Technology is not the problem confronting the healthcare industry. The term for it is managerial control. Every medical facility has distinct assets that make it stand out. A better patient experience results from improved asset monitoring because you keep your equipment in top condition, know where it should be, and prevent losses and damage.
The development of medical equipment asset management software focuses on creating cutting-edge solutions that support the expansion, effective management, and total asset visibility of healthcare organizations. This article will discuss three strategies to enhance medical asset management through software development and put an end to the tedious process of searching through thousands of files to locate asset data.
Healthcare asset management’s significance:
The global healthcare industry has been under tremendous strain ever since the pandemic first emerged. The management of a sizable number of medical resources, equipment, and other resources presented a difficulty for healthcare institutions. Since then, a lot of healthcare institutions have used top-notch healthcare asset management software. Yet, the healthcare sector has been having problems with efficient resource use and asset management even before the epidemic made it obvious.
With so much to keep track of, there is a huge demand for more effective medical asset management procedures. The staff at healthcare institutions needs a solution that would automate and simplify the process of finding medical equipment, managing patient records, and having rapid access to the most recent information regarding the status and placement of each piece of equipment. Every member of the staff would be able to deliver high-quality patient care, make quicker judgments, and spend less time seeking the equipment with the help of such a tool.
Healthcare asset management difficulties:
Below, we’ve identified the three primary issues that the healthcare sector encounters as a result of ineffective asset management:
Mismanagement of the equipment:
Hospitals and other healthcare organizations could struggle to manage their inventory and current equipment without asset management technology. Patient treatment, wait times, and even the amount of beds available may be impacted by this problem.
Costs lost:
Ineffective asset management causes a lack of resource visibility, which lowers healthcare employees’ productivity. A nurse often spends almost half an hour every shift looking for the equipment, which results in a $500K loss in wasted time. Moreover, poor asset management not only results in additional costs but also delays in response to emergencies.
Failure to adhere to regulatory requirements:
According to Gartner’s prediction in healthcare research, by 2020, 45% more medical equipment would need security hardening on the part of healthcare providers. It is not surprising that one of the most desirable targets for hackers is the healthcare sector. Healthcare is one of the industries with the highest amount of data breaches, according to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report for 2021.
IoT devices like electrocardiograms, medicine infusion systems, and glucometers might be possible targets for hackers. Given the critical role that these devices play in patient care, it is extremely difficult for healthcare institutions to safeguard their IT infrastructure and adhere to legal security requirements.
3 Approaches to using software development to enhance healthcare asset management:
Enhance patient care and expedite response times:
Software solutions for healthcare digital asset management Singapore make it easier to swiftly identify, locate, maintain, and use medical equipment. Through the asset management tool, you may manage anything from beds to wheelchairs to IV poles to infusion pumps to ventilators and heart monitors. Any piece of equipment may be easily located and made available by applying RTLS tags.
The increase in employee productivity will help cut costs:
Asset management for the healthcare system has made it simple to find assets. This saves time for the medical team in finding the necessary equipment.
Moreover, asset management software enables more effective order and inventory coordination. This may result in more economical inventory management.
Observe healthcare security guidelines:
To maintain compliance with healthcare security requirements, it is the responsibility of hospital staff to make sure that medical equipment is examined and fixed on time. By assessing risks, lowering operating costs, and enhancing operational effectiveness inside medical facilities, asset management software assists hospitals in maintaining regulatory compliance.
Fixed Asset Management:
The practice of keeping track of and maintaining a company’s physical assets and machinery is known as fixed asset management.
Organizations can: With an asset management system, they can:
- Observe and record fixed assets
- Control machines and equipment at many sites
- Lower expenses for maintenance
- Boost operational effectiveness
- Keep track of all assets that have been retired, sold, stolen, or lost
With the use of fixed asset management, businesses can monitor their equipment and vehicles, assess their condition, and keep them in top working condition. By doing this, they lower inventory losses, equipment failures, and downtime, increasing an asset’s lifetime value.
Why is managing fixed assets important?
Fixed assets like servers, delivery vans, and elevators demand a substantial financial outlay. They could make up a sizable amount of a business’s net value. Up to 40% of investments in certain firms are used to purchase machinery and cars.
The likelihood of generating value from these investments increases with how well and efficiently a firm manages its assets. Without proper fixed asset management, a company can encounter:
- Unexpected downtime
- Equipment malfunctions
- Lost or misplaced inventory
- Violations of safety or the environment
- Lacking adherence to compliance or regulatory requirements
Businesses with large inventory may incur losses in productivity, repairs, replacements, or fines totaling millions of dollars as a result. In addition to immediate expenditures, poor equipment can damage the caliber of a company’s services or goods, which can harm client satisfaction and brand reputation.
Important characteristics:
Fixed asset management may be challenging, particularly for international corporations or businesses with substantial inventory, such as vehicle rental agencies or multinational manufacturers.
For asset monitoring, small businesses may utilize spreadsheets or enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Manual data entry, however, is error-prone. When fleets of vehicles are transferred between sites or the technology is complicated, it can also be a sluggish way for maintaining fixed asset inventory.
You own five automobiles. If you have 500 vehicles, you may keep a notebook where you record when each requires an oil change, new wiper blades, or a new set of tires. You can already see the problems starting to appear. If only you had a database where you could simply track this data without worrying that it would get forgotten or lost, it would be ideal. An asset management system is used for this purpose.
Software for tracking assets and asset management options provides a dependable approach to managing fixed assets. Included are functions including work order processing, audit trails, and location tracking.
A computerized maintenance management system may be advantageous for smaller enterprises (CMMS). The scheduling, administration, and reporting of maintenance tasks are all made easier by automation software. Workflows for handling, resource allocation and routing, operating and maintenance advice, reporting, and auditing are among the features.
Read More: Custom CRM Software
An enterprise asset management system offers a centralized platform for managing all fixed assets for big organizations. It combines asset data from all stages of an asset’s lifespan, including acquisition, use, upkeep, depreciation, and replacement or renewal.
Organizations may better understand their complex asset environments when they have a full picture. They are more knowledgeable about managing asset health. They optimize management chores and minimize downtime with the aid of features and processes. To address problems and hazards, teams also have an enterprise picture of environmental and safety measures.
