When it comes to choosing a CMMS for healthcare, there are a few critical things for HTM and HFM teams to evaluate.
From improving operational efficiency to driving better patient outcomes, the benefits of a healthcare-specific computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) reach every corner of the hospital. However, not all CMMS solutions are built the same, especially when it comes to those used to manage facilities and medical assets in healthcare.
For healthcare technology management (HTM) and healthcare facilities management (HFM), choosing a CMMS can be challenging. The chosen system must align with the functionality required for the specialized needs and requirements for healthcare teams. To add to the complexity, recent shifts have elevated the CMMS to serve as an operational ecosystem. The comprehensive database of assets, facilities, and associated processes and procedures can help inform critical decisions for the organization, from additional software requirements to strategic priorities.
In this guide, we’ll highlight the key considerations to evaluate when choosing a healthcare and hospital CMMS for your assets and facilities.
More than ever, healthcare organizations and hospitals are focusing on how they manage data. From sensors to work orders and every data point in between, today's healthcare organizations don't struggle with getting data about a particular asset or component – the challenge is managing the outcoming information and organizing it in a useful way.
Most CMMS solutions customize the data collection experience by offering the ability to hide or customize fields. However, not all solutions are built the same – so it's important to understand how data will be collected, used, and reported on, especially among maintenance activities and work orders. In understanding data management, it's important to look at two aspects in particular.
Do you have the option to mass edit fields?
From seamlessly reassigning work orders to standardizing data, mass editing data and fields within the CMMS saves significant time for managers.
In just a few clicks, mass editing gives you the ability to change critical information – which can also be helpful as you are aligning data with compliance requirements. For instance, categorizing a particular asset or component and the associated procedure could benefit from mass editing if requirements call for it to be everywhere within the facility, like a fire alarm. Clerical errors can lead to discrepancies in an audit, so the ability to mass update can save time and inaccuracies in compliance requirements.
Are there automations to help with data capture?
Using a workflow automation in the background can ensure you’re capturing the data you need that technicians may skip or enter inaccurately.
There are a few distinct use cases for workflow automations that can simplify the work order and data collection process:
For Northwell's Joe Martino, FSI's workflow automation capabilities – Flow – have created efficiencies to save 80% of clicks required to complete work orders.
“Flow was an obvious addition to how we’ve set up FSI’s CMMS for our teams,” said Martino. “We’ve focused on building consistent processes within the system, but how this works in the field varies based on the size of the team and location. With Flow, we saw a way where we could streamline some of the complexities that come with multi-site management.”
Beyond how you’re managing data in the system, CMMS solutions are facing more scrutiny because of the adjacent functionality they have to patient-oriented databases. While personal identifiable information (PII) will not be saved in the solution directly, understanding how the vendor handles security is important.
Security protocols can include aligning with industry standards like SOC II compliance and HIPAA requirements. In addition, integrations with cybersecurity providers can ensure that data stored within the CMMS is not at risk of being hacked or otherwise exposed. While CMMS solutions traditionally don’t hold patient data, critical information around assets and operations can be exposed, which could create issues if infiltrated (or a different word here since we use in sentence prior) or otherwise accessed without permission.
“With a purpose-built CMMS for healthcare, we’re consistently focused on higher security standards because we understand the sensitivity for healthcare data, including non-patient records like hospital floor plans,” said Derek Smith, Director of Technology, FSI. “Because of this, we follow a higher standard than required; which includes SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA.”
Integrations continue to fuel the success of a CMMS implementation within the healthcare market. In fact, nearly 40% of organizations indicate integration potential as one of the top things they look at when choosing software according to recent data from Gartner.
The CMMS has established itself as the maintenance and work order powerhouse for assets and facilities. As we look ahead, it will become the operations ecosystem for additional organizational functions. In doing so, the ability to get granular insights to feed predictive maintenance models will advance greatly.
Let’s take the PartsSource integration, for instance. This integration empowers technicians to order the parts and materials necessary to complete work orders, eliminating delays by having approvals worked into the system already.
As the digital transformation continues, advancing to an operational ecosystem means that existing data in the CMMS will trigger the order, rather than relying on the technician to do so. Looking at predictive maintenance insights, the system will automatically find trends in asset performance – and use this data to order parts proactively, so the technician is ready when the work order pops up on his task list.
Evaluating a future CMMS for healthcare requires focusing on the integrations that are available for your team today – but also what will evolve in the years to come to support more efficient, strategic HTM and HFM teams.
There are many benefits to using a CMMS to support compliance requirements from organizations like Joint Commission, DNV, local AHJs, and others. From providing an accurate inventory of facilities and medical assets to tracking procedures and documentation for maintenance, a healthcare-specific CMMS offers the functionality to meet these requirements.
As Joint Commission and other organizations issue changes and updates to their standards, your CMMS can play a role in ensuring that your organization continues to maintain and align with what’s necessary.
Most recently, Joint Commission has announced changes that won’t necessarily impact the day-to-day operations; but rather, how healthcare facilities and hospitals track, document, and report on the activities.
The shift in moving the Environment of Care (EC) and Life Safety (LS) chapters to the new Physical Environment (PE) chapter means changes to reporting. For instance, referencing the regulatory code onto the work performed; in other words, ensure the code (NFPA 25-2012 Table 5:12) is specifically annotated on the work order to ensure compliance and survey readiness.
As regulatory bodies will likely continue to roll out changes and updates to existing compliance frameworks, healthcare and hospital CMMS solutions need to be nimble to respond to these shifts and continue to support the compliance needs of organizations. FSI's customers are preparing for new changes with support from a Joint Commission Update Solution – handling the heavy lifting of reorganizing compliance-centric features to support uninterrupted regulatory readiness.
While it’s important to review the various features that a CMMS offers for your HTM and HFM teams, it’s necessary to evaluate the day-to-day functionality and overall experience for technicians to use the tool.
If it’s hard to use, adoption will be hard to come by – no matter the mandates or processes put in place. A healthcare and hospital CMMS should be designed to fit the working dynamics of a team on the go. This includes:
As an added benefit, the right CMMS will provide insight into productivity and efficiency trends. Some organizations will leverage this data as a published ticker within the department to celebrate the work that’s been done. As workforce dynamics continue to shift, this data can be leveraged to indicate key qualifications and skills needed for the team as well.
In recent years, reporting capabilities have gone from having access to basic information – like how many work orders were completed in a month – to digging into details around which work orders were completed, what triggered the need, and associated details to better understand the scope of maintenance.
Multiple layers of data visibility and reporting helps facilities and asset management teams see what’s happening – and why. And, with artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced data science technologies now available in CMMS solutions, there’s the ability to leverage more trend data to get deeper insight into what’s happening, and more importantly – why.
Key reports and dashboards can go beyond data analysis. With the ability to add a layer of predictive analytics, they can provide the insight required to truly transform the CMMS into an operational ecosystem that leads the organization forward. Key reports and metrics include:
With the shift of the CMMS for healthcare moving to an operational ecosystem, the right solution can have a key role in helping to inform, define, and track strategic organizational priorities.
Key trends in the healthcare space that require support from the CMMS include:
Beyond these critical trends, capital planning continues to be a key strategic priority for organizations. Infrastructure and assets continue to age, while capital budgets largely remain the same.
Leveraging a solution like FSI’s CMMS can also help healthcare organizations and hospitals understand where they should be investing capital funds. Previously, capital requests were based on sentiment and institutional knowledge without supporting data. A committee approach would determine where budget was needed to maintain and extend the life of facilities or medical assets. Often, this meant the loudest voice in the room would get the funding required, because the data to inform decisions wouldn’t be available or easy to analyze.
Healthcare and hospital CMMS software has evolved in recent years to include functionality related to improving the capital planning process. This has helped healthcare organizations focus on putting money where it matters most and can be best used to prevent future reactive issues, as well as optimize budget spend.
Within the CMMS, existing information can help guide decision making. This can include key data points like:
Using this information can give healthcare facilities leaders the detailed data they need to inform capital plans. The data-driven approach gives team members visibility into key pieces of data and operations, helping to build a proactive strategy for asset replacement throughout the capital planning process.
Every organization has its own dynamics to consider when evaluating the ideal healthcare CMMS software.
After all, a CMMS can adapt to the larger market challenges for today’s hospitals and healthcare systems.
Focusing on these areas helps leaders find the CMMS software that best supports their current challenges and priorities, while also ensuring they select a vendor and solution that is thinking ahead to whatever the future may bring.
Interested in seeing FSI's healthcare CMMS software in action? Book a demo with our team.
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