Benefits of Healthcare Asset Tracking in Hospitals in 2023

Hospitals looking to improve the quality of patient care and efficiencies across are turning to healthcare asset tracking and IoT solutions.

What is Hospital Asset Management?

It refers to a highly organized & cost-effective method for storing, purchasing, maintaining, using & disposing of hospital assets. It is crucial to ensure that the hospital’s core equipment is regularly maintained, tested, and tracked in a reliable order. It is with the central objective to ensure that all the medical equipment operates with maximum efficiency & is prepared to support patient care. It would include machines, equipment & physical assets. And it would also cover patient care equipment, from beds & chairs to operational stock, which would consist of blood pressure monitors, locating the equipment location, and more.

Why? Well, because of the advantages hospitals stand to gain, of course; now, if you are still wondering the reason why hospitals are clamoring, here are some of the key benefits:

1. Patient prioritization: IoT solutions and tracking devices allow hospitals to ensure enhanced focus on patients via improved productivity.
2. Reduced wait times: IoT-driven asset tracking can also help reduce patient wait times since staff doesn’t have to spend time simply looking for carts.
3. Equipment tracking: Among other things, cart tracking offers data that drives robust decision-making about the patients that can be tended to effectively and safely on a given day. And when these tracks are fitted with tracking devices, it also becomes simple to track their location, know the precise number of carts parked, etc.
4. Track cart identification and availability: Mobile healthcare carts are a huge boon to the hospital world. However, sometimes, it can be difficult for staff to remember where their carts are parked. Now increasingly fitted with trackers, hospitals can also identify and get a status update about their availability in real-time.
5. Improved equipment usage: Healthcare and telehealth carts are significant investments, so, understandably, companies would seek to ensure their correct usage. With asset tracking, hospitals get a bird’s eye view of when, where, and how medical carts are used. This information, in turn, facilitates decisions aimed at better and appropriate cart usage.
6. System-wide data sharing: Modern asset tracking, of course, enables hospitals to track carts’ locations, their usage, etc. This data can then be quickly and easily compiled and shared with people and systems across the facility to help better serve patients.
7. Maintenance and sanitizing scheduling: Given that healthcare carts typically shuffle between various rooms, sanitizing the carts regularly is not just a nice thing but a critical process to ensure safety. With IoT-enabled asset tracking, it becomes straightforward to track where the coaches have been and when the carts were last sanitized, underwent maintenance work, etc.
8. Predictive maintenance: Yet another benefit of cart asset tracking is predictive maintenance. So, exactly how does cart asset tracking help with that? With devices keeping a close eye on how carts are performing, staff can be made aware of any equipment issues as soon as they arise, thus enabling repairs before the equipment ultimately malfunctions and necessitates replacement.

As more and more hospitals and other healthcare facilities embrace IoT and leverage it for asset tracking, there has been a significant shift in efficiencies and results recorded in the sector. Before you start to wonder — it is a good shift. And as IoT continues to evolve and, with it, the benefits for the healthcare sector, it is not surprising to see the demand for such solutions shoot through the roof. If you, too, are considering bringing in a hospital asset tracking system for your organization, now would be a good time. Oh & do not forget to consult an expert to ensure a seamless implementation process.