Asset Tracking In Healthcare

Hospitals and other medical facilities use large amounts of equipment in their daily work. Analysis by the National Center for Biomedical Information (NCBI) shows that about 1,700 different types of medical equipment are in use. That gives on average around 10,000 devices in a hospital. The larger the facility, with a large number of specialities, the greater the demand for equipment. The ability to quickly locate and track hospital assets is therefore crucial.
Hospital asset tracking – discover its potential
The primary mission of hospitals is to treat patients and improve their care. However, the efficiency of medical teams’ work is significantly reduced without specialized equipment used to diagnose, perform operations or carry out tests. Hospitals, therefore, need to invest in equipment. But for healthcare facilities, costs are also high. Therefore, their optimization is possible on many levels.
This also applies to the management of medical assets. Manual recording of medical equipment locations by employees is a relatively inexpensive option. Unfortunately, it frequently happens that employees forget to update the data due to a flurry of duties. Also, often the spreadsheets created are so extensive that finding the equipment needed can be problematic. And as we know, in the event of a cardiac arrest, there is no time for any speculation – the AED must be located immediately.
Hospital asset tracking software – how does it work?
Simply put, hospital asset tracking involves tagging devices and equipment. This makes locating them in the hospital simple, with essential information instantly delivered to mobile devices. Once the infrastructure is in place, medical staff can start finding assets in real-time by monitoring the digital map and a list of items within the platform, for example Kontakt.io’s Smart Healthcare Solutions.
Among the most popular technologies for asset tracking in hospitals are Bluetooth Low Energy tags with low energy requirements, e.g. Kontakt.io’s Asset Tag 2. It uses the cloud to organize and analyze information, and transmission is wireless. Asset tracking has many benefits – work time is saved, spending on unnecessary equipment is reduced, patient handling time decreases, and the exchange of information between specialists is faster. Still, it’s estimated that only 15-20% of healthcare facilities have invested in such systems. However, market trends show a significant increase in interest in asset tracking software for hospitals. The sector was worth $1.64 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $56.2 billion by 2026, representing an annual growth rate of 30 per cent.
Modern asset tracking software for hospitals
RTLS asset tracking software should be accessible via the internet on a range of regular devices – laptops, iPads or tablets. It should also provide many different views of the data – in maps, lists, including specific rooms, floors or the whole hospital.
For example, the hospital asset tracking software offered by Kontakt.io uses a web-based platform and cloud storage. In this way, it provides access to data depending on the needs of a given hospital department – administration, medical staff or management.
Benefits for healthcare facilities
Asset tracking systems have many advantages. The most important of these are:
- improved quality of patient care due to shorter waiting times and rapid staff response
- increased job satisfaction
- keeping assets in good condition through systematic maintenance work
- savings on purchases through efficient use of existing equipment
- the possibility of using the system with standard equipment – smartphones, tablets, laptops
If you are interested in implementing a modern, efficient and scalable asset tracking software in your healthcare facility, reach out to Kontakt.io – the industry leader in indoor location cloud solutions and Bluetooth Low Energy, IoT sensors and beacons. Their healthcare experts will be glad to learn about the problems you would like to solve and point out the areas where the asset tracking solution will be most profitable.