Maximizing patient outcomes continues to be the north star for today’s hospitals and healthcare facilities. The overall patient experience relies on superior care in a compliant facility that offers the latest technology and medical advances. Healthcare asset management sits at the core of this overall experience.
Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) are widely used to effectively manage assets across facilities and biomedical engineering. With so many CMMS vendors in the marketplace, it’s not uncommon for organizations to rely on siloed use of software between their healthcare facilities management (HFM) and healthcare technology management (HTM) teams.
However, different systems challenge cross-department communication and can have broader implications, like increasing compliance risk while decreasing overall efficiency. An integrated CMMS that can be leveraged by both departments – and even beyond HFM and HTM – can provide many benefits to those who are conducting maintenance on the ground, as well as to support the broader goal of maximizing patient outcomes. More importantly, an integrated CMMS that is intentionally built with healthcare facilities and HTM users in mind can offer several benefits to organizations.
Managing the Intersection of Facilities & HTM
Clinical staff and other healthcare personnel often submit requests to fix an issue within the hospital. These issues could be anything from adjusting the room’s temperature to troubleshooting a malfunctioning patient monitor.
For hospital personnel working in a department outside of HFM or HTM, understanding which team handles the issue that they are currently dealing with can be challenging.
Imagine a nurse who’s reporting a bed that’s not raising and lowering properly. Does this nurse know which department this goes to? More than likely, they’ll click the first link they see – filling out a form to report the issue and hoping it gets to the right group.
By the time it’s evaluated by the receiving team, transferred to the correct department, and addressed by the technician, significant time can be lost. These delays can drive up maintenance costs and delay technicians in completing other work. And, with the U.S. in the midst of a national bed shortage, any delay to repairs can result in longer wait times and negatively impact the patient experience.
Using a single CMMS for healthcare asset management makes it easier to add, track, and manage issues and requests in the system - reducing the chance for duplicate work. One system makes it more efficient for all involved – from the asset management teams to health providers to patients.
As a bonus, relying on a unified CMMS gives a full picture of the assets in question – and provides insight into previous maintenance requests and issues. If HFM and HTM teams use separate systems, these siloed solutions make it more challenging to know what happened and why across the organization’s asset catalog.
Maintaining Compliance Within the Physical Environment
While facilities teams focus on maintaining the building structure and support systems, HTM departments manage life-saving equipment for patients. These assets may have different maintenance schedules, timing, and even resource requirements. Even so, requirements from Joint Commission, DNV, and other regulatory bodies place all assets within the same physical environment.
Managing assets with two different CMMS solutions brings challenges. Each CMMS may record maintenance activities, procedures, and even asset categories in a different way. The solutions may also have different auditing procedures, resulting in different reports.
A single CMMS simplifies how teams manage compliance requirements. Within the solution, especially one purpose-built for healthcare asset management, it can roll up essential data points to create audit-ready documentation that’s easy to deliver for review. In addition, a single CMMS for both HFM and HTM can ensure that ongoing maintenance continues to align with what’s necessary to stay compliant – all without needing to track, manage, and record in two separate systems.
Recent changes within Joint Commission language and other compliance requirements means that organizations will need to align their reporting accordingly. From creating a historical record to matching work with the updated requirements, using a single CMMS simplifies this entire process and eliminates the risk of something falling through the cracks because of separate data structures that bring inconsistency into compliance reporting.
Getting Complete Performance & Maintenance Data
Beyond reporting on compliance requirements, the CMMS holds a great deal of information for healthcare asset management – and can be extremely helpful in making critical decisions for HFM and HTM teams.
Getting the full picture may include:
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Identifying whether it’s an ongoing maintenance issue that needs to be escalated
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Understanding previous maintenance and how it aligns with the current need
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Projecting costs for multi-year capital plans
This layer of analysis provides several benefits. With a complete view into information at the asset level, teams can make more effective decisions while deeper insights on performance can have an impact on staffing requirements. As a result, teams can strategically allocate the resources needed to sustain the physical environment.
Key data points within the CMMS can also inform decisions around budgeting and capital planning long term, by indicating what investments may be necessary given the age and performance of equipment. A cohesive view into this data ensures that the organization can maximize funding and drive operational excellence.
Managing Space and Occupancy
While facilities teams are charged with managing the physical space within the hospital or facility, accessing room usage and condition information can be extremely beneficial for HTM teams.
If, for instance, there’s a room that requires sterile protocols (where those who enter must be gowned up), a HTM technician needs to follow a strict process for servicing equipment in the room. In separate CMMS solutions, the space management data typically lives in the solution for the facilities team – potentially creating a blind spot for HTM teams who need to conduct maintenance within these areas of the facility.
Integrated space management data goes beyond the room itself. For mobile assets, like infusion pumps or bladder scanners, HTM teams can waste a significant amount of time trying to find them within the facility.
With real-time locating systems (RTLS) and sensors, the location of these assets can be linked to the appropriate space. As a result, HFM and HTM teams can be in the know about what to expect when walking into a room (and minimize the amount of time for search-and-find operations).
Aligning Healthcare Asset Management with the Patient Experience
Healthcare asset management lives at the core of the hospital and healthcare organization. From managing the condition of the building itself to the life-saving devices within the facility, HFM and HTM teams play a critical role in helping advance patient outcomes, resulting in a positive patient experience.
Shared access to a 360-degree view of asset data from a single solution reduces costs, drives operational efficiency, and maximizes staff time. The work that HTM and HFM does has a ripple effect on patient safety, outcomes, and the overall experience they have within the facility.
Because of this, finding ways to streamline the asset management process within a healthcare-focused CMMS becomes paramount to elevating the patient experience – which at the end of the day, is the goal for any hospital or healthcare facility.
Interested in seeing how FSI’s CMS can work for your healthcare asset management across facilities and biomedical engineering? Schedule a demo today.