News

Improving Hospitals’ Preventive Maintenance Programs
August 04, 2006

By Staff
Appeared in HealthcareFacility

Hospitals and health care systems have been slow to adopt automated preventive maintenance programs. Due to intense pressure to cut costs, hospital officials sometimes decide to shortchange the maintenance staff, where a lack of resources often manifests itself through an apparent lack of progress and improvement in the organization. On the contrary, cutting maintenance programs drastically reduces system reliability, shortens equipment life cycles and creates a “firefighting” atmosphere in the maintenance department.

Improper maintenance also increases the risk that an equipment malfunction will disrupt hospital operations and interfere with patient care, potentially at critical moments such as during major surgery. With the stakes as high as they are, it is essential for hospitals to take a proactive approach to maximizing the efficiency of the maintenance staff.

To provide for better accountability by maintenance workers, the first priority usually is to establish an accurate reporting system, or to improve the accuracy of an existing system. In some cases, comparing workers’ time cards with their work orders shows that workers are spending only about two hours of an eight-hour day, or about 25 percent of their time, on actual maintenance work.

Through the adoption of automated methods, an institution can see a drastic increase in that figure, to as much as four to five hours a day. Two fairly straightforward steps — implementing a more accurate reporting system and increasing worker productivity — can make a big difference, sometimes saving millions of dollars annually. The automated methods system helps to manage time so that workers are able to spend more time on preventive maintenance, while simultaneously being held more accountable for their time. (Other issues, from time spent on undocumented projects to significant amounts of travel time within the facility, can help to improve the bottom line further still.)