers, and software

GuardRFID’s suite of active RFID tags, readers, exciters, and software support four primary use cases important to the healthcare market, including:

• Infant Security: The TotGuard infant security system prevents infant abduction and mother-baby mismatches by providing wearable tags for mothers and infants. The system works in conjunction with both a hospital’s access control and network video systems;

• Asset Tracking: RFID tags are used to provide the real-time visibility of healthcare assets and enable staff to quickly find the equipment they need. This improves asset utilisation, saves labour costs, and reduces theft;

• Patient Wandering: At-risk patients, such as the elderly or those struggling with mental health, are tagged and become instantly detected at exit doors, stairwells, and elevators. The doors can be configured to lock and sound alarms when the tags are detected in proximity, offering an extra level of protection to these patients and their care-givers.

Mixing GuardRFID with HID’s identification technologies

Officials from HID said that incorporating GuardRFID into HID’s Identification Technologies grows and reasserts their expansion as a player in the healthcare industry. This acquisition, along with their growing portfolio of RTLS and active RFID solutions, provides new and existing healthcare clients with more options to protect their patients and staff.

GuardRFID's offering will merge into HID’s IoT business unit

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, GuardRFID is now part of HID’s identification technologies business area. The GuardRFID suite will merge into HID’s Internet of Things (IoT) business unit and benefit from HID’s sales and other global functions to support its offering.

Representatives from GuardRFID commented that they are happy to join the HID team and believe it will enhance their ability to compete and grow their market share in the North American Healthcare market. Having the brand and resources of HID coupled with their solutions would make them an important player in the industry.