Workflow and transport automation | Columna Flow Search & Find

Every task still waits for someone to notice

In a hospital spread across many buildings and floors, getting the right thing to the right place still depends on someone noticing and passing it on. A bed needs cleaning, a ward runs low on supplies, or a delivery arrives, and nothing happens until a person flags it. Columna Flow Search & Find lets the movement, status and stock level of your assets start the task automatically, so coordination keeps pace with a busy hospital.

Nurses looking at a smartphone with task management app for hospital workflows. — A status change sets the next task in motion automatically. Your assets start the task automatically, so coordination keeps pace.

From coordinating by hand to tasks that start on their own

The bigger the site, the harder coordination gets. Porters, cleaning teams and ward staff spend hours each day phoning, radioing and chasing to move work along. A task gets missed because someone was busy, a delivery sits because no one knew it had arrived, a depot runs empty because the restock round came too late. The work itself is fine. It just waits on a person to notice and pass it on.

Three things that set a task in motion

When an asset arrives or is on its way
When a tracked asset reaches a location, or is on its way there, the right task starts automatically. A delivery arriving at a ward, or a bed approaching the wash, sets the next step going without anyone watching the door or flagging it.
When an asset's status changes
When an asset's status changes, whether it's marked for cleaning, returned from repair, or ready for use, the next action follows on its own. A bed marked “needs cleaning” sends a task to housekeeping, and a set marked “returned” prompts the next step in its loop.
When stock runs high or low
When stock at a location rises above or falls below the level it should sit at, a task to refill or move it starts automatically. Depots stay stocked and surpluses get moved, without manual stock rounds. The same approach works across medical equipment, beds, trolleys, wheelchairs and other assistive devices.

1.5 million+ tasks completed per year across Columna Flow hospitals, and growing - replacing manual tracking, phone calls, and paper-based follow-ups.

Even at one minute saved per task, that is the equivalent of around 25,000 hours returned to care each year.

One bed, from flagged to ready

A bed is flagged as needing cleaning on a discharge ward, and Search & Find raises the cleaning task and updates the bed's status once it's done, so the ward sees a ready bed without anyone chasing it. The same pattern runs for a returned device, a low depot, or a delivery at the door.

Two tablet views of Columna Flow Search & Find showing the Equipment and Tasking modes on a hospital floor plan. — A tag moves, a task appears. Asset tracking and task management on the same ward map.

Works with the systems that already hold your data

Status can come from a clinician, from your asset management system, or from another connected system, and Search & Find turns it into the next task either way. It works with the systems you already have, without replacing them.

Learn more about Columna Flow IoT, interoperability and integrations →

See how automated coordination works across your site

Pick the coordination that eats the most time on your site, and we'll show you how movement and status can start those tasks on their own.

Talk to an expert