RFID tracking slowly working its way into hospital inventory control

Supermarkets and your refrigerator tend to have the same issue in common: "Best If Used By" labels. If you don't get around to selling or consuming that yogurt or luncheon meat by a certain date, it's usually a good idea to dispose of it and buy a replacement. Grocers have to work the systematic dumping of expired products into the cost-benefit analyses for their bottom lines. Hospitals have that same issue as well. There are scores, if not hundreds, of items sitting on their supply shelves that have expired. They may be minor things like ointments, or they could be surgically implantable hardware that cost thousands of dollars a unit.