No matter which tagging option you choose, you also need the asset tracking software element of the solution in order to manage equipment effectively.

What is Healthcare Asset Tracking Software?

Healthcare asset tracking allows you to track medical equipment. This includes using RFID or QR code asset tags to update geolocation, but also to view and edit asset information after just a scan.

With a healthcare asset tracking system, you’ll be able to know where everything is, and you’ll know who has what. You’ll be able to check equipment in and out, so that there’s full transparency of what can and can’t be used. 

You can also track stock of PPE and medical devices, so you know how much is available for use and can plan accordingly.

The unique thing that healthcare asset tracking software allows you to do is track compliance and maintenance information throughout an asset’s lifecycle. So, you’ll be able to log all necessary compliance information upon the purchase of an asset to verify legitimacy. You can then use reminders for routine, pre-emptive maintenance to ensure all of your medical devices are running smoothly and maintain their compliant status.

Using Medical Equipment Management Software With RFID

When you add RFID to the mix, your medical equipment management is sped up. 

If you’re looking for a piece of equipment that requires maintenance, you’ll be able to discover it’s location using an RFID reader, speeding up the process.

This goes for other processes, too. If any asset data changes, using an RFID reader, you’ll be able to scan the tag and edit asset information in your medical equipment tracking app. You can also add health and safety information to equipment such as X-ray machines so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to safety.

You can even use this to stocktake for ambulances. If you need to know that an ambulance is adequately stocked up, you’ll be able to use RFID medical equipment tracking to scan the assets and check them into the ambulance. You can then update your stock when the ambulance returns.

PPE Tracking

Additionally, you can use healthcare asset tracking to monitor your PPE levels. itemit is already helping Cambridge University monitor life-saving PPE levels for Addenbrookes Hospital.

When it comes to PPE, you can choose to track boxes of items rather than each individual item, should you wish. Quantity levels can still be recorded and updated on the fly. This way you know exactly how much PPE you have available at any given time.

Why RFID For Medical Equipment Tracking?

To keep costs down, it may be helpful to opt for a mix of QR code asset tagging and RFID asset tagging. Choose from durable and customisable QR code asset tags, whether they are stickers or anodised aluminium tags – there’s a tag for every asset.

However, the clear benefits to RFID tracking in hospitals are undeniable. Being able to stocktake quickly, and from a distance, is a very attractive benefit that RFID tracking can bestow on the tracking of medical equipment and PPE

Stock levels change at a greater frequency than other industries, too, so it’s crucial to be able to effectively keep track of this.

itemit RFID Equipment Management

itemit is owned by RedBite Solutions, pioneers in RFID tracking. Its founders were instrumental in the implementation of RFID regulation and in the architecting of the EPC network. They belonged to the group that coined the term “IoT”.

itemit itself was created to solve asset tracking problems, and so integrating RFID tracking was an obvious step. itemit works with RFID by connecting to a handheld reader via Bluetooth, then the scanning is up to you! 

itemit provides all the tags and readers you’ll need with our off-the-shelf RFID solution, but if you require something more bespoke, we’ll always be happy to provide consultancy and rise to the challenge.

With over a decade of experience in RFID, we’re more than happy to assist you with whatever requirements you have. To find out more, you can contact the team at team@itemit.com, fill in the form below, or phone 01223 421611.

Instant access. No credit card details required.

or, download the itemit app to get started

On the 8th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: RFID Scanning Capabilities.

RFID may seem complicated to start off with. There’s a lot of jargon like passive or active tags. With itemit, however, it doesn’t need to be complicated.

You may need RFID capabilities for a variety of reasons. It creates a much simpler equipment tracking process whereby it only takes a scan with a reader to pick up all the assets in the vicinity. Or, you might be tracking high-value assets in which the asset tag must be hidden. The benefit of RFID tags is that they can be read with no line of sight.

Equipment Tracking With RFID

If you are using RFID to track your equipment, you can use itemit. All you’ll need is a compatible reader which we can provide you with and some RFID tags, and you’re good to go!

When it comes to equipment tracking, RFID works in much the same way as QR Code asset tags. All you need to do is add the RFID tag to the asset and link it to an asset profile by scanning it. You’ll be able to link your RFID reader to the itemit app using BlueTooth and can scan from there. Much like with our QR Code capabilities, every time an asset is scanned the last seen location and the user who scanned the asset will update.

Why you Should Use RFID for Equipment Tracking

There are plenty of benefits when it comes to RFID scanning. The main one is the amount of time you’ll save using RFID for equipment tracking. As you’ll be able to track and manage your assets in bulk, logging whenever assets move will be a much faster process. Simply link up your reader and scan, and all the assets in the vicinity will be updated.

With equipment tracking, you might need a variety of different tags, and they may need to be stuck in complicated or difficult places. With RFID, you’ll be able to use tags with different durabilities that can survive all different types of weathering. Whether it’s for assets that are constantly under a lot of heat or for plant equipment tracking, RFID can help.

Equipment tracking with RFID is also a lot simpler as you can scan RFID tags from a larger distance with no line of sight needed. This means that you don’t have to see the asset’s tag in order to scan it, you need only be in its vicinity.

Other Tracking Using RFID

You’ll also be able to track and manage other assets using RFID. While RFID is helpful for equipment tracking, it can also be beneficial when it comes to tracking and managing high-value assets. Find out here how the Ministry of Defence are using RFID tracking with itemit to track and manage their high-value assets, such as paintings.

High-value assets benefit from RFID as you can hide the tag behind a painting, in a frame, or elsewhere. This means that you can hide asset tags if you don’t want them to be visible.

To find out more about itemit’s RFID equipment tracking capabilities, you can contact us or fill in the form below.

Instant access. No credit card details required.

or, download the itemit app to get started

In this guide:

1. What Is A Passive RFID Tag?
2. What Is An Active RFID Tag?
3. So, What’s The Difference Between Passive And Active RFID Tags?
4. Other Things To Consider

Have you ever felt bamboozled by all the jargon in the RFID industry? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand all the terminology. There are just a few things you need to know to make an informed decision as to whether you need passive or active RFID tags.

As there is no battery required, a passive RFID tag can last about 20 years and results in the lowest tag cost. The read range for a passive tag is typically about 3-5 metres in range, and therefore sufficient to cover a typical door, dock door or shop floor environment.

The term passive RFID tag is often used interchangeably with EPC Gen2 tags. EPC Gen2 is a widely adopted standard for passive RFID systems. If you would like to know in much more detail how RFID works, here’s an excellent paper for you to read.

An active RFID tag uses a battery for its operations, and therefore can continuously broadcast its presence even without a reader. As it contains a battery, this will need to be replaced regularly. A battery could last only a few days, or it could operate for a few years depending on its size. Active RFID tags can communicate at considerable distances.

Active RFID tags are those typically used in industrial environments, either for active RTLS tracking within a factory or open yard tracking. There are almost no standards for the usage of active RFID, and as a result, it is only used in specific niche industrial applications. This type of tag can vary significantly in price and can cost anything from tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars per tag.

The most significant difference between active and passive RFID tags is that an active tag has a battery and a passive tag does not.

Although an active tag can communicate at a much longer range, a passive RFID tag is still the preferred choice as it is significantly cheaper with lots of options to choose from due to its widely adopted standards. Operationally, it is also less expensive to maintain as passive tags do not require battery replacements.

In most use cases, having a shorter read range is an advantage – this way, you will be confident that the tagged item is right in front of you or the reader. This is especially useful when performing a rapid stock check across multiple tagged items using a handheld RFID reader.

Bluetooth beacons, or BLE tags, is a type of active RFID tag but somewhat confusingly, they are typically not referred to as such. BLE tags are much more consumer-oriented and can communicate with most modern smartphones. By utilising the smartphone as the reader, this significantly reduces the cost and complexity of the entire infrastructure. However, BLE technology is still in its infancy and requires a significant drop in cost for it to become ubiquitous.

Instant access. No credit card details required.

or, download the itemit app to get started