Healthcare Facility Management: Why You Need the Right Healthcare Risk Management Tools
Compliance and risk management are crucial behind-the-scenes programs in healthcare facilities. It’s these tasks that keep things running smoothly and, above all, keep patients and staff safe. Accurate, accessible, and organized records are integral to the success of these programs. But many organizations are struggling, stuck in the past with outdated paper record systems. As a result, when inspection time comes, they scramble to locate and present their information.
Even the best-managed programs can only do so much with a paper-based reporting system. Modern healthcare risk management tools help increase speed and efficiency to ensure that risks are managed and compliance remains at an all-time high. Leaders must invest in new solutions that cut waste and maximize their team’s efforts to maintain compliance and get ahead of risk management issues.
Current State of Healthcare Facility Management
The most significant aspects of compliance are the inspection, maintenance, and updates of physical assets. Organizations still relying on traditional systems must consider three main components:
- Tracking in-house inspections, including large facility systems like HVAC and smaller pieces of essential equipment like wheelchairs. Inspections must be annotated and maintained so any inspector will have a clear picture of facility compliance.
- Connecting with third parties who are brought in to support the inspection process and often maintain assets using stacks of printed documentation and binders.
- Documenting audits to be sure that all inspection checklists and work orders are accurate so you can prove compliance.
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Traditionally, most healthcare facility management inspection data is maintained by filing physical checklists and work orders into a loosely organized library of three-ring binders. |
Compliance Challenges in Healthcare
Compliance Challenges in HealthcareHealthcare facilities face significant challenges when managing risk and compliance due to the rudimentary nature of the current model. Inherent process inefficiencies result in wasted time, money, and staff resources and have a pretty sizable risk associated with them.
- Data quality plummets as sharing information held in physical records becomes increasingly challenging.
- Teams get bogged down wading through complicated procedures and compliance operations as each procedure has different tracking requirements tied to different process checklists.
- Your bottom line suffers because of less-than-optimal processes or surprise budgetary needs brought on by a last-minute failed inspection.
3 Ways to Improve Healthcare Compliance and Risk Management
Optimizing existing workflows and taking a proactive approach are the best initial steps in making lasting change. Here are a few common methods that can make these tasks more manageable.
- Initiate proactive compliance with a PDCA cycle: The Plan-Do-Check-Act, or PDCA cycle, is a four-step process that can be repeatedly implemented across different compliance and risk mitigation processes.
- Leverage a single source of truth model: A single source of truth (SSOT) model is the best practice for larger operations or facilities that use several groups for compliance. Implementing an SSOT model is not a specific tool or system but rather a method of managing information so that it can all be accessed from a single point.
- Use digital twin technology to power healthcare facility management: Digital twins create a comprehensive schematic of all the assets within a facility and their related information. Leveraging this technology makes it much easier to manage compliance and inspections across an entire healthcare facility. Access to a complete map of all physical assets dramatically reduces time spent on in-house inspections. In addition, it allows outside vendors to quickly understand the location and status of your equipment.
AkitaBox: The Healthcare Risk Management Tool for Proactive Maintenance
AkitaBox provides the tools healthcare facilities need to streamline compliance and risk management processes while maintaining a superior care environment for patients and staff.
How AkitaBox Works
AkitaBox is a comprehensive facility management solution that leverages the power of digital twins to provide a single source of truth about everything within a healthcare facility. Our all-in-one solution solves numerous problems associated with compliance and risk management:
- Break down data silos by implementing location-based asset mapping to create a complete digital twin of your facility. Building everything needed to complete inspections into a single platform creates a single source of truth and a digital audit trail that is always current.
- Streamline inspection processes with a powerful form-building solution coupled with a visual platform to clarify what needs to be done and when. Real-time dashboards offer management greater transparency to understand the status of inspections across teams.
- Reduce risk with proactive maintenance and get ahead of problems before they become big issues. Our healthcare risk management tool includes comprehensive dashboards that prioritize work orders and give a complete picture of facility compliance.
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Digital healthcare risk management tools that support facility management eliminate the need to print, file, and maintain error-prone paper audit trails. |
Why AkitaBox?
AkitaBox empowers healthcare facilities to streamline their processes so they can improve compliance and risk mitigation. We do this by:
- Improving your collaboration
- Increasing your inspection efficiency and accuracy
- Optimizing your staffing
- Lowering your overall risk
- Decreasing your downtime due to maintenance
It’s Time for New Healthcare Risk Management Tools
Ensuring your facilities remain compliant is an ongoing process that demands easily accessible records full of accurate data. If your team is struggling with your current system, it’s time to upgrade. The best compliance solutions start with proven organizational methods designed to improve workflow and take the pain out of the audit process. With a modern solution at your disposal, your team has the freedom to respond and collaborate quickly to resolve compliance and risk problems.
No matter what compliance problems you face, your team can benefit from a streamlined information management approach like the Hospital Facility Management software created by AkitaBox. Our software solution provides a single source of truth digital twin that helps you meet inspection requirements and, ultimately, stamp out the risks that stand between you and total compliance.
