Expand Nurse Call Automation with Real-Time Asset Tracking

Many healthcare facilities are using Location Services to automate nurse call cancellation and improve staff workflow. With this infrastructure in place, facilities can easily expand to include Asset Tracking and Management. Leveraging a Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) for assets provides efficient workflows related to loss prevention, equipment distribution, and preventative maintenance.

Challenges of Asset Management in Healthcare

Preventative Maintenance

Preventative Maintenance (PM) of medical equipment is becoming extremely critical. With the advent of mandatory 100% compliance imposed by Joint Commission in July 2017, clinical engineering teams across North America are under tremendous pressure to perform manufacturer recommended PMs in a timely manner. On average, clinical engineering teams spend 2,000 labor hours annually looking for mobile equipment that require preventative maintenance and still achieve roughly 94% compliance. In addition, lack of location visibility disrupts mobile equipment sharing models causing hoarding, perceived shortages, and over procurement that strains the clinical engineering team further.

Loss Prevention

Hospital buildings are significantly porous with multiple team members entering and exiting the facility while serving patients, receiving materials such as supplies or equipment, and processing soiled laundry and trash. Such high-volume activities result in unintended negligence causing small, yet costly, medical devices to get wrapped up in soiled linens or in trash bags that leave the hospital with no chance of recovery. It is estimated that a typical 300 bed hospital loses an average of $200,000 annually in equipment loss. This does not account for indirect losses related to absence of a medical device at the point of care when needed, resulting in dissatisfied patients and lower reimbursements.

From Nurse Call Automation to Enhanced Asset Management

CenTrak’s turnkey Asset Tracking solution provides instant location visibility on all mobile medical equipment. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities using CenTrak Nurse Call infrastructure are already enabled to provide 100% room-level visibility to asset tags. The technology can be leveraged by asset tags in various patient rooms, hallway segments, equipment storage, and soiled utility rooms. Providing location visibility not only delivers increased productivity and achieves 100% compliance but also opens opportunities to automate critical equipment sharing workflows to reduce rentals and over-procurement. Using CenTrak’s technology, asset tags can be detected at critical chokepoints to provide audible alerts that prevent loss of equipment.

If you’d like to hear from a customer using Enterprise Location Services for both Asset Tracking and Nurse Call Automation, view this on-demand presentation featuring an HCA Hospital of the Future, Orange Park Medical Center.