Field Asset Management Blog Archives | BlueFolder

How to Write a Medical Equipment Maintenance Plan

BlueFolder — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:33:00 +0000

A medical equipment management plan (MEMP) is a guide developed by healthcare organizations and management to oversee and maintain medical equipment to safe and readily available standards. If your health organization is accredited by a medical regulatory agency, such as the Joint Commission, a medical equipment management plan will most likely be required to maintain such accreditations. Plus, it will help ensure your equipment can keep patients safe.

When constructing a plan for your health organization, aspects such as equipment maintenance programs and recall procedures must be addressed to sufficiently meet accreditation requirements. To better understand which critical aspects must be included for your organization, consider this guide to effectively writing a medical equipment management plan.

1. Set Your Objectives

Before diving straight into a medical equipment management plan, you must establish your objectives first. Here you should provide readers with an introduction to the efforts your organization will take to ensure both staff and patient safety. Such measures should include plans for routine inspections, testing, and maintenance efforts to properly address any and all medical equipment risk.

You can also use this section to outline the overarching goals for your equipment management plan. This section is typically brief and consists of a few sentences outlining high-level goals as well as bullet points of immediate objectives.

Common initiatives found in the objective section of a medical equipment management plan include:

To reach all necessary requirements of accreditation established by any regulatory agencies like the Joint Commission.
To establish patient, employee, practitioner, and visitor protection and safety during medical equipment use.
To ensure all medical equipment used within the facility is maintained to specific standards to allow safe operation and immediate readiness.
To assess and uphold medical equipment performance to necessary standards.
To encourage safe and effective use of medical equipment by staff and practitioners within the health facility.

2. Conduct an Equipment Inventory

After laying out the objectives for your medical equipment management plan, next, describe your organization’s approach to maintaining an inventory of medical equipment. Remember to gather any necessary details, such as serial numbers, equipment location details, and specific maintenance information, to input into your equipment/asset management database. By collecting and routinely updating these details, you can efficiently schedule any required maintenance and testing sessions to properly adhere to your previously-mentioned objectives.

To better reach medical equipment safety standards, don’t forget to also identify all high-risk medical equipment, such as ventilators, defibrillators, and oxygen concentrators, within your inventory. The malfunction and failure of these life-sustaining pieces of equipment can cause severe injury or death, so it’s imperative you use a ranking system to highlight these machines’ importance within your inventory. By acknowledging all high-risk equipment within your facility, you can better prioritize maintenance and safety testing to effectively uphold a strong safety standard.

3. Establish an Equipment Maintenance Plan

Once all details have been collected to form a database in your medical equipment asset management software, you can now use that information to establish an equipment maintenance plan. This step will help keep all equipment up to code and prepared for immediate use. Based on the equipment manufacturer’s recommendations and accreditation requirements, develop a maintenance schedule for each piece of equipment.

While addressing each equipment piece, be sure to also include any details regarding required equipment testing. Routine assessments, such as electrical safety testing, can help you identify any underlying concerns or performance issues you’ll need to make note of in your maintenance management system.

Information regarding both maintenance and testing procedures should always be recorded within your maintenance plan, especially in regards to high-risk equipment. These details must include problem descriptions, performed repairs, maintenance actions, technician details, department location, and completion dates. When constructing this plan, remember to acknowledge access information for the maintenance management system being used to organize these details as well.

4. Include an Incident Response Procedure

In the event a piece of medical equipment is attributed to an incident of injury, illness, or death, all details regarding the equipment failure must be documented. In your medical equipment management plan, keep in mind you must list any necessary contact information regarding the Medical Equipment Coordinator and Director of Risk Management to allow for proper reporting. If neither role is readily accessible, be sure to include contact information for the appropriate department within your facility.

Refer back to your equipment asset management software and include any updated information, such as the time and date of the equipment failure. These details can then be used when technicians are dispatched for repair. Plus, it can streamline your work order process to swiftly address any upcoming maintenance tasks. Likewise, if the equipment undergoes testing, all details of the results should be noted within the software. From here, a decision can be made to determine if the equipment is safe for any further use.

5. Equipment Recall Procedure

As with equipment incidents, procedures must also be established in the event of an equipment recall. In your medical equipment management plan, layout any required steps Equipment Coordinators are to follow when notified of an equipment recall. Distribution of any equipment recall notices should also be sent to any responsible staff members, such as the Director of Risk Management or similar personnel.

Any circulation of new or updated medical equipment recall notices must be tracked and updated within the software. Similarly, if any actions are taken to address the recall, keep in mind to always update the equipment asset management database of any repairs, replacements, or testing to effectively monitor the system performance.

Notice of these recalls must be inputted into the equipment asset management software as well. The proper personnel can then refer to the software to locate and collect any recalled equipment, and prevent any further use.

Establish an Effective Medical Equipment Management Plan Today

The importance of a medical equipment management plan doesn’t just stop at the requirements needed for accreditation by medical regulatory agencies. From equipment asset management databases to equipment recall procedures, these plans are essential to the safety of patients, staff, practitioners, and visitors located within your healthcare organization.

With the help of medical equipment service software, these essential parts of a strong medical equipment management plan can be easily implemented, so you can be confident in your practice’s ability to keep your business, and everyone in it, safe. For help upholding top safety standards and performance, contact BlueFolder today.

The post How to Write a Medical Equipment Maintenance Plan appeared first on BlueFolder.

Field Service Management Solutions: What to Shop For

BlueFolder — Wed, 19 May 2021 16:15:00 +0000

For service businesses or organizations that operate via work orders and in-person service calls, field service management software can offer game-changing solutions that boost overall company productivity and success. Whether the task is scheduling emergency maintenance calls or tracking company assets, field service management solutions cut back on both work time and labor efforts. Better yet, they streamline day-to-day operations in a way that a basic pen and paper or spreadsheet system cannot.

However, that’s not to say that all field service management solutions are made the same. When you’re looking to invest in field service management software, there are quite a few features you’ll want to be on the lookout for prior to making a purchase decision. Take a look at this detailed guide about field service management solutions, from why this software is integral to your business to which features must make the final cut.

Why Do Companies Use Field Service Management Software?

While there is no sole reason as to why companies use field service management software, the answer typically boils down to efficiency. When complex tasks, such as tracking and managing field service activities, can be fine-tuned and facilitated by software, time and effort are freed for technicians and managing staff. Not to mention, field service management software acts as an excellent record-keeper, both financially and operationally. Whether it’s customer invoices or individual equipment warranty details, this software can act as an essential database for company operations.

To better understand what field service management software can do for you, let’s take a deeper dive into the functions you should be on the lookout for when deciding on a program.

What to Look for in Your Field Service Management Software Solution:

With countless industry types deploying field service management solutions regularly, numerous available features offered through this software help service businesses uphold efficient day-to-day operations. Though your exact needs may vary depending on your industry type, consider these key functions to remain on the lookout for while choosing your field service management solution.

Is It User-Friendly?

First and foremost, your chosen solution must boast an incredible ease of use. Even if a field service management solution offers countless features to assist with your operations, the value of the software simply cannot impress if it’s not user-friendly. Regardless if the user is a beginner or expert, the solution should have a minimal learning curve that makes it easy to navigate the platform.

Therefore, field service management software must supply an easy-to-access dashboard that can be quickly navigated, organized and updated to the user’s preferences. Any readily needed information, from customer records and service history to work order details or team schedules, should be accessible with ease from any of its users. Likewise, if you run a team, a user-friendly platform should provide all users with the details required to complete their job, no matter their location.

Does it Offer Automation?

Many service businesses tend to operate on routine workflows each day. While specific circumstances behind each work order can vary, common workflow processes such as dispatching job details to technicians and communicating with customers typically remain the same. Without automation, you’ll ultimately complete dozens of administrative tasks manually, costing significant time and manpower.

To better streamline these processes, you’ll want to make sure you use a field service management software that offers in-depth automation. Automation will harness the ability of the software to complete those recurring tasks that you find yourself wasting time to accomplish manually each day.

For example, consider what happens when a work order is updated by your technician and requires customer feedback. With automation, your software can facilitate sending a message to the client automatically with minimal effort from the technician. From there, automation processes can also facilitate the processing of a customer’s reply and notify the technician so they can continue working the project to completion with maximum efficiency.

Is it Customizable?

All too often, field service management solutions offer form-fields and process options that simply don’t apply to your industry and/or business. You may find yourself struggling with the default settings offered by your field service management software, attempting to match the workflow processes to the level you require. To match your company’s particular needs and preferences, be sure you are using a solution that’s customizable in the ways required for your business.

To tailor to your specific operational needs, multiple steps within your software’s workflow should be editable or able to be modified in some way. Customizable fields, user access controls and customer notifications are just some of the many options a system administrator should be able to change. Modifying these various options to fit your business’s needs can quickly save you and your team time and money by presenting only the valuable information in your user dashboard.

Can You Record All Billable Expenses, and Track Job Costs and Profitability?

Maintaining accurate financial record keeping is a key success component of any business. With varying work orders, expenses and profit flows coming into your business each week, you require a field service management solution that can help keep these critical records organized.

Typically, your field service management solution should utilize automation to track three billable item types: labor, materials and expenses. Software automation should be able to track labor costs through job status updates, from when an employee begins a job to when they marked the job complete. Similarly, material costs or outside expenses should be able to be quickly uploaded using manual input or photo receipt upload to track any and all costs through your operating year.

Furthermore, field service management solutions should offer invoicing capabilities or an integration with your existing accounting and invoicing software. Once a job is complete and it’s time to bill the customer, you’ll want a solution that makes it easy to see what you’re billing the customer for and the status of the invoice associated with each work order.

What Type of Dispatch and Scheduling Capabilities Does it Offer?

What is a successful service business without an effective technician scheduling and dispatch system? No matter the size of your team, outdated methods of manually writing out daily technician schedules and phone call dispatching only increase the chances of overlooked work orders and disappointed clients. To maintain functional and productive daily operations, your field service management software must come equipped with extensive dispatch and scheduling capabilities.

From preexisting work orders to recently received work orders, you need software that offers you daily, weekly and monthly calendar view options to help schedule out each of these worker tasks. Once all work order details have been inputted, the software should then allow you to assign these tasks to a specific worker or team. These capabilities will allow workers to review their daily expectations and duties in a personalized schedule that they can use to receive notifications and update the job status.

Can You Track Assets and Equipment With It?

For service businesses whose work is equipment-centric, meaning they install and/or repair complex equipment for their customers, it’s essential you find a field service management software that can track these critical items. Your customers depend on you to keep their equipment operating at full capacity and maximum efficiency, so you need to be able to accurately track equipment details, warranty information, service history, and more.

User manuals, technical documents, warranty information and serial numbers are just some of the few details that are going to come along with these equipment assets. Rather than haphazardly throwing these details into a folder and calling it a day, opt for a software solution that allows you to capture, upload and organize them all into one system. Then, you can use the software to create a preventive maintenance plan.

In order to maintain company efficiency and productivity, assets must undergo routine maintenance and updates. Equipment-centric field service management solutions should offer maintenance scheduling to help you keep up with asset health and help prevent equipment failure.

What Type of Team Collaboration or Communication Does It Offer?

When overseeing a large team, the last thing you want to worry about is the reliance of solely phone to phone communication. With email and text technology already engraved into our modern lives, why not use the same tools to boost company efficiency? When shopping for a field service management software, make sure the program offers team collaboration and communication functions.

Field service management software can facilitate communications between team members on individual work orders and assigned tasks. Comments made back-and-forth can be tracked within the context of the specific job or task they are related, making it easy to see a full history of the conversations taking place.

See What Field Service Management Solutions Can Do for You

If old-school pen and paper methods are weighing down your daily operations, field service management software can be your solution. Regardless of the service industry you operate in, features ranging from system automation to team communication can boost company productivity, profitability, and overall customer satisfaction.

Here at BlueFolder, we understand that the sheer amount of options on the market can be overwhelming. Now that you have a better understanding of what to shop for in an effective field service management solution, request a demo of BlueFolder’s Field Service Management Software today—we’re confident our features won’t disappoint.

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4 Tips to Improve Your Preventative Maintenance Schedule

BlueFolder — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 18:21:00 +0000

A preventative maintenance schedule is a systematic approach to identifying issues and correcting equipment failures before they happen. That means performing preventive maintenance on a regular basis and coming up with a preventive maintenance plan in which someone conducts routine checkups on equipment to ensure operating efficiency.

In order to be effective, a preventative maintenance schedule needs to be constantly adjusted, which is why old methods of providing preventative maintenance may not work as well (i.e, pen and paper, email, spreadsheets, etc.). Use technology to your advantage and create your preventative maintenance schedule using a robust preventative maintenance scheduling tool like the one we’ll discuss in detail below. But first, let’s take a look at four tips to help improve your preventive maintenance schedule.

1. Set Goals & Monitor Them

It’s great to have a preventative maintenance schedule, but you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. And if you do use one, there are a few things to think about. For example, are machines and assets running more efficiently? Are you having less downtime? Figure out what your goals are and write them down (and remember to be specific).

Set goals and consistently monitor them so that it’s easier for you to stay on track to meet them. Updating your goals as your business grows is important if you want it to keep growing. That means keeping your goals in a place where you can always refer back to them and make quick and easy updates when you need to.

2. Assess All of Your Machines and Assets, Not Just the Most Critical Ones

Assessing all of your machines and assets is essential to making sure all of your equipment is running at maximum efficiency. If you only pay attention to the most critical ones, you’re essentially running around putting out fires instead of taking the most efficient route to managing your equipment. If you want your assets and equipment to last, you’ve got to come up with a preventative maintenance plan that’s beneficial for all of your assets — not just the oldest or most critical ones.

3. Stop Performing Unnecessary Maintenance and Learn About Preventative Maintenance Schedules

Performing unnecessary maintenance is something no one wants to do and if you want to avoid it as well, you’ll need to find a way to make maintenance more routine. That’s where preventative maintenance schedules come in.

Preventative maintenance schedules can help you avoid performing unnecessary maintenance by establishing priorities based on the criticality of the assets. Creating a preventative maintenance schedule can also define all of the tasks that need to be performed throughout the year to ensure everything runs smoothly and few (if any) maintenance issues arise.

4. Continue to Improve Your PM Schedule By Analyzing and Adjusting Accordingly

Once you’ve created a preventative maintenance schedule, start analyzing it so you can make adjustments accordingly. See what’s working and what isn’t and make the necessary changes. Make sure to include key stakeholders in your preventative maintenance scheduling plan so everyone impacted can be involved in the design and implementation. It will ensure it’s the most effective plan it can be.

Finding a Preventative Maintenance Scheduling Solution

A comprehensive preventative maintenance scheduling solution is crucial to managing your field assets adequately. Field asset management software can help improve efficiency and increase equipment uptime because you’ll have all of your asset information in one, easy-to-access location.

Field asset management software like BlueFolder’s allows you to schedule preventative maintenance and track serial numbers, service histories, warranties, and more. Providing greater attention to detail is seamless with asset management software. Imagine being able to impress your customers with detailed information tracking all of the equipment you service.

Using BlueFolder’s customizable features can help you streamline your equipment maintenance. Some of those features include:

Equipment records – This allows you to keep track of customer equipment and assets, track manufacturer and model information and serial numbers, as well as warranty expiration, and more.
File attachments – This allows you to upload user manuals, photos, or other types of attachments to any asset or piece of equipment.
Maintenance schedule – Get reminders when an asset or piece of equipment is due for service and create new work orders quickly and easily for the service. Or reset the next service date so you can set a reminder for the next service date.
Custom fields – Create customized, searchable fields so you can keep track of all the data for each customer to make it easy to find the information you need quickly.
Service history – Get instant access to each customer’s service history to keep your team organized and efficient, and allowing them to provide great customer service.
Import/Export capabilities – If you have existing customer records or data, you can import them into BlueFolder using the built-in import tools.

You’ll also have access to service dashboards and custom reports and customizable equipment fields.

The service dashboard and custom reports help you maximize your equipment and asset management by helping you quickly access equipment information (like model numbers and serial numbers), helping you identify equipment replacement sales opportunities, and providing insights into which pieces of equipment are past due for service or have an approaching service date.

You can track equipment fields like Location, Item Name, Manufacturer Name, Status, Service Interval (the amount of time between service dates), and more. With custom fields, you’ll have the ability to track information for equipment that’s specific to your industry.

Simplify Managing Your Assets and Equipment

Creating a preventative maintenance schedule will make managing your assets and equipment seamless. BlueFolder’s easy-to-use asset management software can help you create an easy-to-follow preventative maintenance schedule that keeps all of the equipment you service in tip-top shape and saves you the most time and money. If you’re ready to take your preventative maintenance to the next level and partner with a provider that makes customers a priority, schedule a personalized one-on-one demo so you can see exactly what you’re getting before you spend a dime.

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