A: There is a "gray area" when a healthcare organization decides to implement RDIF/RTLS technology to track their equipment.

Who is responsible for affixing tags to the equipment?

This is the "gray area." It is important for an organization that is implementing RFID/RTLS technology to have a clear understanding of which party is responsible for affixing the tags to the equipment at "go-live": the RFID implementation firm or the customer.

Is tagging included as part of the system installation?

A typical installation may involve the tagging of a "sampling" of equipment to test and ensure the system is functioning correctly. It may not involve tagging all equipment throughout the organization.

When should tags be applied?

Tagging should occur as quickly as possible, either prior to system "go-live" or soon thereafter. It does not make sense to invest in a system and not have it fully functional as soon as possible.

Do your BMETs have the time to affix the tags?

If tagging was not included in the installation process, who will tag the equipment? Some organizations believe their BMETs will tag the equipment. However, is that the best use of their time? Other organizations believe that they will apply an RFID tag over a period of time as each piece of equipment has preventive maintenance completed or repair performed. However, this means equipment may go six months or longer before it is tagged.

What is your recommendation?

We recommend contracting an outside firm such as Asset Services to perform the tagging. This will take minimal time, as well as accomplish an inventory and validation of all biomedical equipment in the process.

A: “Cleaning data,” sometimes referred to as “scrubbing data,” is the process of fixing or removing incorrect, duplicate, or incomplete information that does not belong in a dataset. The cleaning process may vary from dataset to dataset, but the main objectives remain the same.

• Remove duplicate or irrelevant information
• Repair structural errors such as naming conventions, abbreviations, typos, etc.
• Identify and remove unwanted data
• Identify and complete any missing data

Having clean data will allow for high quality information for your company to use for analysis and as decisions need to be made. Our professionals, who are experienced with cleaning or scrubbing data, will search for anomalies and will know how to repair and update the dataset.

A: In the past, Asset Services has provided a few fixed asset and major movable equipment inventories for arenas, stadiums, and professional sports teams. We are in the process of reaching out to more of these organizations as a viable client base.

It is important for these organizations to also have an accurate accounting of assets for a few reasons:

1.   For an Accounting Department, ensuring an organization’s asset management records are accurate to track equipment and generate accurate financial reports. It is surprising how many assets get disposed of and are never removed from the asset ledger. This is what we refer to as “ledger bloat” and it can cause inaccurate financial reports, tax reporting, and insurance coverages.
2.   For a Facilities/Plant Maintenance Department, an accurate inventory assists in ensuring maintenance management systems (CMMS) are populated with accurate data. This ensures equipment is being properly maintained and repaired as well as ensuring the correct spare parts and maintenance materials are on-hand.

We are excited to expand our services and encourage organizations to contact us and see how we can assist in performing a wall-to-wall inventory and ensuring your asset records are accurate.

A: An equipment inventory benefits two separate divisions within an organization. The Facilities Maintenance Department needs to populate the Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) in order to ensure equipment is being maintained and repaired as required. Asset Services has discovered that many convenience stores, travel centers, and fuel chains have inaccurate data in the maintenance management systems. Inaccurate CMMS data leads to lost maintenance time as well as the wrong replacement parts being ordered, resulting in lost time and money. An organization’s Finance Department also needs an accurate accounting of all fixed assets for depreciation and financial reporting. Asset Services is unique in that we focus exclusively on equipment inventories and ensuring accurate data is available to upload and validate an organizations Maintenance Management System and Fixed Asset Financial Management System.