3 Ways Asset Tracking Solutions Can Help Healthcare Providers Stay Organized

Because hospitals and EMS agencies are constantly under strain, especially during the pandemic, budgets tend to get tighter, and staff is stretched thin. Moreover, there are not enough resources to go around.

Things get out of hand very quickly in this industry. This is why healthcare providers need to look for tools that can help ease the pressure on their overworked staff. One thing that could help with this is to monitor the dispersal of inventory and assets. Then, ensure their steady flow, so healthcare workers will always have the piece of equipment or inventory on hand at the exact moment of need.

That said, medical assets require thoughtful management to keep everything in order. This article will discuss three benefits Emergency Medical Service agencies and hospitals can get from smart asset and inventory management to help them accomplish that goal.

Detailed Inventory and Usage Tracking

In healthcare, when a single item goes missing, it negatively impacts the quality of care, especially regarding equipment needed for emergencies. Therefore, it’s crucial to maintain a detailed inventory and an efficient asset-tracking process when handling valuable medical equipment like ventilators, stethoscopes, and other essential healthcare devices. And that’s not even including IT equipment and medications.

Healthcare workers must be updated regularly on what medicines and other vital items they need to provide care. That said, they also don’t have the time to perform that task by themselves. These are people that you don’t want wasting time tracking down the items they need to perform their jobs, especially during emergencies or crises.

That’s usually the case, unfortunately. This study finds that nurses spend less time on patient care activities because of other tasks. In a separate survey, more than 1/3 of nurses out of 1000 were discovered to spend at least one hour of their shift searching for equipment. That’s not a good use of a health worker’s time, skills, and effort.

An asset tracking system keeps a detailed record. Each record includes an item description, serial number, warranty information, assigned custodian, and other vital attributes. It’s also able to track equipment and even medication use over time. With that information, administrators are aware of the amount of stock left in their inventory and how much medical equipment is in each location.

As a result, healthcare providers will never have a problem missing an item whenever needed, and medical staff avoids wasting precious time manually tracking inventory and assets. They become more efficient and productive when it comes to providing care.

Streamlined Preventive Maintenance of Assets

Healthcare is probably one of the most maintenance-demanding industries. Aside from sanitizing, hospitals also need to maintain their life-saving equipment regularly. They also need to keep track of which asset is sanitized or serviced.

Manually keeping track of these things could add more burden to an already overworked industry. But without regular maintenance, medical equipment could break down during an emergency.

Good hardware asset management solves this problem by keeping track of the asset location, user, and status. Thanks to technologies used by this system, like RFID, NFC, and IoT, whenever an asset needs maintenance or sanitizing, the system notifies the relevant parties.

Remote Tracking For Ambulance Equipment

Ambulances are essential vehicle assets used by EMS providers. Many people rely heavily on these vehicles in their time of dire need. As such, they must always have their complete equipment, like defibrillators, blood pressure cuffs, spinal boards, and other critical items for responding to emergencies.

Smart asset management features a GPS tracking system allowing administrators to monitor hospital assets beyond the hospital premises. It also enables healthcare companies to assign assets to a specific vehicle and tag each of these items with RFID. This makes it possible to take inventory of what an ambulance crew has on hand, even in remote locations, and confirm if they have enough of the right equipment.

The smart asset vending system’s GPS tracking capability can also help monitor crucial activities and events such as when the ambulance was assigned for pick up and when they reached the incident location, and then arrived at the hospital.

Moreover, GPS tracking of ambulances has improved dispatching, ensuring faster response and timely patient transport. With the GPS capability of smart enterprise asset management, hospital staff knows an ambulance team’s current location and how soon they might arrive. This gives them time to prepare more efficiently for incoming patients.

Conclusion

A smart asset management system like Teqtivity has proven helpful and cost-effective for many industries. In the healthcare environment, it’s a lifesaver from which both staff and patients can benefit.

The best asset tracking solution gives hospitals and EMS providers an automated system that can route medical equipment to where it’s most needed, eliminating the risks of shortage and the stress that comes with it.

Because of their flexibility, smart locker systems can also adapt to the unique needs of health agencies. They will handle all the time-consuming tasks so that healthcare workers and technicians can focus on what they do best – providing high-quality care.

Changing the way healthcare companies track their assets and inventory may seem like a daunting challenge. Still, with the right asset management system in place, the transition becomes a breeze, and they will quickly see and experience the benefits immediately.