Keeping Tabs on Hospital Equipment Without the Headache

Hospitals rely on thousands of mobile assets every day, from infusion pumps and wheelchairs to ventilators, monitors, and surgical equipment. The challenge is not simply knowing what equipment a facility owns; it is knowing where each item is, who is using it, and whether it is available when needed. One way to make that process easier will be through RFID tracking, which can give an automated, reliable way of identifying and locating medical equipment in any hospital.

Why Hospital Equipment Gets Hard to Track

All medical equipment is in constant motion. The portable monitor can be taken from one department to another, a wheelchair can be placed in a patient room, and the infusion pump can be moved from floor to floor. In a manual recording system, asset records can easily become out of date when these movements are recorded manually.

This results in more than just management hassle. Staff can waste precious time looking for equipment that is already in the building, and hospitals may end up buying extra units just because they can’t find the existing equipment. The absence of equipment can also make it harder to keep up with maintenance plans, inventory checks, and documentation for compliance requirements.

How RFID Changes Asset Management

Much of this tracking can be automated by radio-frequency identification (RFID). RFID tags are attached to assets, and each tag has an identifier that readers can retrieve without staff needing to scan each item.

As RFID readers are placed at strategic sites, the movement of tagged equipment within rooms, departments and designated areas can be tracked in a hospital. Depending on the system, this can provide a near real-time record of where an asset is and how it has moved.

For hospitals evaluating an RFID program, hospital RFID asset tracking can serve as a foundation for creating a more organized approach to equipment identification and monitoring.

More Than Knowing Where Equipment Is

The use of RFID isn’t limited to missing device identification. Hospitals can create a more complete picture of the use of equipment over time when asset information is linked to an inventory management system.

Administrators might, for instance, discover equipment that moves regularly between departments, identify assets that are mostly unused, and create more precise records of equipment usage. Such data can inform purchasing decisions and minimize excess equipment expenses.

RFID can supplement preventive maintenance programs. Rather than doing this manually or in a spreadsheet, staff can use asset identification data to link individual assets to maintenance schedules, histories, and inspections.

Improving Staff Efficiency

The time spent searching for equipment can quickly add up in a large facility, and it may appear to be a trivial issue when operating. Multiple calls and/or walking through various departments may be required before nurses, technicians, and support staff find the device to which they need to connect.

That friction can be minimized with a designed RFID system. Staff can use the asset information that is available to them to know where equipment has been detected and not have to undertake a search from scratch.

The advantages can be especially advantageous for high-value or often moving machinery. Faster identification can speed up the availability of the right equipment in service and minimize additional disruption to clinical workflows.

Building a Smarter Inventory Strategy

The best use of RFID is as part of an overall asset management program, not as a standalone tracking solution. The first step hospitals should take is to identify which assets are most critical to track and the equipment’s general movement patterns in the building.

It also helps to have a physical RFID tag. Identification labels can be subject to cleaning chemicals, moisture, abrasion, and repeated handling in medical environments. Identification tags that can last the lifetime of the durable asset used in healthcare applications can be useful.

An initial system setup of tagging and reader technology can be gradually extended to other departments and all types of assets. This enables organizations to tackle their most urgent tracking issues before rolling out across the entire site.

Making Hospital Asset Management More Reliable

The strength of RFID is the visibility. If hospital personnel can readily locate an asset and know its identity, they don’t have to rely on manual records and individual knowledge to manage equipment.

That visibility can help with more effective inventory management, maximized equipment use, on-time maintenance scheduling, and reduced time spent looking for lost items. When managing large numbers of mobile equipment, RFID can add accuracy and accountability to another challenging aspect of hospital operations.