Bringing Order to Work: Genesis Health System
Crothall Healthcare Facilities Management ensures the high-quality maintenance of the facilities and equipment that support excellent health care in hospital settings. Genesis Health System, a regional health care provider in the Quad Cities area of eastern Iowa and western Illinois, partnered with Crothall to increase the efficiency of their efforts maintaining their health care facilities.
The transition to Crothall provided services for facilities management and environmental services while Morrison Healthcare provided food and nutrition services beginning in January 2015. A new system provided technicians with automated work orders for periodic maintenance and the ability to complete vital tasks faster. At the same time, Crothall technicians raised the standards expected of the people supporting the equipment of modern health care.
“We value our partnership with Crothall and as a result, renewed our five-year agreement 18 months early,” said Anne Kuehl, Partnership Services Director for Genesis Health System. “With our 10-year renewal, Crothall brought to us a new initiative for energy savings. They are always looking for ways to add value and that is yet another reason why we appreciate the partnership.”
Holding Things to Account
Crothall began its partnership with Genesis Health System in 2015, taking responsibility for facilities management in five hospitals and nursing homes in three locations as well as dozens of related health care facilities. The new management had a full inventory of these buildings and their assets in less than three months, ready to activate a new resource for accounting and protecting Genesis’ vital equipment.
Transparency was achieved from the beginning. Crothall Facilities Management comes with an electronic records management system known as TeamDOC. The system tracks and records safety and maintenance information for diagnostic equipment, patient care support hardware and other major assets. TeamDOC is also invaluable in compliance and information sharing with regulatory agencies.
“Crothall had a very systematic approach and added a higher level of tracking than we had in place prior to the transition,” said Kuehl. “Their tools are top notch, and the leadership team is always rounding and verifying they are meeting the needs of the client.”
A New Form of Teamwork
Our work order system, TeamOPS, received all the information from the initial inventory and went to work for Genesis. TeamOPS, a work order system related to TeamDOC, automatically generates work orders for preventative maintenance required by all assets.
TeamOPS has issued around 189,000 work orders since activation in April 2015, with a completion rate of 99.7 percent. This includes periodic preventative maintenance requests generated by the system based on its data, as well as corrective requests fulfilled if a problem is reported with equipment. In a typical month, such as August 2019, around 900 preventative maintenance orders and 1800 corrective requests are issued by TeamOPS.
The client is impressed by speed and efficiency alike. Time to completion for work requests has also dropped by two thirds since 2015. Genesis employees are also less responsible for filing work requests, a main goal of the system’s administration, with the share of work requests coming from Crothall staff rising from 22.9% to 30.8% in August 2019. TeamOPS closed 2018 with a 100% completion rate over 15,329 requests.
By the Numbers
Average Time to Work Order Completion
7.48 Days in 2015
2.49 Days in 2019
189,000 Work Requests since 2015
100% Completion Rate in 2018
The Drive to Keep Improving
Crothall managers and staff are never out of touch. TeamOPS contains a survey feature, which gathers feedback from staff on facilities management work done by Crothall technicians. The survey joins Crothall’s Environmental Services (EVS) and General Patient Satisfaction surveys at Genesis in gathering information for iterative improvements.
The client noted a dramatic increase in appreciation from staff, patients and visitors on the contribution of technicians. The surveys and other feedback show a story of exceptional Crothall Facilities Management Staff beyond the positive numbers. Crothall technicians are vital to the happy environment in Genesis hospitals and nursing homes.
“One of our people was there at midnight when the daughter of a patient had a maintenance request for a mattress,” said Randell Lee Hale, Crothall Facilities Services Coordinator for Genesis Medical Center. “Our technician was on the floor trying to fix the problem, then on the phone with the manufacturer, then searching until he found a solution. That woman called the hospital to express her appreciation.”
To learn what Crothall can do for your organization, call 1-877-4CROTHALL (1-877-427-6842).
