Every minute spent searching for equipment is a minute not spent caring

The NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England sets out a vision to move from analogue to digital, with technology reducing administrative burdens and giving staff more time to focus on patient care. Much of the conversation centres on electronic records, AI and digital services, but one of the biggest hidden administrative burdens in hospitals today has nothing to do with paperwork.

Every day, healthcare professionals spend valuable clinical time searching for beds, wheelchairs, pumps, scanners and other essential equipment simply to continue delivering care. These are small interruptions that happen hundreds of times a day across a hospital, creating operational friction that impacts staff productivity, patient flow, and the experience of patients waiting for treatment.

Digital transformation should remove friction wherever it exists, whether that’s in clinical documentation or in the physical movement of people and equipment throughout a hospital. The 10 Year Health Plan describes technology as a way to liberate staff from bureaucracy, and that principle extends beyond digital records to the everyday operational challenges that prevent clinicians from spending more time with patients.

Navenio addresses this challenge by providing real-time visibility of critical assets using AI and existing smartphone sensors, without requiring new infrastructure or disruptive installation projects. Rather than relying on extensive hardware deployments, the platform can be introduced quickly, allowing hospitals to locate equipment in seconds while providing valuable insight into how resources are being used across the organisation.

The benefits extend well beyond simply finding equipment faster. Real-time reporting highlights underutilised and overutilised assets, identifies bottlenecks in clinical workflows, reveals equipment that has been misplaced or hoarded, and provides a clearer understanding of where additional resources are genuinely needed. This enables hospitals to make better operational decisions while ensuring staff spend less time searching and more time delivering care.

In one hospital deployment, Navenio reduced the time staff spent searching for equipment by 65%.

In a 400-bed hospital deployment tracking wheelchairs, beds, trolleys, infusion pumps, bladder scanners, and wheeled workstations, staff reduced the time spent searching for equipment by 65%, while medical engineering teams saved almost an hour each day locating assets. Navenio’s reporting on asset utilisation, movement, and availability also identified inefficiencies, helping the organisation optimise equipment deployment and reduce delays caused by unavailable assets. Reducing time spent searching can release significant clinical capacity while improving patient flow and reducing unnecessary equipment expenditure.

By removing one of healthcare’s most overlooked sources of operational inefficiency, hospitals can support both workforce wellbeing and better patient care. Every minute that a clinician spends looking for equipment is a minute that cannot be spent with a patient, and reducing that hidden burden benefits staff, patients and the wider organisation alike.

The Government’s vision for a digitally enabled NHS is ultimately about giving healthcare professionals more time to do what they do best. By bringing real-time visibility to the physical environment of the hospital, Navenio supports that ambition, helping NHS organisations replace manual processes with software-led intelligence that improves operational performance without disrupting day-to-day care.