Improve Hospital Productivity with Healthcare Asset Tracking

Nowadays, hospitals face numerous challenges. One of the most important ones is staff shortage. Yet, even though it has become a pressing issue, there are still unoptimized procedures that increase the time spend by hospital staff on low-value tasks, such as looking for equipment. A solution to this is introducing healthcare asset tracking systems. But what are they, and why are they so important in terms of productivity? Learn that by reading our article.

What is healthcare asset tracking?

Healthcare asset tracking is the use of IoT devices to manage the equipment in your hospital. Smart trackers are attached to hospital inventory; they connect with each other to show an accurate location of each piece of equipment. This data is then sent to centralized systems, which can be used by nurses to search for particular medical apparatus.

These systems allow hospital staff to quickly locate any needed hospital equipment. Instead of spending valuable minutes on searching through various rooms, the nurses know the exact location of the piece of inventory that they are looking for. Moreover, healthcare asset tracking systems involve real-time location. Therefore, it is possible to quickly find any piece of equipment – even a one that is currently in use.

The role of asset tracking in healthcare

With staff shortages being a major problem in medical facilities, it is vital to utilize the time of the nurses and physicians in the best possible way. Yet, searching for equipment is a low-value task – the nurses could be treating the patients instead, providing better, more careful care or simply handling more patients. And this is why healthcare asset tracking systems are so crucial.

By using IoT sensors to manage equipment, the hospital ensures that their medical staff will be fully focused on patient care. If there are additional hospital beds, it means that the facility can admit more patients. If there are not enough beds, the hospital can put more focus on the already admitted patients and provide even better care. Plus, better treatment means quicker recovery, thus more patients admitted monthly.

What is more, healthcare asset tracking systems are also a means to save money. By boosting productivity, the value created by the nurses increases, while they maintain the same salary. These additional funds will quickly pay off the costs of installing such a system. Later, they can be used as an incentive for hospital employees through raises or to purchase additional assets, such as hospital beds.

Finally, introducing healthcare asset management will let every hospital avoid losing their equipment. In many cases, the utensils go missing or are simply stolen, which creates huge replacement costs for the healthcare facility. Introducing tracking systems makes it possible to eliminate many of these situations.

Conclusion

Healthcare asset tracking means managing your hospital equipment with the use of IoT devices. It is the solution to many modern challenges in healthcare, such as staff shortage or equipment thefts. By using it, hospitals may increase the productivity of the nurses, treat their patients better and save on costs of replacing missing equipment. Therefore, it is a solution worth pursuing.