RTLS (Real-Time Location System) technology revolutionized healthcare asset tracking and has been available for decades. Being able to locate and track valuable assets allowed healthcare facilities to improve efficiency, make improvements to patient safety, and increase the quality of care. Although asset tracking is the original use of RTLS, and it is still used most commonly in this way, this technology can be leveraged to do so much more. Here are some ways to use RTLS to improve healthcare asset management:

1. Apply RTLS to more than large equipment.
2. Use RTLS for better inventory visibility.
3. Leverage RTLS to assist with PAR level management.
4. Reduce inventory shrinkage.
5. Gain insights into equipment usage rates.
6. Manage rented equipment more effectively.
7. Enhance infant and pediatric security using RTLS.
8. Improve maintenance schedules and workflows.
9. Strengthen staff protection measures and protocols.

1. Apply RTLS to More Than Large Equipment

RTLS allows for real-time asset locating and tracking. Any assets being tracked can be identified and located wherever they are within the facility or across campuses in seconds. RTLS is also not just for large mobile equipment. It can also be used for valuable assets like wheelchairs, sequential compression devices, infusion pumps, and more.

These are supplies that clinical teams often need when caring for patients. Being able to leverage RTLS and asset management to locate supplies like these can reduce staff frustration and give them back more time for patients by eliminating the need to spend time searching for these items.

2. Use RTLS For Better Inventory Visibility

In addition to locating assets, including valuable medical supplies needed for patient care, RTLS and other security systems, like intelligent video surveillance, can provide better, up-to-date inventory visibility.

Not only will you be able to see where your wheelchairs are in and across your facilities, but you’ll also have an accurate account of how many you have. Particularly with supplies that are frequently used and need to be replenished, you can use RTLS to better manage your inventory. Even with smaller medical supplies and medication, RTLS and smart cameras can be used to count objects, monitor inventory, and send alerts when someone is loitering suspiciously or when inventory is low. This is a practical way to use AI in healthcare.

With RTLS and asset management, you’ll be able to gain insights into what you have, how often different types of supplies are used, how much is used, and more. This can also inform how often you need to reorder certain types of supplies and how large an order you need to ensure your staff always has what they need on hand.

3. Leverage RTLS to Assist With PAR Level Management

Better inventory visibility, particularly into how much of certain supplies you use and how often, can assist with more effective PAR level management. Periodic Asset Replenishment (PAR) level refers to the minimum quantity of an asset that you need to have in inventory to ensure your clinical team has what they need to care for patients.

Being able to leverage RTLS for a clear view of what you have in inventory across a wide variety of supplies and equipment, along with usage rates, can help you better determine what the “PAR level” for a specific asset should be without risking negative impacts to patient care or staff efficiency. You can also track and monitor usage over time and proactively adjust PAR levels and reordering as needed to prevent overspending, overordering, or underordering when needs shift.

Baseline minimum quantities and rule-based alerts based on those baselines can help you monitor overages and shortages over time of specific assets and supplies to adjust PAR levels more effectively. Plus, you can set up your system to send alerts to the appropriate personnel when supply levels of critical assets reach a certain threshold. This allows for immediate attention and a reorder before the inventory of critical supplies can fall low enough to cause issues. With enough data over time, you can even adjust PAR levels at the unit, ward, or room level!

4. Reduce Inventory Shrinkage

When your physical inventory does not match your documented inventory, particularly when physical inventory is lower than what is documented, that is inventory shrinkage. Whether via theft or some kind of accidental loss, shrinkage means risking not having what you need when you need it and increased costs of replacing assets.

Using RTLS, the right processes, and alerts, you can better track and manage assets to prevent shrinkage. In this way, RTLS can help reduce and prevent assets from ending up in the laundry or biohazard cleanup bags and getting ruined by accident. It can also help prevent shrinkage from people carrying items out of the facility or assets being misplaced during patient transfer to another facility.

RTLS and asset management software can also help you analyze incidents and loss history to proactively identify iterative process improvements to further reduce shrinkage. This is one of the reasons why asset tracking and management are critical elements of a hospital security assessment.

5. Gain Insights Into Equipment Usage Rates

RTLS and asset management systems can also help you gain insights into equipment usage rates. Overspending on equipment and underutilization of equipment are two challenges for healthcare facilities that RTLS and asset management can help address.

A lack of asset visibility, especially for equipment, can result in healthcare facilities spending too much on healthcare tech and equipment. At the same time, having useful equipment and not using it or not using it enough can negatively impact staff efficiency and patient care. Using asset management and RTLS, you can get a clear view of what equipment you have, how often it is needed, where it is most often needed, and how much it is used to better utilize and allocate the resources you have.

6. Manage Rented Equipment More Effectively

Renting medical equipment can be a solution to get what you need quickly and conveniently. However, it presents its own set of challenges, too. Renting equipment when you don’t need to increases costs. Renting equipment and then having it sit underutilized is another issue. There are also costs associated with losing rental equipment, returning it damaged, or returning it late.

RTLS and effective asset management can address all of these. With a clear view of what you have and where, you will be less likely to rent equipment instead of appropriately allocating internal resources you already have. If you do need to rent equipment, you will be able to make the most of it while you have it. And, when you do have rental equipment, RTLS and asset tracking will help ensure you:

• Know where the rented equipment is at all times.
• Ensure it is not sitting idle when it should be in use.
• Have usage logs and maintenance records if you need them.
• Keep rented equipment clearly separate from owned assets.
• Know exactly when that asset needs to be returned in order to avoid late fees.

7. Enhance Infant and Pediatric Security Using RTLS

One of the critical ways to use RTLS to improve healthcare asset management is to use it to enhance and improve patient protection. RTLS is incorporated into infant security systems to help prevent infant abduction, improve infant-mother matching, and improve overall infant care in maternity wards.

Not only will nursing and clinical staff be able to monitor and track where their smallest and most vulnerable patients are, but RTLS can also trigger specific emergency response protocols should a tag be in an area it’s not supposed to be. This is one of the best practices for preventing infant abduction in healthcare.

In the case of an infant abduction, alerts can be sent, elevators and doors locked down, announcements made, local law enforcement notified, and more to ensure safety and security. These are ways to enhance the infant protection system in your hospital.

8. Improve Maintenance Schedules and Workflows

Other ways to use RTLS to improve healthcare asset management are to use it to improve maintenance schedules on equipment and to improve maintenance workflows overall. An asset management system integrated with CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) can leverage RTLS to monitor and manage maintenance schedules for equipment.

In addition to helping staff locate equipment quickly and easily, RTLS and asset management can:

• Send alerts when maintenance is due.
• Keep track of when assets are in use vs available for maintenance.
• Help automate maintenance records.
• Maintain logs for convenient audit trails.
• Help healthcare facilities stay in compliance.

Not only does this save time and make preventive maintenance more efficient, but it also helps your equipment last longer and ensures your most important assets are working at full capacity. On top of that, cleanup schedules can also be managed this way, and overall facility maintenance workflows can be improved with status tagging and other convenient alerts.

Environmental monitoring systems can also be integrated to provide data and alerts when something needs to be addressed urgently or in response to an incident. This is one of the applications of environmental monitoring in healthcare.

Being able to automate some of these alerts and reduce manual input saves time and reduces costs. This is why using RTLS to monitor equipment and supplies and integrating that data with other systems to help manage maintenance and alerts is an automation idea for your hospital.

9. Strengthen Staff Protection Measures and Protocols

RTLS can also be used to strengthen staff protection measures and help prevent workplace violence. Just as RTLS helps provide more real-time data to patient alerts and alarms in a nurse call system, it can be used to locate and protect your staff, too. This is a key area to consider when evaluating your hospital’s staff protection.

They are people and not equipment, but your staff is a priceless asset to your healthcare facility. Safety guidelines and protocols only go so far on their own. Being able to leverage RTLS and other security systems can help facilitate rapid response to urgent calls and staff attack alarms.

Implement More Effective Healthcare Asset Management With NEPPS

RTLS is a technology that improves long-term care, and can be used for so much more than basic asset tracking in healthcare facilities. Facility management, inventory management, patient care, staff protection, and more are just a few ways to use RTLS to improve healthcare asset management. Improving utilization and efficiency, reducing costs, making positive improvements to patient care, and more are all benefits of effective asset management in healthcare.

Effective asset tracking is an essential component of a healthcare security solution. The most helpful uses, configurations, and integrations will depend on your unique facility and operations. A good security integrator partner can help you navigate your facility’s unique challenges and risks to create a comprehensive security solution customized to suit your needs. If you are looking to improve the security in your healthcare facility, contact Northeast Protection Partners at 1-800-736-1456.