Turnover in the healthcare maintenance industry is an ongoing challenge across the country, causing operational complications when siloed knowledge and expertise is lost with staffing changes. When the team at Adventist HealthCare lost their go-to CMMS expert, the Facilities team decided to take advantage of FSI’s Premium Support offering to get staff up to speed on the CMMS platform.
Premium Support has not only been an essential element in getting more of the team trained on their maintenance management software, but has become a critical piece of their journey to standardize data as they dive deeper into the FSI platform. Currently, Adventist, a 710-bed health system outside of Washington, D.C., plans to expand FSI’s CMMS to additional segments within the system.
Facing Challenges with Attrition
In 2019, the Facilities team at Adventist HealthCare switched to FSI’s CMMS after realizing their existing system was not meeting their asset management and preventive maintenance needs. The efficacy of FSI’s platform was quickly realized with two pilot segments, supporting the team at Adventist with tools built for efficient asset management and automated reporting which communicated cross-department performance.
A few years after making the switch to FSI, the Facilities team at Adventist faced an all-too-common setback when the individual who knew the CMMS best left the company. With the departure of this institutional knowledge came the realization that to continue effectively managing operations and maximize value from their CMMS, more team members needed to learn the software – and they needed to learn it fast.
Todd Cohen, Associate Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate stated “To maintain a stable CMMS ecosystem, you need to have redundancies – technologically of course but also in the form of multiple super users who serve as resources for other team members. When you don’t have redundancies of knowledge, it effects the back-end team who administers the CMMS and eventually downstream in the way we service issues that touch patient care.”
To help the team at Adventist overcome this challenge, Todd upgraded to FSI’s Premium Support offering, opting for the Gold package with 20 guaranteed hours of dedicated support per month. Premium Support offers a wide range of benefits, from training and education to strategic advisory to ensure their CMMS instance is most effectively meeting their needs.
Support for a CMMS Deep Dive
As Premium Support has been implemented at Adventist HealthCare, the benefits of the dedicated support offering have been clear. Leadership, as well as a newly-hired System Administrator that was unfamiliar with FSI’s CMMS, are ramping up quickly and confidently with the knowledge that they have a single source of truth available along the way.
With a renewed focus on training and making the most of the capabilities of their CMMS, the team is also leaning into Premium Support to standardize data across segments as they prepare to expand FSI to more locations. Implementing Premium Support has been a key piece of the puzzle, helping to uncover opportunities for improvement and cleanup across databases while advising the team on the most efficient ways to navigate the process.
Odell Hall, System Director of Facilities Management, shared, “We are putting more dedicated focus on how we can maximize the system. We now have a System Admin that is working with Premium Support to do a deeper dive on how we can make the most of FSI and align data and reporting with what leadership wants to see. I can see the efficiency of the system increasing. Compared to when I first got here, it’s leaps and bounds different.”
As a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award finalist hospital, data is a critical part of their culture and the core element of communication with leadership. Reliable data is invaluable, supporting smart decision-making and helping to justify needs moving forward. Cohen states, “The important thing with any CMMS is that you have standardization in processes and naming conventions. When you don’t have that, the data is skewed. That’s what we were facing before – everyone calling the same thing something a little different. That’s probably been our main lesson.”
Future Growth with Accessible Expertise
Adventist HealthCare continues to work with Premium Support on an ongoing basis as they clean up databases and bring more segments onto the CMMS. Recently, one phone call saved the team hours of time by advising the best way to get asset data for nearly 500 pieces of equipment from a new location into the CMMS as adoption expands.
With reliable data, reporting aligned with communication needs, and dedicated support whenever they need it, the Adventist HealthCare team is making great strides in implementing FSI in more segments and optimizing operations in the process. As they look toward the future, the Facilities team plans to get more staff trained on FSI’s CMMS and leverage the strong base of data to confidently move toward predictive maintenance practices. The team is excited to continue working with Premium Support to reach their operational goals and uncover new ways they can lean into their CMMS, building expertise in the system across their entire team.
For more on how FSI supports healthcare Facilities and HTM teams with purpose-built tools and ongoing customer support from internal experts, contact our team.