Reputation, cleanliness, and patient experience, are three main factors patients are likely to consider when identifying a healthcare facility to visit. Patients can find this information in various ways, but most use online reviews, so preventing negative reviews is a high priority. Preventing negative reviews in areas specific to a facility engineer should also be a high priority. Here are some ways to get a leg up on the competition in maintenance specific areas.
Reputation
Presumably patient care will make or break the reputation of a healthcare facility, but the maintenance staff also plays a role in two main ways.
- Work Orders. Keeping up with the facility appearance is a daunting task, but an easy way to do this is to stay on top of work orders. Doing so in a timely manner will go a long way in the eyes of the patients. Attention to these requests shows patrons that their atmosphere is just as important as their physical needs.
- A healthcare facility usually includes multiple main and off-site buildings. Creating a preventative maintenance routine that consistently monitors and efficiently repairs equipment is imperative. For an example, download our heating and cooling system preventative maintenance checklist here.
Cleanliness
Healthcare facilities aim to treat and restore patient health, and by no means aim to create an environment where a patient ends up sicker than when he or she arrived. Simple cleaning routines should be executed with utmost care. Cleaning regimens should aim to treat the health of the building the same way the patients’ health is being treated, with the best care possible. Use this simple eTool provided by OSHA to establish healthy habits within the facility https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/hospital/housekeeping/housekeeping.html. Healthcare maintenance teams are aggressively evaluated when it comes to performance audits. Abiding by government regulations is vital when it comes to maintaining a clinic, hospital, or rehab center.
Patient Experience
While it may not seem that a facility maintenance professional has a direct impact on patient care, the department’s contribution can still be significant in two main ways.
- Structural maintenance is sometimes an undervalued component of facility maintenance. In a hospital, this should arguably move up on the priority list.
- Interior structures have two main fundamental responsibilities. First, to create boundaries between rooms that might require varying degrees of environmental controls (e.g. contaminant or temperature). Second, separating the inside from the outside. Routinely surveying the facility for breaches in these two boundaries such as water damage, leak detection, or drafts can mitigate air-borne risks or overall discomfort for a patient.
- Exterior structures, beyond just a first impression, also have critical responsibilities. Cracks in walking areas, loose railings on ramps and slippery substances in high traffic areas are all hazards easily controllable with a preventative maintenance strategy.
- Other than just physical maintenance, encourage your team to keep customer service a top priority when interacting with patrons.
Along with the level of care and treatment a patient will receive, they will take the above factors into consideration when rating their overall experience of their stay. Despite the fact that you are not treating patients as a facility engineer, your job plays a huge role in the overall success of the healthcare facility.
Our representatives at Chemsearch FE are extremely knowledgeable about many facility maintenance areas. If you would like to further discuss facility solutions with one of our resource management experts, please click here and we will get someone in touch with you soon!
