Tag: resource management

Important Tips to Successfully Implement CMMS in Your Healthcare Facility

Guest post by Lindsey Walker, marketing manager, NEXGEN Asset Management.

Lindsey Walker
Lindsey Walker

Running a healthcare facility is a herculean task even with the most experienced staff. Most studies on the state of healthcare industry decry the high cost of equipment maintenance and it is also the greatest challenge that every hospital administrator deals with. Breakdown of hospital equipment can lead to fatalities and this is why you need to leverage preventive maintenance software to avoid legal issues and costly repairs.

Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) will help reduce hemorrhage of hospital revenues through unforeseen equipment breakdowns. This system is used to schedule preventive maintenance at the healthcare facility thus avoiding downtime of the machines. With this software, all of the hospital’s assets are tracked and monitored and all of this information is presented on one single dashboard. As the facility manager, you have instantaneous access to information about the condition of all the equipment. With such access to information the maintenance procedures are easier to execute, which saves the institution from financial loss and also improves the quality of patient care provided.

To appreciate why you should invest in such a maintenance system, consider the folowing benefits:

Improved Patient Care

The patients are the top priority in a healthcare facility and as such all efforts should be directed towards providing quality care. By adopting the CMMS software, you will have preventive measures in place in case of equipment failure. The health of patients is in your hands and situations such as power outages and equipment failure must be averted, as they can result in fatalities. You are able to come up with contingency plans in case of emergencies and the system also helps in case of evacuations. By providing for real-time communication between members of staff, this software improves the level of service offered at the facility.

Improved Asset and Inventory Management

A vast healthcare facility receives lots of supplies daily, and these are crucial in offering appropriate health services. Tracking all these supplies manually is very tricky and tedious, but with an automated system you can keep track of what is available and what needs to be replenished, quite easily. You can also monitor which departments are consuming more supplies and make relevant decisions based on such information. This system also helps you keep track of the equipment in the facility. If there are any due repairs, it is easier to alert the concerned parties to avoid downtime.

Risk Assessment

A hospital environment provides unique challenges and risk assessment is crucial to avoid accidents. The best maintenance management software also enables you to assess the potential risks in any project and equipment. By receiving such information beforehand, you are able to preempt any risks and avoid accidents. You can also carry out quality safety inspection to ensure every department is prepared for any unanticipated risks.  Continue Reading

Must-Have Strategies, Tools and Mindsets for Efficient Healthcare Labor Management

Jenny Korth
Jenny Korth

Guest post by Jenny Korth, CMPE, director of Project Management and Support, Avantas.

As more patients are entering the healthcare system and organizations will need to be equipped with the right processes to ensure that care is delivered by the right person at the right time to prepare for this patient influx. Effective resource management in healthcare is trickier than in a lot of 24/7/365 industries. What makes it so is that there is not one specific blueprint to managing each hospital, or even each unit within a hospital.

Fluctuating volumes in addition to geographic location, patient and staff demographics, and differences in culture, both of the area and in the organization all play factors in making resource management in healthcare far from cut and dry. This being said, there are strategies that can be universally applied to all types of healthcare organizations (single-site hospitals, academic medical centers, multi-hospital metropolitan systems, large regional systems, and systems with extensive clinics operations) to ensure they have the staff they need to care for their patients, and are able to do so in a cost effective manner.

Key to the strategies I’ll outline below is the customization needed to meet an organization’s specific needs.

Proper Staff Size

This is the basic idea of having the right number, types and layers of staff to meet patient demand. It starts with a right-sized core staff. The “right size” will vary from unit to unit, but essentially it is the number that keeps staff working to their FTE without the need for excessive overtime, floating, or cancellations.

Relative to types and layers of staff, this is where contingency staffing sources (e.g., float pools) come into play. Depending on the size of the organization it could have as many as seven different types of contingency layering to fill in when staff are not available to take an assignment or when volume spikes. These layers can include an enterprise float pool, site-based scheduled float pool, site-based PRN pool, unit-based PRN Pool, core staff in extra shifts and overtime (although this should be used sparingly), agency, and travelers. While agency and travel staff can sometimes have a negative connotation, the fact is that by maintaining relationships with the highest quality staffing organizations in your city, you will experience reduced costs, improved coordination of resources, and, with the proper contractual stipulations, prevention of agency recruitment of your core staff members.

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