Search "medical equipment tracking" and most of what you'll find is hospital RTLS — RFID tags and Bluetooth beacons telling a facilities team where an infusion pump wandered off to. Useful, and not your problem. If you're a dealer or service company, your tracking question is different: which units have we sold, at which customers, under what coverage, with what history? That's not a radio problem; it's a record problem — solved with serial-anchored data and a QR code on the machine. Here's how it works.
Two different problems wearing one name
| Hospital RTLS tracking | Dealer-side equipment tracking | |
|---|---|---|
| Question | "Where is this pump right now?" | "What do we have in the field, and what's it covered by?" |
| Scope | One facility, own assets | Hundreds of customer sites, sold assets |
| Technology | RFID / BLE tags + receivers | Serial-anchored records + QR codes |
| Buyer | Hospital facilities/biomed | Equipment dealer / service company |
| Cost shape | Hardware + installation per site | Software only — stickers are the hardware |
If you need real-time location inside a hospital, buy RTLS. If you need command of your installed base across customer sites, read on.
What dealer-side tracking records per unit
- Identity — serial number, model, OEM. The serial is the anchor; everything else hangs off it.
- Place — customer, site, and a location label ("Room 2", "Sterilization"). Updated on install, move or return.
- Status — active, in repair, retired, lost. A unit in the workshop and a unit on the floor are different operational facts.
- Coverage — warranty dates, extended warranty, service contract. The answer to "is this billable?" (see warranty tracking).
- Usage where it matters — autoclave cycle counts, compressor running hours; the numbers that drive cycle- and hours-based maintenance.
- History — every work order, every visit, every part, against the serial. Under EU MDR and ISO 13485 regimes this is the trail an auditor asks for.
The QR code: tracking that works at the machine
The cheapest, most reliable "tracker" for dealer-side equipment is a QR sticker linked to the unit's record. In Servatio, every piece of equipment gets one. Scanning it — by your technician or by the customer's staff — opens the machine's page: identity, coverage status, and a way to report a fault against exactly the right serial.
That last part quietly fixes the worst data-quality problem in equipment service: fault reports that say "the autoclave is broken" when the customer has three. The QR scan pins the report to the unit, the ticket lands in the work order pipeline pre-identified, and your dispatch board schedules it without a single clarifying phone call.
Servatio tracks every unit you've sold — identity, place, status, coverage, usage, history — and puts it one scan away, for your team and your customers.
Start free trialFrom tracking to revenue
Tracking is the substrate; the value is what runs on it:
- Coverage answers in the field. "Is this under warranty?" answered at the machine — no office call, no wrong invoice, no awkward credit note.
- Alerts that fire. Tracked dates become 90/60/30-day expiration alerts with the renewal value attached — the engine behind stopping warranty leakage.
- Lifecycle visibility. Tracked install dates + OEM useful-life defaults stage your whole fleet from in-warranty to end-of-life (asset lifecycle management) — replacement conversations a year early.
- Loaner accountability. Substitution units are the most-lost equipment category dealers own — a problem big enough that we built a dedicated product for it: Loaners.app.
- Your data, portable. Full Excel/CSV export anytime — the installed base is your asset, not your vendor's.
Getting started: from spreadsheet to tracked fleet
Every dealer already has the raw data — in a sales export, a service log, a warranty sheet. Servatio's AI importer maps the columns (serial, customer, model, dates) automatically, attaches OEM defaults for 168+ models from Melag, Cattani, NSK, Planmeca and others, and generates the QR codes. A 500-unit installed base typically goes from spreadsheet to tracked fleet in an afternoon.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as hospital RTLS asset tracking?
No. RTLS answers "where is this pump right now" inside one facility, with tag hardware. Dealer-side tracking answers "what's in the field, under what coverage, with what history" — records and QR codes, no hardware beyond a sticker.
How do the QR codes work?
Each unit's QR links to its record. Scanning opens the machine's page — identity, coverage, fault reporting — with no app install and no login for the customer's staff.
What should be tracked per unit?
Serial, model/OEM, customer and site, status, install date, warranty and contract coverage, usage counters where relevant, and the full service history.
Can I export my data?
Yes — full Excel/CSV export at any time. No lock-in.