For hospitals and healthcare facilities, time is a critical factor in patient care. The ability to locate and deploy the right equipment quickly can be the difference between life and death. Effective asset management is, therefore, a top priority for any modern-day healthcare facility, but the sheer volume of medical devices, supplies, and equipment makes efficient management a challenge.
Asset tracking in healthcare combines various technologies and systems to monitor, manage, and locate essential assets—ranging from life-saving equipment like ventilators and defibrillators to everyday tools such as wheelchairs and mobile patient monitors. With reliable asset tracking, hospitals can improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure patient safety. But the journey to effective asset tracking involves more than just installing a system; it requires understanding the technology options, overcoming implementation challenges, and keeping pace with emerging trends.
In this blog, we’ll explore what asset tracking in healthcare is, how it works, the benefits it brings to healthcare facilities, and the technologies that make it possible. We’ll also dive into the challenges hospitals face when implementing asset-tracking systems and take a look at some compelling case studies showcasing the positive impacts of asset-tracking in real-world healthcare settings.
What is Asset Tracking in Healthcare?
Hospitals depend on thousands of critical pieces of equipment daily, including ventilators, defibrillators, wheelchairs, portable monitors, and more. Without a reliable system, finding these items quickly can become a logistical challenge. Asset tracking combines technology, systems, and processes to help healthcare facilities monitor and manage their medical equipment, devices, and even staff and patients, ensuring their location and status are always known.
Benefits of Asset Tracking in Healthcare
Asset tracking in healthcare is essential for improving efficiency, cutting costs, and enhancing patient care. Here’s how it helps:
Operational Efficiency: Asset tracking ensures that critical tools are always available when needed, reducing delays in care and allowing staff to focus on patients instead of searching for equipment. Real-time data also helps optimize resource use, identifying overused or underutilized items for better distribution.
Cost Savings: With healthcare costs rising, hospitals need to manage resources wisely. Asset tracking prevents unnecessary expenses by reducing losses from misplaced or underused equipment.
Enhanced Patient Care and Safety: Asset tracking ensures tools like defibrillators and ventilators are always ready for emergencies, leading to faster response times and better patient outcomes. Efficient asset management also boosts overall patient experience by reducing delays and frustrations.
Improved Maintenance and Compliance: Asset tracking alerts staff when equipment needs maintenance, allowing for proactive care and minimizing downtime. Additionally, tracking logs provide an audit trail that helps healthcare facilities meet regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of penalties.
Technologies Used in Asset Tracking
Healthcare asset tracking uses a variety of technologies, each offering unique strengths to meet specific needs. Among the most advanced systems are Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)/Wi-Fi tracking, both of which cater to different needs and budgets.
Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS)
RTLS is widely recognized for its ability to provide real-time, three-dimensional tracking, offering the exact x, y, and z coordinates of an asset. This system uses a network of tags attached to equipment and sensors strategically placed throughout the building to locate items with remarkable precision. For example, in a large hospital, RTLS can instantly indicate whether a portable ultrasound machine is on the third floor, in a specific room, or even tucked behind a patient bed.
Beyond location tracking, RTLS systems can trigger automated workflows. If equipment like a defibrillator leaves its assigned zone, the system sends alerts, allowing staff to act quickly to prevent potential theft or misplacement. Its precision and adaptability make RTLS a powerful solution for high-stakes environments like intensive care units and emergency rooms, where every second counts.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)/Wi-Fi tracking
BLE uses small, low-power tags that communicate with mobile devices or beacons, making it an affordable solution for tracking people (e.g., patient wristbands or staff badges) and assets within confined spaces. BLE integrates seamlessly with existing systems, allowing for incremental adoption, but its shorter range limits its scalability in larger facilities.
Wi-Fi tracking, by contrast, leverages a hospital’s existing wireless network, enabling coverage across multiple wings or floors. Wi-Fi tags transmit location data to wireless routers, providing extensive monitoring for assets like infusion pumps or wheelchairs. Traditional Wi-Fi solutions are less precise than RTLS, a challenge addressed and solved by Deeyook’s use of interferometry algorithms which make it possible to precisely and accurately track high-priority assets.
Common Use Cases of Asset Tracking in Healthcare
Some of the most exciting and impactful use cases for asset tracking in the healthcare sector include:
Tracking High-Demand Medical Equipment: In busy hospitals, high-demand items often go missing, leaving healthcare professionals scrambling to find them during critical moments. Asset tracking systems provide an instant overview of where equipment is located, helping staff save valuable time.
Managing Inventory of Disposable Items: Hospitals and clinics manage vast quantities of disposable medical items such as syringes, gloves, and bandages. RTLS technology can be used to track the real-time inventory of these consumables, ensuring that stock levels remain consistent.
Ensuring Compliance and Maintenance: Healthcare facilities are required to conduct regular safety checks, calibration, and maintenance of devices to comply with healthcare regulations and standards. Asset tracking helps streamline these processes by automating maintenance scheduling and keeping detailed records of service history for each device.
Tracking Staff and Patient Movements: Ensuring that the right person is in the right place at the right time is key to smooth operations in a healthcare facility. Asset tracking solutions with wearable badges or wristbands for staff and patients allow staff to monitor real-time locations, reducing time spent searching for people and improving patient safety.
Tracking Ruggedized Devices: Ruggedized devices such as portable imaging systems, are engineered to endure harsh conditions like physical shocks and heavy use. Unlike stationary equipment, ruggedized devices require robust tracking systems that provide real-time updates to monitor their frequent movement, ensure availability in emergencies, and track usage patterns for predictive maintenance.
Challenges in Implementing Asset Tracking Systems in Healthcare
Implementing asset tracking systems in healthcare settings offers tremendous benefits, but the road to success is filled with challenges. These include :
Initial Setup and Costs: One of the most immediate challenges is the significant upfront investment required. The costs for hardware-such as tags and sensors- can quickly add up. Hospitals must also account for the costs of training staff and integrating the technology with existing systems. For smaller facilities or rural healthcare facilities, these costs can be a substantial barrier, even though the return on investment is significant.
Data Privacy and Compliance: Data privacy and compliance requirements can be onerous when implementing asset tracking in healthcare, especially when dealing with patient data. Regulations like HIPAA in the US and GDPR in the EU mandate the encryption of this type of sensitive data, limit access to authorized employees, and ensure patient rights to data access, correction, and deletion. Additionally, healthcare providers must ensure they only collect the minimal amount of information necessary and must implement strong security measures to protect it against unauthorized access or loss.
System Integration: Another significant challenge lies in integrating asset tracking systems with existing hospital information systems, such as Electronic Health Records (EHR) and other management platforms. Many hospitals use legacy systems that are incompatible with newer tracking technologies, requiring custom solutions or additional middleware. Overcoming these integration barriers can be costly and time-consuming.
Technology Limitations: Different asset tracking technologies come with their own set of limitations. In hospitals, equipment, walls, and metal surfaces can cause signal interference, leading to inaccurate data. Certain technologies may also not perform well in specific environments like operating rooms, where tracking signals may be blocked or distorted. Healthcare providers must carefully evaluate the technology that best fits their specific needs, considering factors like signal range, accuracy, and environmental conditions.
The Future of Asset Tracking in Healthcare
The technology behind tracking medical devices and equipment is rapidly advancing, driven by innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), and the expanding application of tracking systems beyond hospital walls. These emerging technologies are set to transform how healthcare providers manage assets, improve patient care, and enhance operational efficiency.
AI-Driven Predictive Analytics: The integration of advanced AI will enable asset-tracking systems to become more proactive. Rather than simply tracking asset location, AI will anticipate equipment demand and condition, forecasting maintenance needs with precision. This could lead to self-healing devices that alert the system when they require maintenance or even automatically schedule repairs before a breakdown occurs, ensuring smooth, uninterrupted healthcare delivery.
IoMT Integration: The future of asset tracking in healthcare will see a deeper connection between medical devices and patient data. IoMT technology will enable assets like infusion pumps, ventilators, and diagnostic tools to not only track their location but also communicate with the hospital's health management systems. These devices will be capable of analyzing patient-specific data to predict when certain equipment is needed, ensuring that the right device is always ready for the right patient, enhancing both care delivery and patient outcomes.
Expansion Beyond Hospitals: As healthcare extends beyond hospital walls, asset tracking will increasingly be deployed in outpatient and home healthcare settings. The ability to track medical devices and supplies remotely, using wearable sensors or home monitoring systems, will provide continuous care coordination. For example, a patient with chronic conditions will have their medical devices monitored in real-time, providing valuable data for healthcare professionals to adjust treatments remotely, reducing hospital visits, and improving overall patient outcomes. This will also help optimize resource management in outpatient clinics and even community healthcare models.
Transform Healthcare Operations with Asset Tracking
Asset tracking has the power to transform healthcare operations. By providing real-time visibility into the location and status of critical assets, healthcare facilities can streamline workflows, minimize equipment downtime, and optimize resource allocation.
For organizations looking to implement cutting-edge asset-tracking solutions, Deeyook offers a proven platform based on interferometry and an AI-based physical model that leverages Wi-Fi-based real-time tracking to ensure accurate, scalable, and efficient management of healthcare assets. With Deeyook’s innovative solutions, healthcare facilities can unlock the full potential of their assets.
Contact us now to explore your options.