Transforming Hospital asset visibility with real-time tracking
Foresolutions partnered with Darent Valley Hospital to solve a critical operational challenge faced by many large healthcare estates: locating essential medical equipment quickly and efficiently.
By deploying a real-time asset tracking solution across the hospital, staff gained instant visibility of critical assets - reducing search times, improving patient flow, and recovering valuable clinical hours back into frontline care.
Client overview
Darent Valley Hospital is a major NHS acute hospital serving a large and growing population across Kent and the South East. As a busy multi-ward healthcare environment, the hospital manages a vast and complex estate, supporting thousands of patients, clinicians and operational staff every day.
With critical medical equipment constantly moving between wards, departments and treatment areas, maintaining visibility and control over mobile assets had become an increasing operational challenge. Like many large healthcare organisations, the Trust needed a smarter, more connected way to manage essential equipment - ensuring the right assets were available in the right place, at the righttime, to support efficient clinical care.
The challenge: limited asset visibility across a complex estate
Before implementing Foretrack Connect, hospital teams faced several operational challenges:
- Staff were spending valuable time searching wards and departments for critical equipment.
- There was no live view of asset locations or utilisation.
- Equipment was frequently repurchased because existing assets could not be found.
- Delays locating equipment created bottlenecks in patient flow and impacted clinical efficiency.
This lack of visibility created avoidable operational cost and diverted staff away from patient-facing responsibilities.
Objectives:
Foresolutions worked with the hospital to deliver a solution that would:
- Provide real-time visibility of mobile medical equipment
- Reduce time spent locating critical assets
- Improve asset utilisation across departments
- Reduce unnecessary equipment purchasing
- Support faster patient care and better operational flow
- Deliver rapid value with minimal disruption to hospital operations
The Solution: Foretrack Connect for Healthcare
To address Darent Valley Hospital’s operational challenges, Foresolutions deployed Foretrack Connect—our intelligent real-time asset tracking platform designed to give healthcare teams complete visibility and control over critical mobile equipment.
Solution 1: BLE asset tracking tags
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags were attached to high-value and frequently used equipment, enabling continuous location tracking without impacting day-to-day clinical workflows.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) tags were attached to high-value and frequently used equipment, enabling continuous location tracking without impacting day-to-day clinical workflows.
Benefits included:
- Low-maintenance, long-life tags
- Continuous real-time tracking
- Non-intrusive deployment
- Scalable across the full estate
Solution 2: Central operational dashboard
A live dashboard provided estates and operational teams with a single, real-time view of all tracked assets.
Teams could instantly:
- Locate equipment
- View movement history
- Identify underused assets
- Improve allocation decisions
This created immediate operational visibility across the entire hospital.
Solution 3: Automated alerts & proactive management
Real-time alerts notified teams when assets moved unexpectedly or entered key zones.
This enabled:
- Faster response times
- Reduced reactive searching
- Better accountability
- Improved equipment availability
Phased Rollout Approach
To minimise disruption and demonstrate early value, the solution was introduced in phases:
Phase 1:Single ward deployment to validate performance
Phase 2:Expansion into multiple clinical areas
Phase 3:Full estate visibility and optimisation
This phased rollout allowed teams to build confidence quickly and scale effectively.
Measured Results
80% reduction in search time
Staff now locate equipment significantly faster.
5–30 minutes saved per search
Time recovered is redirected into patient-facing activity.
~25% reductionin unnecessary purchasing
Fewer duplicate purchases thanks to better asset visibility.
This equates to hundreds of clinical hours recovered each week.
Operational Impact
Improved Efficiency
Staff spend less time searching and more time delivering care—improving response times, ward flow and day-to-day productivity.
Greater Cost Control
Live asset visibility reduces duplicate purchasing, improves utilisation and supports smarter procurement decisions.
Better Patient Outcomes
Faster access to critical equipment means quicker treatment, reduced delays and more clinical time focused on patients.
"We now know where critical equipment is at all times -
it has completely changed how our teams operate day-to-day."
— Head of Estates, NHS Trust
