What is hospital asset tracking?

Hospital asset tracking systems (also called healthcare asset tracking systems) track the location, operating status and utilization of medical assets and equipment in a hospital—patient monitors, imaging devices, medical devices, medical computer carts, mobile devices and much more—continuously and in real time.

The primary goal of any hospital asset tracking system is to make sure nurses, clinicians and technical support staff can locate medical devices and other critical assets quickly when they’re needed to treat patients, or when they need to be serviced.

A recent study found that nurses waste up to 60 minutes per shift looking for medical equipment, costing $14 billion in lost productivity in the United States alone. Hospital asset tracking can help caregivers be more responsive and focused on patient care, while minimizing or preventing costly inefficiencies and device downtime that eats away at hospital profitability.

How hospital asset tracking works

The core of any hospital asset tracking solution is a real-time location system (RTLS)—a hardware-and-software-based solution that reports each asset’s physical location at regular intervals or at specified times. Broadly speaking, there two ways to implement an RTLS.

Asset tagging

In asset tagging a physical ‘tag’—either a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag or a barcode label—is affixed to the asset. RFID tags can report their locations—via WiFi or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)—to readers positioned throughout the hospital. Barcodes typically must be scanned whenever assets are moved from one location to another.

Asset tagging is a cost-effective asset tracking solution for non-powered medical devices and hospital equipment—wheelchairs, over-bed tables, roll stands, walkers—without built-in tracking technology.

Embedded tracking technology

Increasingly, medical devices are evolving into Internet of things (IoT) devices—they include built-in hardware and firmware that transmits the device’s location to an asset tracking software application, typically over the hospital’s WiFi network. The software records the device’s location relative to the nearest WiFi access points.

Unlike asset tagging, embedded tracking technology can provide real-time visibility and notifications on matters other than asset location—such as the identities of current and past users who logged into the equipment, battery or electrical charge levels, or outages or error states.

Benefits beyond tracking: Integration with other hospital systems

On its own, hospital asset tracking software is extremely valuable. For example, consider a common hospital asset tracking system—the fleet management software available with many medical computer carts. Based on information transmitted from technology embedded in each cart, the fleet management software can tell hospital IT administrators

• The current location of each cart—by floor and department—as well as the location history of each cart
• The battery charge status of each cart, and the charge capacity of each cart battery (an indicator or remaining battery life)
• Whether the cart is in use or off-line
• If a help request has been issued for the cart

With just these few datapoints, admins have they information they need to locate lost carts (or carts that have ‘drifted’ from their assigned floor or department), redeploy frequently idle carts to busier locations, and plan purchases of replacement parts or batteries.

But by integrating the asset tracking system with other hospital applications, hospital IT staff can put this data to work enhancing and improving a number of other workflows.

Help desk ticketing

When medical devices or hospital equipment fails, clinicians rarely have time to submit a help request, let alone a request with an accurate detailed description of the problem.

Integrating hospital asset tracking with the help desk ticketing system can enable clinicians to submit detailed support requests—complete with the location of the device, log data and other important system information—automatically, at the touch or click of a button. With this information, support staff can zero in on the root cause of the problem, solve the problem faster, and provide additional support (such as dispatching replacement equipment for use in the meantime).

Hospital asset management systems

A hospital asset management system (also called a hospital asset management or healthcare asset lifecycle management system) is software for managing and maximizeing the use, performance and working life of medical devices and other hospital equipment.

The terms hospital asset management and hospital asset tracking are sometimes used interchangeably, but they’re very different. While asset tracking is a feature of many asset management systems, asset management provides many additional features for managing the entire lifecycle of every hospital asset, from acquisition and deployment through utilization, maintenance and eventually retirement and disposal.

With integrated data from asset tracking systems (and especially data from fleet management systems and other device-specific tracking systems), an asset management solution can support smarter decision-making at every phase of the asset lifecycle—e.g, purchasing the right number of assets for each location or department, redeploying assets for maximum utilization as workflows change, and budgeting for replacement parts or equipment.

Preventive maintenance and CMMS systems

Properly performed, preventive maintenance helps minimize downtime and prolong the life of medical devices and hospital equipment. In many cases, neglecting to perform and document preventive maintenance can void device or equipment warranties.

Preventive maintenance (PM) software stores maintenance requirements, schedules and automates maintenance work orders, and tracks maintenance and costs for every asset in the system. Data from hospital asset tracking can automatically trigger maintenance activities based on specific conditions—e.g., length of service, number of battery charge cycles—and help ensure preventive maintenance is performed on time and in compliance with industry standards, safety regulations and warranty requirements.

A CMMS, or computerized maintenance management system, is software for planning, tracking and reporting on all activities related to equipment and facilities maintenance. In a hospital, a CMMS helps ensure that critical equipment and facilities are always available, in proper working order, wherever and whenever they’re needed to support patient care.

Integrating hospital asset tracking systems with CMMS puts real-time asset data at maintenance manager’s fingertips and simplifies everything from routine maintenance scheduling to documentation and reporting required for inventory management, supply chain planning and budgeting, and regulatory compliance audits.

Healthcare facilities management

A superset of CMMS, healthcare facilities management is enterprise software for planning, tracking and reporting on everything and anything having to do with a hospital’s physical plant operations, including the development of facilities, plant and equipment maintenance, physical and digital security, regulatory compliance and day-to-day operations.

Integrating hospital asset tracking data can add relevant detail to support smarter decision making and cost savings in many facilities management workflows—from planning the number and type of assets needed in various locations and facilities, to budgeting for responsible disposal and recycling of those assets, and everything in between.

Recap: Big-picture integration advantages

Stepping back from the details, integrating hospital asset tracking data with other mission-critical hospital systems can help hospitals and healthcare providers to:

• Improve patient experience, patient safety and quality of care. Any integration that helps hospitals maximize asset uptime and availability and maintains assets in the best possible working order can contribute to a better, safer patient experience and better care.
• Streamline operations and minimize data errors. Too often, hospital IT staff has to integrate asset tracking data manually, which is time consuming and can lead to errors. Integration can add accurate asset tracking data into other workflows quickly and automatically, without human intervention.
• Control costs. Asset tracking data can help prevent unnecessary new product purchases, avoid unscheduled downtime and unexpected repairs, keep warranties in force and avoid costly non-compliance with healthcare industry security and safety regulations.
• Optimize asset performance and ROI. By helping to maximize asset utilization, minimize downtime, maintain assets in peak operating condition and maximize or extend product life, asset tracking data helps hospitals realize maximum possible value from their investments in medical equipment and devices.

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