And one increasingly important application is to close any cybersecurity risks. More and more devices come with an online interface, opening an avenue for authorized access to patient and hospital information and systems. Working together to identify any exposure, your Information Technology team monitors the devices on your network and vulnerable access points, while your HTM team works with manufacturers to implement software updates and other remediation tactics.

Each year, start your budget cycle by reviewing your inventory and equipment utilization, especially from a capital purchasing perspective. In one place, you’ll have an accurate, complete inventory of every piece of equipment, how and where it’s used, its history and current condition. From there, you can make informed decisions on not only when to replace a device, but what to replace it with, since medical technology is constantly evolving. For example, you might see that your biomeds are constantly repairing one device; rather than continuing to pay for that service, perhaps the better choice – which would save money in the long term – is to replace it with another device needing less upkeep.

What an inventory does for you
Back to those federal requirements, as you know, a key obligation is to complete annual reporting on your medical equipment. To truly deliver the best patient care, commit to a more comprehensive inventory that tells you where you are today. As you compare your performance to peer organizations, this information will help drive you to where you want to be tomorrow.

Take time to analyze the data and ask critical questions. Do you have the right number of people? Are you providing the right service delivery strategy for your hospital’s current – and planned – equipment and needs? Do you train your people to focus on the right things? Do you have a trusted voice in the capital planning process? Are you making sure nurses and other providers are using the equipment properly (and training them if they’re not)?

In a manner of speaking, this inventory gives you the keys to the store. You get to decide where you go from here. If you opt to bring in an external partner, such as TKA, you expand your resources, with access to economies of scale on purchasing, bleeding-edge compliance practices and experienced biomeds across a large geographic region.

Your ultimate goal is to have information that influences smart actions to improve uptime, lower costs and increase the availability of critical hospital equipment. If you do all that, you will gain exponentially greater satisfaction with users across the organization, not to mention better patient outcomes.

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