A well-developed asset tracking in healthcare facilitates higher operational efficiency and financial stability for the organization. Since hospitals possess countless equipment and other assets, effective asset tracking will promote easier allocation of resources and makes sure that none of the resources are stolen or misplaced.
Healthcare asset tracking has witnessed significant demands in recent years and is expected to reach $15 billion by 2026.
Immaculate asset tracking has enabled the automation of asset management workflows and optimized the asset procurement process. The cloud-based management process has ensured the accumulation of the resource data in a centralized database. This has brought forth productivity and better collaboration between various healthcare departments and divisions.
Asset Tracking in Healthcare- Key Features
The healthcare industry is heavily reliant upon its equipment to deliver high-quality services. Hospitals and clinics may have countless pieces of equipment. A proper system to track these resources will bring optimization to the workflow and efficiency to various medical services. These are some of the key areas where proper asset tracking will bring distinguished results.
- Real-time tracking of medical assets within the facility
- Lower procurement costs when it comes to replacing a stolen equipment
- Keep tabs on resource usage and its performance data
- Deploy flawless inventory management
- Build a fail-safe equipment storage system
How Do Healthcare Facilities Benefit from Asset Tracking?
#Improved life cycle for medical resources
Real-time monitoring of hospital resources gives a peek into its functional properties. This will prompt the facilities to keep an eye on equipment’s performance and schedule maintenance when necessary. This practice will prolong the life of assets and facilitate cost efficiencies for the organization.
#Managing asset loss
Deploying a real-time asset management system in the healthcare industry will significantly reduce the chances of equipment/asset losses. The management team will always be able to track the equipment within the space, reducing any occurrences of asset misplacement.
#Fast and improved decision making
With consistent asset tracking, you get access to data like the exact location of the asset, its performance efficiency, and more. All this information will allow the authorities to swiftly allocate these resources to the required departments and ensure the best patient care.
#Ensuring cost-efficiency
Unexpected downtime can negatively impact the entire healthcare operations. In addition to costing time and money, system errors will scale down the productivity of the operation. With asset tracking, the healthcare facilities get complete transparency into asset performance and allow them to take necessary actions to avoid these downtimes and save money in the long run. Deploying planned asset management will aid the organization in regularly keeping tabs on asset performance and ensuring the highest levels of productivity in healthcare.
Types of Asset Tracking in Healthcare
#Resource tracking using barcode
Barcodes are cost-effective means to track small-sized assets. These are one of the commonly used measures to track resources in many facilities. The barcode can be read by smartphone cameras and also through handheld scanners. Healthcare facilities can choose between barcodes of varying sizes, colors, and materials to fit their specific requirements.
#Resource tracking using RFID
When compared to resource tracking using barcodes, RFID asset tracking technology uses more advanced features for asset management. Here the digital data is enciphered in RFID tags/smart labels. These are then picked up by scanners through radio waves. RFID asset tracking is more popular for tracking resources that are not easily accessible as it offers a larger capture region for operations.
#Resource tracking using NFC and GPS
NFC or Near-field communication technology tracks assets by simply tapping them and recording their details. Since the entire tracking data is stored in the cloud, organizations can swiftly transfer the information and optimize operations.
Geotags are effectively used in asset tracking where these tags transmit location information to the server consistently, enabling efficient inventory management.
#Resource tracking using IoT technology
This type of asset management in healthcare is one of the efficient ways to keep tabs on medical equipment and resources. The objective of using IoT tech is to flawlessly transfer and exchange data between various devices over the internet protocol. IoT asset management solutions can vary from simple devices to smart and complex tools of varying efficiency.
An efficient asset tracking system in healthcare can reap great benefits. From real-time location monitoring to effective inventory management and automated maintenance, having a proper resource tracking solution will help to optimize healthcare workflows and service offerings.
