A system and method for managing the contents of a medical storage container that has a required inventory of medical articles. A Faraday cage enclosure is used to isolate, scan, and inventory a tray or other container of medical articles each of which has an RFID tag. The enclosure having a size smaller than the size needed for a resonant frequency at the RFID frequency of operation. A robust electromagnetic field is nevertheless developed in the enclosure and a program compares the scanned present inventory of the tray to the required inventory database and indicates any differences. Expired and recalled articles are identified.
