A Focus on the Good Health of Buildings and Equipment
Healthcare facilities maintenance plays a key role in allowing healthcare providers to do their jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic marks a period of the ‘new normal’ for healthcare in many different ways – and this includes facilities maintenance. Saving time and resources has taken on renewed importance. These more acute pressures exist alongside the ongoing importance of sustainability within the sector, without any compromise on positive patient experience.
In this blog, we take a look at the role facilities maintenance plays in healthcare and the challenges faced by the sector.
The Impact of Facilities Maintenance in the Healthcare Sector
Clean, Serve, Maintain
Clean, functional facilities are crucial to the healthcare environment. It has a bearing on the quality of care on offer, as well as treatment, recovery times, readmission stats, food quality offering, and the speed of bed turnaround. By ensuring facilities and equipment is well-maintained (with a preventative maintenance schedule in place to prevent down time), healthcare providers are working towards continuity; compliance; and a safe, clean, environment for patients and healthcare practitioners.
Spotless Reputation
Public and private healthcare institutions should all strive for a spotless reputation – and facilities maintenance is vital to the patient journey. The good reputation to the public and patients is one thing, but it is elemental to existing and potential staff and healthcare practitioners too. By committing to clean, safe, and well-functioning workspaces, healthcare institutions stand a higher chance of attracting new talent and retaining staff over the long term.
Continuity
When critical systems go down, there are potentially dire consequences. Healthcare workplaces and systems rely on ongoing maintenance – and speedy reactive maintenance – to minimise disruptions and keep all the cogs in the system working to best effect.
Innovate Around Complex Healthcare Challenges
The pandemic has underscored the role of facilities maintenance in healthcare operations. As healthcare has innovated during these challenging times, so FM systems have been developed which are likely to remain into the future. These challenges are ongoing – set against the backdrop of tight budgets, welfare standards, and the preservation of resources.
The Challenges of Facilities Maintenance for the Healthcare Sector
Tight Healthcare Budgets
The healthcare spend in the UK is significantly lower than in many other developed countries. When it comes to cost saving, the move to reactive over scheduled maintenance is often viewed as a penny saving measure. However, this impacts other areas of operation and, importantly, the patient experience. This is where the advice and services of professional facilities maintenance specialists creates inroads of potential. Through tailored FM strategies and cost-effective maintenance plans, budgetary burdens stand to be overcome.
Legacy Issues
The complexity of maintaining old and sometimes dilapidated buildings has resulted in a maintenance backlog amounting to millions of pounds. Together with the budget limitations mentioned above, maintenance forms a compound problem – one that worsens over time.
Sustainability Pressures
The NHS is responsible for 25% of public sector carbon emissions in the UK. Additionally, food waste is a growing concern. Of the 2300 hospitals in the country, 500 grams of food waste is created per patient per week. When it comes to questions of sustainability, facilities maintenance has a bearing on reducing waste and saving energy. For both on-site cook-serve facilities and central production units servicing multiple locations, a focus on refrigeration is an important consideration in food waste prevention, for instance.
Facilities maintenance professionals also combine experience and expertise with smart technologies and data readings to devise energy-saving strategies that have cost and environmental advantages.
Contact Voltix Services for Specialist Facilities Maintenance Services for Healthcare
Voltix Services partners with clients to achieve standards of excellence in facilities maintenance. Our team is on call 24/7 to react to maintenance emergencies and we create bespoke solutions around mechanical and electrical maintenance, statutory compliance, fire and security, estate management, energy management, and environmental management. Contact us today for more information.