How Real-Time Tracking Enhances Medical Device Management and Cuts Costs in Healthcare

In the fast-paced world of healthcare, the efficient management and tracking of medical devices and equipment are critical. Medical device companies often loan out demo equipment, while hospitals and medical centers need to track numerous pieces of equipment across various floors and departments. The integration of GPS and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technologies offers a powerful solution to these challenges, enhancing the visibility and management of valuable assets.

The Challenges of Medical Device and Equipment Management

Managing medical device logistics involves a series of interconnected challenges, ranging from inventory control to preventing theft and maintaining equipment. Each issue, whether it be mismanaged inventory or avoiding organized crime impacts, adds to the growing financial and operational burden faced by medical device companies and healthcare facilities.

Inventory Management 

Hospitals and medical facilities face a critical challenge in managing their inventory of medical devices. Balancing between having enough devices available for immediate use and avoiding overstocking is essential. Poor inventory management can result in shortages of crucial equipment, which delays patient care and forces expensive emergency orders. On the other hand, over-purchasing ties up significant amounts of capital in unused devices, leading to increased storage costs and potentially unused equipment that may become obsolete.

Manufacturer Theft

Theft at the manufacturer level is a significant issue in the medical device supply chain, as highlighted by incidents like those involving Medtronic, where stolen devices were later found in unauthorized hands. Such thefts not only create financial losses for manufacturers but also pose risks to patient safety if these stolen devices are used without proper oversight or calibration. Additionally, counterfeit devices entering the market can damage a manufacturer’s reputation and lead to potential legal and regulatory issues. Preventing theft at this stage requires robust security measures and careful tracking of devices from production to delivery​. 

Loaned Medical Devices or Equipment

Medical device companies face logistical challenges in tracking demo equipment loaned to healthcare providers or patients. This is a common practice, allowing them to evaluate market response to the latest innovations. However, keeping track of this equipment and ensuring its timely return can be a logistical nightmare.

Equipment Maintenance 

Equipment maintenance in hospitals and medical centers is critical to ensuring operational safety and compliance. Most medical equipment must undergo maintenance at least once per year, often driven by regulatory standards, manufacturer guidelines, and safety rules, such as those dictated by agencies like the FDA in the U.S. These rules help ensure that devices remain functional, meet current software and safety standards, and reduce the risk of malfunction during patient care. Missing these maintenance checks (especially if this is due to ambiguous device location) can result in outdated or faulty equipment, compromising both compliance and patient safety​.

Source: McKinsey

Mismanaged or Missing Equipment

Hospitals struggle with locating essential equipment, leading to operational inefficiencies and increased costs. Critical equipment may be shared or spread across multiple floors and departments, which increases complexity. In addition, equipment can be inadvertently discarded in the process of flipping a room, making recovery nearly impossible once it leaves the facility. This not only leads to increased operational costs due to frequent replacement but also impacts patient care as staff spend excessive time searching for necessary tools.

Pilfered Equipment

Pilfered equipment from hospitals and medical centers presents a significant logistical and financial challenge. Small, high-value medical devices are often misplaced or stolen, either deliberately by employees or accidentally by patients who may assume they can keep certain items post-discharge. Employees may take devices to resell, while patients, unaware of the high value of items like pulse oximeters or compression devices, might assume they can keep them. This type of pilfering leads to increased operational costs and impacts patient care as staff must replace essential equipment quickly.

Organized Crime

Organized crime is increasingly involved in the theft of medical devices and equipment, as demonstrated by a recent bust in Kansas City where eight individuals were arrested for their roles in a theft ring targeting medical equipment. These crime rings often steal high-value medical devices or equipment, which is then resold on the black market, depriving hospitals and healthcare facilities of critical tools. Such thefts not only result in financial losses but also impact patient care, as hospitals are forced to replace stolen items quickly, often at significant cost. Addressing these crimes requires coordinated efforts between law enforcement and healthcare providers to secure the supply chain and prevent further losses.

Financial Impact 

Missing medical equipment costs US hospitals millions annually. The lack of real-time location information for medical devices and equipment can have a significant financial impact on healthcare facilities. When hospitals are unable to locate crucial tools, they often need to reorder medical tools and equipment, large and small. This can be especially costly if replacement items need to be expedited, as the hospital must cover not only the price of the device but also the premium for faster delivery. These repeated, unnecessary purchases inflate operational costs and strain budgets. Moreover, missing devices might not be recovered, further compounding the loss. Organizations with chronic misplacement or loss issues may even need to build redundancies into their inventory plans, which yet increases the financial burden.

Staff Productivity & Lowered Patient Care

When medical equipment is mislocated, it significantly impacts healthcare staff’s time and productivity. Nurses, doctors, and other personnel often spend valuable time searching for essential devices instead of attending to patients. It’s estimated that nurses spend about 12% of their shift looking for equipment. This calculates to more than 200 hours of lost productivity per nurse per year, and when scaled nationally, an impact of $14billion in healthcare costs. This inefficiency not only delays care but also leads to frustration, stress, and burnout among staff. The cumulative effect of these wasted hours can disrupt hospital workflows and reduce overall patient care quality and throughput.

3 Key Industry Trends Determining Healthcare Investment in Tracking Solutions

The healthcare industry is increasingly recognizing the importance of efficient medical device and clinical equipment management. Several trends are driving the adoption of advanced tracking solutions that support better management, but here are three that are most commonly cited as a deciding factor:

• Increased Demand for Real-time Data: Medical device companies and healthcare providers are increasingly seeking real-time data to optimize their workflows. For Medical device companies, they’re working to optimize their device production and securing shipping logistics. Healthcare administrators and providers look to real-time tracking to reduce equipment downtime and improve utilization rates, ensuring that devices are available when needed for patient care​​​​.
• Cost Savings: Efficient tracking and management of medical devices can lead to significant cost savings. Tracking technology enables manufacturers to monitor shipments and production in real time, optimizing logistics and reducing costly delays. By reducing equipment loss and optimizing utilization, healthcare providers can lower operational costs and avoid unnecessary procurement of additional devices​.
• Improved Patient Care: The availability of medical devices and equipment directly impacts patient care. For manufacturers, ensuring the consistent production and availability of medical devices means fewer delays in the supply chain, allowing hospitals and healthcare providers to always have the necessary equipment on site. Additionally, efficient tracking ensures that healthcare providers have the necessary equipment at hand, improving the quality of care.

Mesh-networked Tracking Solutions: A Powerful Combination for Healthcare

What is mesh-networked tracking?

Mesh-networked tracking, in the case of GPX Intelligence’s solutions of GPS and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) technology, refers to a system where devices equipped with these technologies are interconnected through a network, enabling them to communicate with each other to provide enhanced tracking and data transmission capabilities. In order to understand the networking, it’s important to first define each technology:

• GPS (Global Positioning System) is a satellite-based system used for tracking the location of objects, primarily outdoors. It provides precise location data, especially over long distances, making it ideal for tracking assets that move between locations (e.g., between hospitals or in transit). In some cases, such as in the devices offered by GPX Intelligence, a GPS device may have back-up location data sources such as wifi or cellular data, making it more compatible with a variety of both indoor and outdoor applications.
• BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) is a short-range wireless communication technology that consumes very little power. It works well for indoor tracking, allowing devices to communicate their location and status when they are within proximity (e.g., within hospital rooms or departments). BLE tags are often used on equipment to relay their location to nearby gateways or hubs. In the case of GPX Intelligence, the BLE-enabled GPS device serves in this capacity.

In a mesh network, devices may act as both a node and a transmitter. BLE tags and GPS devices can communicate directly with one another, and then the GPS device relays combined location information back to the GPX platform.

GPX’s Applied Technology Benefits for the Healthcare Industry

By applying GPX Intelligence’s mesh-networked solutions, the healthcare industry can achieve precise location data, both inside and outside of facilities. We make it possible to create a seamless tracking environment that offers several key benefits:

• Real-time Location Tracking: Our GPS and BLE solutions provide real-time location data, allowing you to know exactly where each piece of equipment is at any given moment. This not only benefits inventory management efforts, but provides a level of security for manufacturers and medical device logistics teams.
• Reduced Medical Equipment Theft & Loss: This mesh-networked solution can detect unauthorized movements or theft, alerting staff immediately, which significantly reduces the risk of long-term theft or loss. Furthermore, the scalable nature of mesh networks allows organizations to deploy tracking affordably across vast facilities, as devices relay data through one another, minimizing the need for extensive investment in technical infrastructure.
• Seamless Indoor and Outdoor Visibility: The mesh-networked system ensures continuous tracking as equipment moves between different environments, maintaining a line of sight both inside and outside the manufacturing facility, hospital, or clinic.
• Reduced Financial Burden: By ensuring real-time visibility of assets, these systems prevent over-purchasing and enable better inventory management, cutting down on unnecessary stock. Additionally, the scalable nature of these networks lowers operational expenses as fewer resources are required to maintain infrastructure, offering a high return on investment over time.
• Enhanced Operational Efficiency: With floor-by-floor tracking capabilities, hospitals can easily locate equipment within their facilities. This reduces the time spent searching for items and ensures that critical equipment is always available when needed.
• Better Patient Care Outcomes: Healthcare staff can quickly locate critical medical equipment, reducing delays in patient treatment and improving response times. This efficiency ensures that medical devices & equipment are available when needed, leading to better workflows and increased patient care quality. Ultimately, faster access to necessary tools translates to more timely interventions, enhancing overall patient outcomes.

Some technology providers will attempt to offer other solutions that are likely not as comprehensive as the mesh-networked solutions offered by GPX Intelligence. For example, those who offer RFID tracking as the exclusive solution may lack the scalability and real-time visibility of GPS and BLE mesh networks. 

Why RFID Tracking Falls Short: Tracking for Medical Devices and Equipment

While RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has been a staple in asset tracking for various industries, it falls short when compared to the capabilities of GPS/BLE mesh-networked tracking, especially in the context of medical devices and equipment. 

RFID is limited to short-range tracking, requiring proximity to a reader, which is ineffective for large-scale operations or tracking assets across multiple locations. Additionally, RFID systems often require costly infrastructure and can’t provide the detailed real-time tracking that GPS and BLE offer, especially for assets that may be stolen, in transit, or spread across vast hospital campuses or manufacturing plants.

• RFID’s Limited Range and Readability: RFID systems typically require close proximity between the reader and the tag, often within a few meters for passive RFID tags, which limits their effectiveness in large, complex environments like hospitals. In contrast, BLE beacons and GPS can track assets over a much greater range, providing continuous and accurate location data both indoors and outdoors​ (Tech.co)​​​.
• Interference and Line-of-Sight Issues: RFID systems can suffer from interference caused by metal objects and liquids, common in medical environments, which can disrupt the signal and reduce reliability. BLE technology, however, is less susceptible to such interference and can be strategically placed throughout a facility to ensure comprehensive coverage. Additionally, the mesh-networking capability of BLE and GPS allows for seamless transition of tracking data across different environments without the need for line-of-sight, something RFID struggles with​​.
• Data Richness and Real-Time Monitoring: BLE and GPS tracking systems offer richer data capabilities compared to RFID. BLE devices can provide detailed information such as temperature, humidity, and motion, which are critical for managing sensitive medical equipment. GPS offers real-time location tracking, which is essential for timely equipment retrieval and efficient management. This level of detail and immediacy is not achievable with traditional RFID systems, which typically only provide location data when scanned by a reader​..
• Scalability and Integration: BLE and GPS technologies are more scalable and easier to integrate with other systems compared to RFID. The low power consumption and extended battery life of BLE devices, combined with their compatibility with existing Bluetooth-enabled infrastructure, make them a more sustainable and cost-effective solution for large-scale deployment. GPS adds the capability of outdoor tracking, providing a comprehensive solution that RFID cannot match​.​

To be fair to the technology, RFID can indeed be the right choice for tracking very small assets, as its tags are much smaller than GPS or BLE devices. However, RFID’s effectiveness is limited by its short-range communication between the tag and reader, making it unreliable for recovering stolen items or locating assets that are misplaced beyond the reader’s range. 

In contrast, the superior range, reliability, data richness, and scalability of GPS and BLE mesh-networked tracking provide a more comprehensive solution for managing medical devices and equipment across various environments in the healthcare industry.

The Future of Medical Device Management

As technology continues to advance, the future of medical device tracking looks promising. Integration with other healthcare systems, enhanced data analytics, and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to predict equipment needs are just a few of the developments on the horizon. At GPX Intelligence, we are committed to staying at the forefront of these innovations, providing our clients with the most advanced tracking solutions available.

Efficiently managing and tracking medical devices is crucial for healthcare providers and medical device companies alike. At GPX Intelligence, we offer state-of-the-art GPS and BLE tracking solutions that provide real-time visibility, enhance operational efficiency, and support industry needs. By leveraging our technologies, medical device companies and healthcare providers can ensure that their valuable equipment is always in the right place at the right time, ultimately improving patient care and reducing costs.

For more information about our tracking solutions and how we can help your organization, contact us.