TechNation Roundtable: Asset Tracking (RTLS, RFID, etc.)
Healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals are among those tasked with finding medical devices for a number of reasons. One reason is the need to locate equipment to complete preventative maintenance tasks. Another reason an HTM professional might need to locate a device is to provide a replacement for an ongoing surgery. Those are just two examples.
TechNation reached out to several companies to find out the latest about asset tracking technology and devices. Here is what Cognosos’ own Chief Product Officer, Adrian Jennings, had to say about asset tracking for healthcare facilities. Click to watch or read the full roundtable discussion from all panelists.
1. What factors should biomeds consider to determine which type of asset tracking system is best for their facility’s needs?
There are two important considerations when selecting an asset tracking system are:
- Room determination: To maximize the financial return, the clinical value and operational efficiencies the solution should be able to identify equipment in all patient rooms, procedural areas, clean and soiled equipment rooms, hallways, etc.
- Ease of installation: You do not want your asset tracking project to become a large and complex IT assignment competing with other large IT priorities, adding to the cost of the total project and eating into potential ROI.
2. What are some of the newest features available?
Some of Cognosos’ newest features are:
- Proactive Periodic Asset Replenishment (ProPAR): We all agree our primary medical device goal is to ensure clean equipment is available when required for a patient. Real-time visibility into clean equipment rooms, with real time alerting when stock levels are low ensures efficient restocking of rooms, eliminating hours wasted trying to manually keep track of equipment levels.
- Asset location powered by AI: New technology can now leverage next-gen machine learning and AI to provide precise room-level location of assets without the need for costly and invasive installations.
3. How can asset tracking systems help a health care facility save money?
Asset tracking technology can help healthcare facilities save money by providing accurate data on asset utilization, guiding future asset purchases, adjusting rental needs and improving loss prevention. Here’s how: Do you have enough IV pumps, or too many? What about SCDs? In most hospitals up to 25% of equipment is sitting idle at any given moment. Asset tracking provides visibility into your equipment utilization, the data you need to make evidence-based purchasing decisions (or to avoid unnecessary purchases altogether). Likewise, if you rent equipment you already own, there’s a good chance that these rental costs could be eliminated. In order to make this determination; however, you need to know where (and what) your equipment is doing at all times, which requires room-level accurate location information. Finally, a lot of equipment is lost through trash collection and soiled laundry. Real-time alerting on these areas enables the quick recovery of equipment before it leaves your building.
4. Is cybersecurity a concern when it comes to asset tracking technologies?
It should not be. The location device (tag) on each piece of equipment should not be transmitting any hospital specific information. Look for a solution with a dedicated backhaul (not sharing your Wi-Fi or other wireless platforms) that’s hosted in a recognized health care-secure facility, like AWS.
5. Is there anything else you would like to share with TechNation readers?
Have your asset tracking partner provide the ROI for your project to support your business justification. Focus on the hard-dollar impact of the solution, not the soft value (staff satisfaction, staff productivity). Understand how your asset tracking partner will help you track and prove ROI throughout the life of the project.
To learn more about RTLS for hospitals download our eBook on the 5 Myths of Hospital RTLS that Cost Time, Money & Resources.
