In high-pressure and time-critical environments, such as hospitals, the last thing your staff need to be concerned with is trying to locate the equipment needed to do their jobs efficiently and effectively.
Unfortunately, the reality for many practitioners is that a substantial amount of time is spent searching for vital items during their shifts. This causes unnecessary delays and stress for hospital staff and their patients.
The inadequate monitoring and management of medical assets (such as medical carts, laptops and batteries) can result in huge inefficiencies and costs for misplaced, lost and stolen items. Thankfully, there is a solution that streamlines the management of assets in any medical setting – Digital Asset Tracking.
In this post we will explore the following:
- What is Digital Asset Tracking?
- How Does Asset Tracking Work?
- Benefit 1: Save Time
- Benefit 2: Reduce Unnecessary Spend
- Benefit 3: Increase Patient Well-being and Safety
How Does Asset Tracking Work?
Step 1: Install a reader in each zone that requires monitoring
Readers operate via Bluetooth, which is a wireless form of connection. The reader will link up to any tags on items around them within a 20-metre radius. The more readers you install, the more specific the location results will be and the quicker it will be to find the equipment you’re looking for.
Step 2: Tag the equipment that needs tracking
Attach an item tag to each asset, then name and register it within the software system so it can be picked up by the readers accurately.
There’s no limit to how many items you can tag, and these assets might include All-In-One PC’s, medical carts, laptops, hot swap batteries – literally any piece of equipment on your ward.
Step 3: Run the Asset Tracking app on any device, from anywhere
Debetrek’s Asset Tracking system uses an APP where the information from the readers installed across your facility will be visible. Anyone with access to the system in your setting can view details of tagged item locations via their device. This could be a mobile phone, tablet, desktop, or computer on a mobile medical cart.
Benefits of Digital Assets Tracking
Benefit 1: Save Staff Time
According to a survey of around 1,000 nurses conducted in the UK by publication ‘Nursing Times’, over a third spend at least an hour looking for items needed to do their job during an average shift at work.
On top of this, another hour is spent helping colleagues from other wards source items they cannot locate. This equates to a possible 40 hours per month, per nurse, trying to hunt down medical equipment.
You can put an end to wasted time on your wards by investing in digital asset tracking for hospitals. Anyone with the connected app installed on their device will be able to locate any tagged item in real time within the facility in just a few clicks.
Benefit 2: Reduce Unnecessary Spend
When you have a digital inventory of items across your facility, you are able to gain a clear understanding and overview of where everything is, and the number of assets available, in real time.
No more unnecessary spend on replacing misplaced items.
Digital asset tracking can also prevent different departments from procuring the same items as each other, resulting in double up of equipment where it isn’t required.
Debetrek’s Asset Tracking system encourages a coordinated and organised approach to asset management that will save your facility money in the short and long term.
Benefit 3: Increased Patient Well-being and Safety
Rather than wasting valuable time hunting down equipment on the ward, practitioners can tend more effectively to their patient care.
The distraction of misplaced items is removed, giving staff and patients more time and presence to provide the quality care the patient requires and deserves.
Safety measures are also increased by being able to access necessary equipment promptly, particularly in any emergency situation. Having all assets tagged and readable via the app makes this possible.
Ready to Tag and Track Your Medical Assets?
Contact our team today if you are ready to digitise your facilities inventory.
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