Brookings Health Biomedical Services Success Story

Success Story:

UHS Helps Brookings Health System Concentrate on Quality Health Care with Biomedical Services

Situation Overview

Brookings Health System is dedicated to providing high-quality, compassionate and personalized care. However, health care managers at Brookings were spending an inordinate amount of time trying to manage the service of their medical equipment. Already focused on a multitude of other essential tasks, it became increasingly difficult for the staff to ensure their equipment was in optimal condition prior to patient use.

Equipment that is kept in optimal operating condition:

Prevents equipment-related delays in patient care
Improves patient experience and outcomes
Reduces reliance on supplemental rentals and unnecessary purchases
Helps health care providers maintain and exceed standards of care

› The Challenge

Candace Johnson, OR Director over Brookings Health Systems’ three operating rooms, felt challenged with managing multiple equipment manufacturers and their service contracts. As OR director, it fell on her to make sure the equipment was maintained on schedule, per contract, and repaired in a timely manner.

┌“It was all very time consuming and frustrating – keeping the service contracts straight, arranging service, sending parts and arranging for loaners.”┘

Other health care managers found that navigating service contracts with multiple vendors made it difficult to ensure vital medical equipment was up-to-date on their preventive maintenance and available when it was needed for patient-use.

Duane Thompson, Environmental Services Director for Brookings Health System, said that Brookings needed a way to coordinate all the service contracts to streamline maintenance and repairs of medical equipment – and the documentation.

Clinical Engineering Success Story: Brookings Health

› The Solution

As Brookings’ service vendor, Universal Hospital Services (UHS) coordinates the maintenance and repair of all medical equipment and advises the Brookings management team on the feasibility of new technology acquisitions and prioritized replacements. This includes:

Managing Service Contracts to Lower Costs:
“UHS takes the burden of managing service contracts off department managers and works directly with the manufacturers.” Thompson said, “UHS negotiates service contracts with manufacturers for a better price than previously possible.”

Organized Preventive Maintenance:
“UHS has helped us be more organized and efficient with our preventive maintenance,” Johnson said. “Their preventive maintenance is really reassuring because you know your equipment is going to work.”

100%

Preventive Maintenance Compliance

On-site Technician to Improve Uptime:
UHS provides an on-site biomedical technician to quickly respond to service requests and ensure the work is completed in a timely manner. This includes work completed by a manufacturer, for which UHS coordinates the communication, payment and documentation.

Documentation Management for Governing Agencies:
UHS completes and maintains documentation of preventive maintenance and repairs for compliance with health care standards. “As time goes on,” says Johnson, ”there is much more documentation and record keeping that you have to provide than in the past.When the State Department of Health comes in, UHS provides the documentation that they require. We’ve never had any problems or complaints at all with compliance.”

Equipment Planning to Optimize Purchasing:
UHS generates a vendor-neutral, strategic capital replacement plan for the Brookings management team that focuses on the serviceability of the equipment, technology relevance and capital prioritization.