The Importance of Staying on Top of Medical Asset Management

Whether you run a small clinic or a large hospital, medical asset management is crucial to caring for your patients. Managing your medical assets can help you track where they should be and what condition they were in when last used. Especially in light of COVID-19, your assets must always stay sanitized.

What is Medical Asset Management?

Medical asset management is the process you use to retrieve, upgrade, maintain, and dispose of your assets. Each clinic has different processes, but the exact steps you take don’t matter as much as having a process in place that works for you.

Asset management involves several steps. It’s not just about knowing where your assets are at any time. Management also includes knowing condition, usage levels, life cycle, maintenance procedures, and sanitation requirements.

Consumable vs. Durable Medical Assets

What’s the difference between consumable and durable medical assets and equipment? While there’s some overlap, they’re not entirely the same. Some equipment and supplies your clinic relies on are one-time use due to sanitation requirements.

Anything you dispose of regularly would be a consumable asset. On the other hand, durable assets are things that have a longer lifecycle.

You can also consider consumable medical equipment assets, but you won’t typically track any one-time-use medical supplies in your asset management system.

Examples of durable medical assets include:

• Machinery like MRI scanners
• Medication storage
• Any technology and medical equipment
• Patient documents

Hospitals typically track these assets through inventory control measures.

COVID-19 safety means stricter and more thorough sanitation measures. The CDC has disinfecting guidelines for your facilities. Because your patients rely on you for care, they need you to take these measures between visits to reduce the chance of spreading.

Recording sanitation requirements for COVID-19 in a system that attaches them to your assets can provide easier access when you need it most. Attaching different requirements to the appropriate assets can direct staff quickly and help cut down on unnecessary or missed steps.

The Benefits of Managing Medical Assets

Because medical asset management can help in several areas, most facilities implementing asset management procedures may see the following results after a few months of asset management.

Improved Quality of Patient Care

When you’ve streamlined asset management, it takes less time to locate what you need, so you can focus more of your efforts on providing care to patients.

Asset management measures also mean you’ll know when you’re about to run out of something. You won’t have to make do with suboptimal options, and your patients will get the care they need when they need it—no more needing to wait around until the right supplies arrive.

Increased Staff Productivity and Time Management

Any kind of automation is a great way to improve employee productivity. When you simplify their workflow, you make it easier for them to do their jobs. Medical asset management is a great way to eliminate busy work and make it possible for your staff to do the work that requires their direct attention. Implementing a clinical asset database also means there’s less need for paperwork, which can be a massive time sink.

Reduced Equipment Cost Overall

When you know where your assets should be at any time, you don’t have to worry about purchasing too much of something. You’ll also be able to schedule repairs and maintenance, which is a great way to ensure your assets last through their life cycles, if not longer.

Streamlined Medical Waste Disposal

Healthcare staff can safely dispose of medical waste from your asset and inventory management. Asset management will tell you when you need to dispose of assets to keep with safety measures and when simple sanitation is enough. You’ll also have the chance to implement measures that reduce your waste, making your facility more environmentally friendly.

Asset Panda's Asset Management Software for Medical Facilities

When your clinic stays on top of your asset management, everyone benefits. Check out Asset Panda’s customizable asset tracking software to see how our system can help you manage your assets and inventory.

Give Asset Panda's asset management software a try with a free 14-day trial (no credit card required)! You’ll receive full access to user guides, video tutorials, free mobile apps, and call-in and live chat support from our fantastic Asset Panda support team.