Texas Children's Hospital Pharmacy Saves $14M With RFID Medication Tracking
Overview
Texas Children's Hospital, one of the largest pediatric hospitals in the world, set out to eliminate medication delays, shortages, and waste by giving pharmacy staff real-time inventory visibility, automated counting, and instant drug-location tools across its high-dollar satellite pharmacy.
The Challenge
An annual review revealed roughly $40 million in pharmaceutical inventory the pharmacy could not reliably track—driving manual counts, expired stock, and stockouts that put patient care at risk.
The Solution
The hospital deployed a UHF RFID-powered medication-tracking workflow built on Zebra hardware. Staff scan a medication barcode, automatically print and apply an RFID label to any item worth more than $250, then locate and count tagged stock instantly with handheld RFID readers—shifting verification to a tech-check-tech process that frees pharmacists for patient care.
"One quick scan tells us if we're about to run out of any critical medication. Before, we only found out after medications expired. Now we can redistribute medications or adjust orders before shortages impact patients."
Featured Products & Solutions
Zebra ZD621R RFID Printer
Premium desktop printer that encodes and prints RFID medication labels on demand.
Zebra DS9908R Hybrid Scanner
1D/2D + RFID hybrid scanner that captures each medication barcode to trigger labeling.
Zebra HC50 + RFD40 UHF RFID Sled
Healthcare mobile computer paired with a UHF sled that reads 1,300+ tags per second to locate and count stock instantly.