Estimate what device record-keeping costs your practice

How the estimate works

Your browser runs 10,000 simulations. Each one picks a value from a range for everything you didn't enter, then works out a year of record-keeping two ways, your current method and CustodyTap, with the same picks, so the two are compared fairly. The figures above are averages over those simulations, and the range shows where 8 in 10 of them fall.

What's an assumption

Almost everything. How long each method takes per move, per inventory count, per disposal and per request, how many moves actually get written down, and how often a retired device leaves without being wiped are our estimates, each with a range. CustodyTap's own figures are estimates of how the product is used. We haven't yet measured them at a practice. Most of the saving rests on them: if each task took as long with CustodyTap as with a spreadsheet, nothing would be left after the cost of the tags. A pilot measures them for yours, and we'll update this page as pilots give us real figures.

Where the outside numbers come from

• Staff and manager pay: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical secretaries (median $19.54 an hour, May 2023) and medical and health services managers (median $117,960 a year, May 2024), with benefits at about 30% of total pay.
• Lost laptops: 5% to 10% over a three-year life, from a 2010 Ponemon Institute study for Intel. It's old and about large companies, so we use it only as a range.
• Breach rate: the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) received 74,299 reports of breaches affecting fewer than 500 people in 2024, in its report to Congress. We assume 5% to 15% of them involved lost, stolen or improperly disposed devices, across 500,000 to 800,000 covered entities. That puts a 30-device practice that uses a spreadsheet at roughly 0.4% to 2.5% a year, and each method moves it up or down from there.
• Breach costs: legal advice, the risk assessment and staff time ($5,000 to $50,000), plus $3 to $25 per patient notified. OCR investigated all 663 large breaches in 2024 but only 2 small ones, so we put the chance of a federal penalty after a small breach at 0 to 0.5%.
• Compliance findings: OCR received about 30,000 complaints in 2024 and closed most without an investigation. We assume 0.1% to 0.4% of practices face an OCR investigation in a year, that 5% to 30% of those ask for device records, and that a weak record turns into a finding more often than a complete one. A finding costs 10 to 80 hours of a manager's time and up to $15,000 of outside help, and rarely a settlement. None of OCR's 2024 penalties cited device and media controls; most cited the risk analysis.

What it leaves out

Lessor charges for equipment that isn't returned, collecting devices from staff who leave, cyber-insurance premiums, and the cost to your reputation after a breach. It also assumes your staff tap the tags: if they skip it, the saving shrinks.

What it isn't

It isn't a quote, a guarantee, or legal, actuarial or financial advice. It doesn't make a practice compliant with anything.