I recently had the chance to sit down with a member of the leadership team at Ekahau, which sells real-time location systems (RTLS). During the interview, the topic of lost medical equipment arose. As most biomeds are aware, medical devices and equipment can easily be lost inside a hospital setting, and while RTLS diminish the possibility of losing valuable devices, they can also be cost-prohibitive for many hospitals. That trend appears to be on the downswing, though, as RTLS have become more affordable and hospitals realize the ROI of the systems.

However, there are still facilities operating without RTLS. The question I pose to you is: How prevalent are facilities that don’t utilize RTLS, and in those instances, what processes do biomeds use to maintain and track all of the valuable equipment? In addition, has RTLS truly become more affordable and prevalent or do they still present the same obstacles that they have previously?

In August 2009, we covered some of the options/systems that biomeds and hospitals use to keep track of their equipment without the help of RTLS. Have these methods improved or changed? Sharing those insights could benefit countless facilities that currently struggle with the task.