This field guide gives busy hospital leaders clear steps, checklists, and integration tips to plan and deploy hospital asset tracking, optimize medical equipment tracking, and select the right RTLS hospital approach.

Choosing the right approach depends on goals, budget, and environment. We compare options like barcode workflows, RFID, and RTLS and explain how connecting these solutions with EHR, LIS, and CMMS turns data into action so teams streamline asset management, reduce labor and loss, raise utilization, and support better patient care.

Understand options across RFID, BLE, Wi-Fi RTLS, barcodes, and more to better equip you to choose solutions for accuracy, coverage, workflow fit, and integration readiness.

Track trays from reprocessing through delivery to the room, confirm set completeness, identify sterile-wrapped trays quickly, and make tray readiness visible on OR boards and in the case schedule to support on-time starts and shorter, delay-free turnovers.

Prevent specimen mix-ups in the OR, read more here.

Apply medical equipment tracking to quickly locate devices, balance utilization across units, curb equipment hoarding, and avoid unnecessary rentals while keeping preventive maintenance on schedule in the CMMS.

Maintain chain of custody from collection through transport to lab receipt with labeling accuracy, route visibility, and auditable handoffs. Combine checkpoint automation with handheld recovery tools to shorten search time and lower risk, including potential litigation tied to lost or mixed specimens.

Looking for a deeper dive into specimen tracking?  See how passive RFID closes custody gaps from OR to lab—without piling on manual steps.

Use integration with EHR, LIS, and CMMS to turn asset data into action with secure identifiers, standard interfaces, and audit trails.