Asset Tracking vs Asset Management vs Asset Utilization in Healthcare

In healthcare, not all location problems are the same. Finding a wheelchair is different from managing infusion pumps, and both are very different from understanding how equipment is actually used in patient care. That is why the most effective real-time location system (RTLS) strategies match the right technology to the right use case.

Asset Tracking: Knowing Where Things Are

Asset tracking answers a simple question: Where is the asset right now?

Very often, zonal-level accuracy from RTLS is sufficient to answer this question. Reliable RTLS vendors with strong enough accuracy can answer whether equipment is on a unit, in storage, in transit, and often even in a particular room using zonal-level accuracy. Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) can be ideal for this use case. It provides broad coverage at a lower cost, making it well suited for tracking large populations of mobile assets like beds, wheelchairs, and IV poles across departments.

For small, specialized items such as lab specimens or surgical kits, RFID can also play a role, providing zonal- or room-level visibility to ensure chain of custody and reduce loss.

Asset Management: Managing Inventory and Readiness

Asset management goes a step further. It is not just about location, but about availability, condition, and lifecycle.

Asset management questions are more detailed such as: Do I have enough clean and available assets ready for use in a specific area?

Room level accuracy becomes important here. High-accuracy BLE and high-density RFID can support asset management use cases such as PAR level monitoring, preventive maintenance workflows, and asset lifecycle tracking. Where precision and certainty are critical, Ultrasound Low Energy™ (ULE) can ensure room-level accuracy 100% of the time.

At this level, hospitals can reduce rental expenses, prevent hoarding, and ensure the right equipment is ready when needed.

Asset Utilization: Understanding How Assets Are Used

Asset utilization focuses on how equipment is used in patient care, not just where it is stored. This requires precise sub-room-level accuracy to understand when an asset is actually in use versus idle.

Asset utilization is all about answer questions such as: How well utilized and optimized is my asset fleet?

Ultrasound-based location technology with ULE delivers the precision needed for utilization analytics in patient care areas. It is critical to select an RTLS technology that can guarantee sub-room-level accuracy simply to achieve this. ULE excels at this use case because it does not require as many devices as Infrared (IR) or RFID thereby lowering the RTLS total cost of ownership (TCOS) and offers reliable accuracy not achievable with BLE- or Wi-Fi-only solutions.

This enables hospitals to make data driven decisions about equipment purchasing, clinical workflows, and capacity planning based on real usage, not assumptions.

One Platform. One View. One Strategy.

SonitorONE™ brings all of these technologies together in a single RTLS platform. Hospitals can track assets everywhere using zonal technologies, apply room level intelligence where management matters most, and capture sub room level utilization in patient care zones where accuracy is critical.

With SonitorONE, healthcare organizations do not have to choose between technologies. They can choose the right technology for each asset class, each area, and each operational goal, all within one unified platform built for what healthcare needs next.

Learn more about asset tracking, management, and utilization.