Internet of Things: How Technology is Making Healthcare Storage Safer and Smarter

In an era where connectivity and automation are reshaping industries, technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing healthcare storage, enhancing both security and efficiency to protect sensitive patient data and medical assets like never before.

A 10:00 am procedure is delayed 20 minutes while a nurse hunts for the correct size blood pressure cuff, delaying later procedures and bumping an elective case to tomorrow.  

A patient cleared for discharge waits four hours for a wheelchair, delaying the turnover of a medical unit bed. This leaves an ER patient stuck in a hallway until midnight, waiting for a room. 

These trickle-down delays result from missing supplies or equipment, frustrating staff and delaying patient care. 

Now imagine locating any needed item with a laptop click. The Internet of Things (IoT) brings that vision to life, using sensors to connect objects like carts, endoscopes, or badges to a smart network. The sensors communicate with each other and the network, enabling automation of many tasks. 

Let’s explore how IoT uses real-time data, predictive maintenance and human error reduction to save time, cut costs, and improve patient outcomes in healthcare facilities.

Real-Time Data: Medical Supplies at Your Fingertips

Real-time data–available instantly–shows staff what medical supplies are in stock and where they’re located, right when needed. 

Managers get alerts about heavy supply usage, prompting orders before shortages occur. They can request cart restocks in real-time with a cloud-based tracking system, minimizing cart downtime. 

In January 2025, Becker’s Hospital Review reported that healthcare supply costs will increase by 2% over the next year. One example of how IoT can help hospitals reduce waste and save money is by flagging supplies nearing the expiration date, prompting staff to use those supplies before they expire.

The integration of artificial intelligence (machine and deep learning) with IoT opens the door to even more time-saving processes. For example, supply orders could be automated based on environmental factors, such as inventory levels, predicted use, weather, and events like flu season, avoiding overstocking. 

Predictive Maintenance: Stopping Problems Before They Start

Equipment that fails during a procedure or devices lacking regular maintenance are not just a nuisance; they can cause injury to patients and staff. Current predictive maintenance solutions include a cloud-based platform that tracks maintenance needs, sending alerts for low batteries or connectivity issues. 

IoT is evolving to do even more. A 2023 European study showed how machine-learning in IoT can contribute to the predictive maintenance of healthcare equipment. Models can be trained to recognize signs of medical equipment failure and prompt users to perform fixes or maintenance.

IoT can identify equipment issues before the device breaks, keeping patients safe and freeing up “out-of-order” shelves for supplies like IV fluids or pumps. 

Reducing Human Error: Safer Systems

Medical care is provided by humans, and humans make mistakes. Medical mistakes do not only affect the patient; healthcare staff can experience guilt or depression, leading to more serious mental health issues.

IoT has the ability to automate some tasks that are prone to human error, like logging access to pharmacy carts or keeping track of endoscope reprocessing steps. Cloud-based healthcare monitoring systems, such as the InnerSpace cloud platform paired with Ventaire scope drying and tracking cabinets, monitor scope hang times, preventing patients from being exposed to expired scopes. 

Another example is endoscope reprocessing. With over 100 steps, endoscope reprocessing is implicated in multiple infectious disease outbreaks. Endoscopes are difficult to clean and the channels may retain colonies of microbes that have the potential to infect future patients.

A research article in Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology calls for experts to develop changes to endoscope reprocessing so that they are less prone to human error.

Why It Matters 

Health care is expensive and often inefficient. A literature review published in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that the United States healthcare system wastes at least $600 billion each year. IoT is poised to help recover some of those losses by applying a technology that could soon optimize supply rooms and streamline equipment maintenance. And of course, these improvements to patient safety don’t carry a price tag.

Technology that makes healthcare storage safer and smarter–that allows the real-time tracking of things using the Internet of things–is no longer sci-fi. It’s here, and it’s your next step. 

Additional Article References:
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/internet-of-things
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/supply-chain/healthcare-supply-chain-costs-expected-to-rise-2-3-report/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7962740
https://array.aami.org/doi/full/10.2345/0899-8205-54.5.338
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7661971