The Easiest Way to Cut Healthcare Costs is Hiding in Plain Sight

Hospitals and healthcare systems are under immense pressure to control costs. But it can’t come at the expense of quality patient care or providers not having the tools and resources to deliver proper treatment.

This can seem like an impossible dilemma, but sometimes the most practical solutions are easily overlooked. One of them is reducing healthcare operational and capital expenses by implementing a proper system for clinical asset and equipment tracking using RFID technology.

Being able to track, monitor, and see the status, usage, and performance of clinical equipment and assets through mobile device management solutions can uncover many hidden costs, rising expenses, and diminished ROI. It can also help healthcare organizations understand the true total cost of ownership for these devices, minimize servicing and repair costs, optimize their assets for maximum availability and performance, and make more cost-effective and informed purchasing and leasing decisions.

It starts by understanding the asset and equipment challenge and how much money your hospital or healthcare system might be wasting on unnecessary devices, service and repair costs, purchases, and lease decisions.

Clinical equipment and assets comprise about 25 percent of capital expenses in a typical hospital, and they’re often about two percent of a facility’s operating budget. That adds up to millions of dollars in a typical hospital or healthcare system, but a portion of these dollars are often wasted due to lost, misplaced, or underutilized equipment. They are often wasted on unnecessary purchases and leases due to a lack of timely preventive maintenance and a lack of asset visibility.

Equipment and assets are often lost, misplaced, or underused because they cannot be located or tracked. They may also end up costing more to service and repair because their usage can’t be monitored and preventive maintenance does not happen on time. Many capital planning and purchasing processes also suffer due to blindness to assets and their usage, so hospitals end up buying and leasing equipment unnecessarily.

How Lowry Solutions Helped a Major Healthcare System Save $350,000 

Our team of specialized consultants at Lowry Solutions recently helped implement a mobile clinical asset visibility solution at a major healthcare system with over 90 facilities across 22 states. Before Lowry Solutions’ involvement, the organization was leasing, on average, 30% more clinical assets than it actually used.

This was due to lost or misplaced devices as well as devices needing to be taken out of service for preventive maintenance. Considering that many hospitals invest $2 million on average in mobile clinical assets, this added up to major unnecessary expenditures.

By implementing a clinical asset visibility solution using Sonaria™ Mobile Clinical Asset Visibility and Zebra RFID labels and MC3390R Handheld Readers, the healthcare organization was able to save $350,000 within six months. Due to the fact that newly found devices reduce replacement costs, assets can be properly serviced before reaching end-of-life prematurely.

Sonaria Mobile Clinical Assets Visibility allows administrators and staff to see the location and status of equipment and devices, track uptime, downtime, repair and acquisition costs, and ensure prompt preventive maintenance.

Equipment can also be easily located when needed, and utilization is greatly improved. And the health system can use the resulting insights to decide where to deploy capital resources and when to replace aging equipment.

As a result of this initial success, the healthcare organization now plans to deploy Sonaria’s Mobile Clinical Asset Visibility within its remaining 40 locations to better serve over 30 million patients over the next 12 months.

When it comes to end-to-end solutions, Lowry Solutions spares no effort in implementing efficient strategies for a faster return on investment. Count on tested solutions that thrive in demanding environments.

Beyond Cost Savings: Creating a More Efficient Healthcare Environment

While reducing operational expenses is an important objective, healthcare organizations should also consider the broader impact that asset visibility has on patient care and workforce efficiency. Every minute spent searching for equipment or waiting for an available device is time that could otherwise be dedicated to delivering quality care. By implementing an intelligent asset management strategy, hospitals can improve clinical workflows while making better use of existing resources.

How Better Asset Visibility Improves Daily Operations

Healthcare facilities manage thousands of mobile assets, including infusion pumps, wheelchairs, patient monitors, ventilators, portable imaging devices, and specialty equipment. Without centralized visibility, staff often rely on manual searches, phone calls, or incomplete inventory records to locate these critical assets.

Real-time tracking transforms this process by providing immediate access to equipment status and location. Instead of maintaining excess inventory “just in case,” organizations can confidently utilize existing assets more effectively.

Key operational improvements include:

• Faster equipment retrieval during patient care.
• Reduced delays in admissions, transfers, and discharges.
• Improved equipment availability across departments.
• Better coordination between clinical, biomedical, and facilities teams.
• More accurate inventory audits with less manual effort.

Turning Asset Data Into Better Decisions

Modern asset management solutions do more than display equipment locations; they generate valuable operational intelligence that supports long-term planning. By collecting utilization data over time, healthcare leaders can identify trends that would otherwise remain hidden.

For example, analytics can reveal:

These insights help organizations maximize the value of every equipment investment while ensuring resources are allocated where they are needed most.

Supporting Clinical Staff Through Technology

Nurses, physicians, and support staff operate in fast-paced environments where efficiency directly affects patient outcomes. Providing immediate access to essential equipment eliminates unnecessary frustration and reduces time spent on non-clinical tasks.

When caregivers can quickly locate available devices, they can:

• Begin treatments sooner.
• Spend more time with patients.
• Reduce workflow interruptions.
• Improve collaboration between departments.
• Increase confidence in daily operations.

These workflow improvements also contribute to higher staff satisfaction by reducing repetitive administrative activities that often contribute to workplace stress.

Building a Scalable Foundation for Future Growth

As healthcare organizations expand facilities, introduce new service lines, or adopt additional digital technologies, asset visibility becomes even more valuable. A scalable tracking solution can grow alongside the organization, supporting multiple hospitals, outpatient clinics, and specialty care centers from a centralized management platform.

Integrating asset tracking with broader healthcare technology ecosystems also enables organizations to standardize processes, improve reporting accuracy, and simplify compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements.

Enhancing Compliance and Equipment Accountability

Maintaining regulatory compliance and ensuring equipment accountability are ongoing priorities for healthcare organizations. Accurate records of equipment location, maintenance history, calibration schedules, and usage are essential for meeting accreditation requirements and supporting quality assurance initiatives.

An automated asset tracking solution simplifies these responsibilities by maintaining a continuous digital record throughout each asset’s lifecycle. Instead of relying on manual logs or spreadsheets, healthcare teams can quickly access up-to-date information whenever inspections, audits, or maintenance activities are required.

Some of the key compliance and accountability benefits include:

• Automated maintenance reminders to support preventive servicing.
• Complete equipment usage and movement history for audit readiness.
• Improved documentation for regulatory and accreditation requirements.
• Reduced risk of using overdue or unavailable medical equipment.
• Greater accountability through accurate asset assignment and tracking.

By strengthening equipment governance and simplifying compliance processes, healthcare organizations can reduce administrative burdens while ensuring that critical medical devices remain safe, reliable, and available to support exceptional patient care.

Conclusion

One benefit of enabling intelligent clinical asset visibility is reducing healthcare costs. You are also removing the operational inefficiencies that allow caregivers to work more effectively to enhance better use of equipment and provide us with higher-quality patient care. With real-time asset tracking paired with insights from data, healthcare organisations can bolster financial performance and better meet the needs of patients while providing a responsive and efficient environment. A proper technology strategy therefore makes every single asset livable and manageable, transforms workflow efficacy from the core, and ensures that each investment provides higher long-term value.

Contact Lowry Solutions and experience all the benefits of seamless innovation in your workflow.