By Rick Joslin, Senior Advisor, Healthcare Strategy & Senior Solutions Architect, Healthcare

With the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the United States, healthcare service departments are bracing for the anticipated dramatic increase of activities surrounding the treatment and support of affected patients.

In addition, Clinical Engineering teams will see significant increases for critical care equipment and sterilization requests. Facilities/Plant Operations and Environmental Services teams will see increases in requests for space alterations, air quality management, room cleaning and sanitation, and parts and materials. All teams will see increases in necessary Preventative Maintenance (PM) frequency on related equipment and spaces.

These activities should be documented in your CMMS and asset management system(s) so they are easy to retrieve, analyze and report on for the anticipated needs of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Adding COVID-19 Codes to CMMS Records.

In addition to routine reporting requirements, we suggest adding a code, or other identifiable value, to your service request and work order processes in your CMMS to meet the anticipated demand and prioritize work. We highly recommend that you implement the following:

  • Create and add a checkbox to your work order and service request portal screens labeled “Related to COVID-19.”
  • Create and add a checkbox or field to your asset inventory screen labeled “Critical to COVID-19.”
  • Add standard verbiage to work order descriptions, such as “COVID-19: IC room filter change” or “COVID-19: Equipment sterilization and service.”

By adding and using these fields, you will be able to create valuable reports and analytics, enabling you to make better-informed decisions and improve forecasting, including the ability to:

  • Visually prioritize work orders related to COVID-19 activities.
  • Compare the volume of COVID-19 related work orders to that of regular service requests.
  • Identify the percentage of your resources going to COVID-19 activities, such as man hours, parts and materials cost and specialized team members.
  • Measure tighter response time expectations for COVID-19 specific activities.
  • Identify those assets most likely to require altered PMs and servicing frequencies.
  • Identify assets managed and supported by vendors, enabling you to arrange any altered support expectations.
  • Improve accurate inventory lists, including last known usage location and date.
  • Visualize when demand begins to exceed supply, and plan accordingly before your team is overrun.

Accruent has developed pre-configured reports based on these suggestions and we are making them available as-is and at no cost to our customers. Let us help you increase your preparedness.

To learn more watch our new Webinar: COVID-19: Strategies To Optimize Healthcare Support Services.

How we can help:

If you are interested in making these suggested changes to your Accruent Healthcare CMMS & Asset Management Solutions, please reach out to us and allow us to help your team during this incredibly difficult time.

Beyond technology, Accruent experts are available to evaluate your current processes, Key Performance Indicators, and highlight step-by-step improvement recommendations to make your Healthcare Facilities and Biomedical Departments a Strategic Asset.

Contact us today to start a conversation about how Accruent’s Healthcare CMMS & Asset Management solutions can help you with your asset management needs.