Healthcare Asset Tracking: A Complete Guide

Healthcare facilities manage an enormous amount of medical equipment every day, including IV pumps, monitors, surgical tools, masks and gloves, and medications. With assets constantly moving between departments, floors, and sometimes even sites, it’s easy for items to go missing, fall out of compliance, or create inefficiencies with real consequences. That’s where healthcare asset tracking comes in.

In this guide, you’ll learn what healthcare asset tracking is, why it matters, the challenges many healthcare providers face, and how modern asset management solutions make it easier than ever to maintain real-time asset visibility, reduce equipment loss, and support better patient care.

What is healthcare asset tracking?

Healthcare asset tracking is the process of monitoring medical equipment, tools, and consumables in real time so teams always know what they have, where it is, and what condition it’s in. This includes everything from high-value assets like ventilators and infusion pumps to everyday supplies like PPE or syringes.

Asset tracking is often confused with inventory management in the healthcare industry, but the two serve different purposes:

• Asset tracking focuses on long-term, reusable medical assets such as equipment, tools, and devices.
• Inventory management in healthcare settings focuses on consumables that are used, restocked, and replenished, such as gloves, mouth swabs, and needles. 

 

When healthcare facilities lack visibility into their assets, the consequences can be significant. Delays in locating critical equipment can impact patient safety and patient outcomes—and it may lead to repurchasing high-value medical equipment unnecessarily, which negatively impacts your bottom line. These challenges are driving a broader industry shift from manual asset tracking (i.e., spreadsheets) to digital asset management systems that improve accuracy, cost savings, and operational efficiency.

Common asset tracking challenges in healthcare settings

Healthcare environments are fast-paced, high-stakes, and constantly changing. They are also subject to stringent regulations and audits. All this makes healthcare asset tracking uniquely complex. Here are some examples of the most common challenges healthcare operations face:

• Dealing with lost or misplaced equipment

 

Shared medical devices and mobile assets move between departments all day long. They may even move between multiple clinics or locations. Without a centralized asset tracking system, staff often spend valuable time searching for items or assuming they’re unavailable when they’re simply in use elsewhere.

• Maintaining high-value equipment

 

Many medical devices require preventative maintenance, calibration, updates, or repair. Without a reliable asset management process, it’s easy for maintenance schedules to slip, creating safety risks and compliance issues.

• Working with manual or spreadsheet-based systems

 

Paper logs and spreadsheets are difficult to maintain in fast-paced medical environments with high staff volume. Updates are inconsistent, data becomes outdated quickly, and there’s no real-time visibility into asset location or asset lifecycle status.

• Lack of real-time visibility

 

When teams can’t see what’s available or where it’s located due to a lack of a centralized, easy-to-analyze asset dashboard, workflows slow down. This can lead to treatment delays, duplicate purchases, shortages, and unnecessary stress for clinicians.

• Compliance and audit pressure

 

Healthcare organizations must maintain detailed documentation for inspections, audits, and regulatory requirements. Manual systems make it difficult to produce accurate, up-to-date records on demand.

Cloud-based asset management solutions like Sortly help streamline these tasks by centralizing inventory data and making it accessible to everyone, from clinicians to administrators.

Technologies powering modern healthcare asset tracking

Healthcare organizations are increasingly adopting digital tools that automate tracking and improve accuracy. Here are the core technologies driving that shift:

1. Real-time inventory systems

Cloud-based platforms eliminate inaccuracies by providing a single source of truth. With instant updates across all devices and locations, teams avoid the costly errors and stockouts caused by working from outdated information.

2. Barcode scanning

Barcode scanning allows for instant asset identification, replacing tedious searching with a single scan. Sortly allows your team to use their own devices to scan existing barcodes—or generate new, custom QR codes for any asset. This ensures that inventory tasks are completed at the point of care, reducing administrative bottlenecks and keeping data 100% accurate. 

3. Customizable reporting

Inventory systems like Sortly allow you to generate custom reports for audits, compliance checks, and even procurement. This saves time and reduces manual work so human resources can be better used elsewhere.

How to choose the right healthcare asset tracking software

The right asset tracking software should make asset management easier, not more complicated. Here are some must-have features when selecting healthcare asset tracking software:

• Ease of use and minimal training required
• Built-in barcoding and QR coding
• Maintenance reminders for medical equipment and tools
• Low stock alerts for medical supplies
• Compliance-ready reporting

 

Sortly bridges the gap between sophisticated inventory tracking and ease of use. It enables seamless cross-departmental collaboration using the tools your team already owns. From generating QR codes on standard printers to scanning with mobile devices, Sortly makes accurate asset management accessible to everyone.

Top healthcare asset tracking solutions

Here’s a closer look at several leading healthcare asset tracking solutions and the types of organizations they’re best suited for.

1. Sortly

Sortly eliminates the administrative burden of manual tracking, giving healthcare teams instant, high-level visibility into their inventory across every department. Rather than hunting for equipment, staff can locate critical assets in seconds, ensuring that medical devices are always available for patient care. By centralizing maintenance records and documentation within a single system, Sortly ensures that facilities remain audit-ready and compliant without the need for dedicated IT support or expensive hardware.

Best for: Small to mid-sized facilities and multi-site practices looking to maximize asset lifespan and eliminate the “hidden costs” of lost or unmaintained equipment.

2. Securitas Healthcare

Securitas Healthcare specializes in enterprise-grade RTLS solutions. Their real-time location systems use sensors, tags, and advanced Internet of Things (IoT) technology to track the exact location of equipment, staff, and even patients within a facility. This level of precision helps large hospitals reduce downtime, improve allocation, and automate parts of their asset management process.

Best for: Large hospitals and health systems that need advanced RTLS capabilities and deep integration with existing CMMS or clinical systems.

3. Zebra Technologies

Zebra provides the hardware backbone for many asset management systems, including barcode scanners, mobile computers, printers, and RFID readers. Their tools are built for clinical environments and integrate with a wide range of asset tracking software platforms. Zebra is often used to modernize manual workflows by enabling fast, accurate scanning and labeling.

Best for: Healthcare providers that already have an asset tracking system but need durable, healthcare-ready hardware to support scanning, labeling, and data capture.

4. CenTrak

CenTrak offers a comprehensive RTLS solution that uses a mix of technologies to deliver precise location data. Their system is commonly used for equipment tracking, patient flow optimization, environmental monitoring, and staff safety. CenTrak is known for accuracy and scalability in complex hospital environments.

Best for: Hospitals and large medical centers that require highly accurate, room-level tracking and want to integrate environmental monitoring or patient flow analytics.

The future of healthcare asset tracking

More and more, healthcare organizations are moving away from manual logs and spreadsheets toward digital systems that offer real-time visibility, automated reporting, and centralized control. This shift improves patient care, reduces waste, and helps teams stay compliant with less effort.

If you’re looking for a simpler way to track medical equipment, supplies, and high-value assets across your healthcare organization, Sortly’s healthcare asset tracking and medical inventory management software can help streamline your asset management process.

Start your two-week free trial of Sortly today.