Hywel Dda University Health Board Improves Compliance with CAFM Explorer®
Background:
Maintaining the safety and operational efficiency of a complex network of hospitals and community locations, including surgeries, is a challenge for any health board. For Hywel Dda University Health Board in West Wales, the challenge is made greater by the sheer size of the area. The second largest health board in Wales by geography, Hywel Dda covers a quarter of the landmass of Wales but is home to about 13% of the total population. Made up of three local authorities, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, the health board includes four acute hospitals and five community hospitals, with a diverse mix of old and new buildings.
In 2022, Hywel Dda University Health Board went live with Idox’s CAFM Explorer® solution, replacing a previous paper-based approach to maintenance and a reliance on spreadsheets for reporting. This change not only supports the health board’s digitisation strategy and drive towards paperless in every aspect of organisation but is also key in managing escalating compliance and health and safety requirements.
Challenge:
The quality and timeliness of maintenance services is critical to the efficient and safe running of any healthcare facility. In addition to quickly reacting to breakdowns, such as toilets, taps, even blinds, the maintenance team has a responsibility to ensure vital equipment is serviced to strict schedules. Medical gases and decontamination, ventilation, air handling units and sterilisers are key assets that require planned maintenance and servicing to meet tight regulatory compliance demands.
The compliance requirements around fire and water are strict. Alongside ensuring fire doors are correctly maintained, effective planned maintenance information includes tests for Legionella and Pseudomonas, and routine checks for water temperature.
Jemma Hughes
Systems Support Manager, Hywel Dda University Health Board
The increasing focus on compliance demands not only highly efficient planned maintenance schedules but also accurate information recording and detailed reporting. Jemma Hughes confirms she increasingly receives requests from hospital departments for information about PPM activities, as well as the maintenance department’s response to reactive maintenance activity. In addition to providing information for internal health care teams, including mental health, the health board’s private care providers – including the Renal Dialysis Unit – also require maintenance information to demonstrate compliance activity, including PAT testing and boiler services, during audits.
Solution:
For Hywel Dda University Health Board, the adoption of a robust maintenance solution was a key step in improving planned maintenance schedules to enhance operational performance and meet regulatory compliance demands. As Jemma Hughes says, “Doctors have been using tablets at the bedside for some time and even patients’ menu choices are made via tablets. The move away from paper is well established at Hywel Dda University Health Board.”
Jobs are allocated daily by supervisors/team leaders located at each hospital site. The 134 engineers – of which 118 are mobile working across the health board’s sites – can access the CAFM system on demand using mobile phones and tablets as they respond to reactive problems and deliver planned maintenance.
I can create the PPM schedule very easily and run the report. The utility kit in CAFM Explorer® is brilliant. Reports can be broken down to any piece of equipment managers want – and they can see all the relevant PPM schedules.
Jemma Hughes
Systems Support Manager, Hywel Dda University Health Board
Reactive maintenance requests are either logged via the CAFM portal or made directly to the help desk on each hospital site, where they are prioritised and allocated by the local maintenance management team. CAFM Explorer® also provides the information to support the recharging process to departments for both routine and reactive maintenance activity as well as minor works.
The next upgrade of their system is likely to include the integration of CAD drawings into CAFM Explorer®, providing mobile maintenance staff with an immediate view of the relevant asset drawing. Adding barcodes to each asset will also accelerate access to information, combining accurate location information with detailed drawings to further enhance the maintenance process.
In addition, the health board’s operational estates compliance team is currently undertaking an extensive exercise to provide a risk assessment for each PPM task. Once completed, this will provide every mobile worker with immediate information about the risks associated with both the site and specific task, helping to ensure they don the correct PPE if required. The system will be continually updated to reflect changing regulations.
Having one trusted source of all maintenance information within CAFM Explorer® that can be shared with managers and department heads resulted in enormous time saving. I can schedule reports to be automatically delivered.
Jemma Hughes
Systems Support Manager, Hywel Dda University Health Board
Benefits:
The introduction of CAFM Explorer® has transformed the health board’s visibility of both planned and reactive maintenance. Key performance indicator (KPI) reports are now produced immediately after month end – a significant improvement over the two-month delay experienced with the previous paper-based approach. This speed of reporting also enables deeper analysis, with KPIs measured across high PPMs, low PPMs and Priority 1 breakdowns, as well as specific fire door and emergency lighting reports.
Jemma Hughes confirms the highly visual nature of CAFM reporting has also improved management understanding of overall performance. “The pie charts and dials make it very easy for managers to quickly assess the top-level situation. In addition, they receive detailed reports for audit purposes which include job descriptions.”
Maintenance managers also have live access to the CAFM Dashboard, providing at-a-glance views of both current and future activity. Staff can also look ahead at the PPMs pending in the next month, enabling intelligence-led schedule updates to accommodate, for example, the annual leave of staff with specific skills.
The CAFM Dashboard provides all the information managers need. Using the widgets, they can quickly refine the views, for example focusing on the fire doors that are due for maintenance.
Jemma Hughes
Systems Support Manager, Hywel Dda University Health Board
The power of CAFM Explorer® has also significantly reduced the time spent collating reports for diverse stakeholders, from managers to hospital departments such as the Renal Dialysis Unit. In addition, Idox has recently created a set of custom reports for the health board providing detailed information about the daily hours and number of jobs undertaken by individuals to better understand performance site by site.
Future Plans:
Hywel Dda University Health Board has plans to drive further benefits from the CAFM Explorer® investment. One key goal is to undertake a gap analysis to better understand staff requirements, including the specific skills required to meet the evolving compliance demands facing health providers. Cleaning services will be integrated into CAFM Explorer® to provide a complete view of both hard and soft maintenance activity. The health board is currently building an asset register and plans to track the performance of all assets to gain further insight into condition and replacement cycles.
The digitisation of all services across Hywel Dda University Health Board is a significant change. Using CAFM Explorer®, the team not only has the information required to ensure the right people undertake the right job at the right time but also the knowledge required to safely undertake both PPM and reactive tasks.
Jemma Hughes
Systems Support Manager, Hywel Dda University Health Board
The addition of the risk information and drawings via CAD integration will further enhance the experience for the mobile workforce. With ever-tightening compliance and health and safety obligations, the adoption of robust solutions like CAFM Explorer® are absolutely essential to deliver the required information accuracy and operational timeliness.
