Treating facilities like patients to maintain peak performance

The work of a health care facilities manager is akin to that of a doctor or nurse. Both spend their days monitoring vitals, developing treatment plans, tracking progress and making necessary interventions when things go awry. While the “patient” in question may be different — infrastructure instead of humans — the work of a facilities manager does have a direct effect on the work of a clinician. 

Health care facilities are like the human body — requiring continuous maintenance and care to thrive. And facilities managers are tasked with performing their work in buildings that are often at or near full occupancy, with many of them running 24/7. The very nature of health care makes it nearly impossible to shut down a facility to take care of this work. Instead, facilities managers care for their “patients” while maintaining daily operations. Just like the human body, a critical system can’t simply be turned off — it requires thoughtful measures to keep it functioning safely while maintenance is performed.

It’s a high-stakes environment, and establishing and following best practices makes all the difference between an environment that is conducive to patient healing and one that is not. Adopting a health care asset management (HCAM) approach based on reliability-centered maintenance, which pullslessons learned from other critical sectors like the airline and energy sectors, is essential to achieving positive patient care outcomes. 

In the upcoming  Health Care Maintenance and Operations: The Facilities Management Handbook, the sixth installment in the Health Care Facilities Management Handbook Series, HCAM is discussed in-depth, reviewing key concepts that keep systems running at peak performance, from medical gas systems to elevators to  heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems, all while operating at full capacity. 

The work of a health care facilities manager is never done, but the positive impact this work has on patient healing makes it especially rewarding. Adopting tried and true HCAM lessons enables leaders to take care of their “patient” better so clinicians can do the same.  

Chad Beebe, AIA, CHFM, CFPS, CBO, FASHE, deputy executive director, ASHE Regulatory Affairs.