That's the assessment of Mark Roberti, the founder and editor of RFID Journal, so it's very much an emerging trend in healthcare. The idea is that by using resources more effectively, hospital staff can spend less time running around trying to find medical supplies and more time with patients.

"The reason why healthcare costs are so high is hospitals keep buying things they already have and waste money," Roberti said at a conference which focused on RFID in Healthcare. Hospitals have been so focused on the priority of saving lives that they have been slow to adopt technology that saves money.

At the conference, representatives from hospitals and the healthcare industry illustrated how they have used the technology to adopt leaner supply chain practices associated with manufacturing to pare down costs and improve safety. But they seem to be the exceptions.

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Keywords: RFID, healthcare industry, U.S. hospitals, healthcare trends, supply chain, supply chain IT