Epworth HealthCare
Innovator in Australia's health system manages eight facilities using TechnologyOne. Epworth HealthCare can now centralise information and achieve consistency throughout its various facilities
Case study highlights
- Improved visibility of workflow via dashboards
- Expanded services without increasing staff
- Achieved consistency across all eight facilities
Challenge
Epworth HealthCare was seeking a facilities management system that could manage its substantial asset base amounting to more than $1 billion in value. Epworth also required a system that would allow it to ensure compliance of its facilities.
"We needed consistency through a central system we could use across all our eight facilities," said Group Engineering and Facilities Manager Neil Caughey.
"Initially, we had paper-based systems in most of our facilities, and some other computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS). We had three different CMMS in use and none were consistent in their application."
Solution
Epworth HealthCare purchased TechnologyOne's OneHealth preconfigured solution, which included Financials, Supply Chain, Asset Management, Business Intelligence (BI), Enterprise Budgeting, and Enterprise Cash Receipting.
Epworth is now using TechnologyOne Asset Management to manage its eight well known hospital facilities in Victoria including; Epworth Freemasons – Victoria Parade and Clarendon Street, Epworth Richmond, Epworth Camberwell, Epworth Cliveden, Epworth Eastern, Epworth Hawthorn and Epworth Brighton.
Outcome
The TechnologyOne OneHealth solution provided Epworth with a single system to manage financials, supply chain, enterprise asset management, payments, governance and risk management. In particular, the Asset Management component has provided Epworth with consistency of maintenance schedules, better visibility for employees, and enabled it to better manage its assets during ongoing expansion.
"From a facilities management perspective, the greatest benefit of the product is being able to ensure compliance," said Mr Caughey.
"We've also been able to manage a lot more assets using the system, because we've expanded considerably. We've just added new facilities at Camberwell and Hawthorn, and will open another in Geelong in 2016. The TechnologyOne system has allowed us to do this without increasing the number of staff currently managing assets."
The TechnologyOne system has allowed us to add in new and expanded clinical services without increasing the number of staff currently managing assets.
Customer's Perspective
Epworth HealthCare is Victoria's largest not-for-profit private health care group, with eight hospitals in the Melbourne metropolitan area, 1,200 acute care beds, 5,000 staff and more than 10,000 assets to manage. Epworth was seeking a single system that would allow it to centralise information and achieve consistency throughout its various facilities.
The health care provider was initially using a combination of paper-based processes and various Enterprise Asset Management systems to manage corrective and preventative maintenance of all its assets. The process and systems varied across its eight facilities, resulting in inconsistent data and duplication of information.
Epworth purchased TechnologyOne's OneHealth solution, including Financials, Supply Chain, Asset Management, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Budgeting and Enterprise Case Receipting to assist it in centralising this information. With a strong focus on facilities management, the hospital credits the capabilities of TechnologyOne Asset Management with streamlining its compliance and preventative maintenance schedules.
"We've been able to get consistency across the whole facilities group in terms of preventative maintenance and asset compliance," said Group Engineering and Facilities Manager Neil Caughey. "We're now all working off the same maintenance schedules and approaching maintenance in the same way.
"We also have an obligation to ensure that every single asset performs the way it should, and that the asset is safe to use. Certainly what TechnologyOne has done is given us visibility across that process and consistency throughout the group, which we didn't really have before."
The hospital has deployed web based Work Requests to many hospital staff, including nurses stations, allowing all staff to directly raise work requests to streamline processes. As a result, Epworth is now managing up to 4,000 work orders a month.
"At this stage, we're building up a database of asset information, and mainly using the system for compliance. But we have started to use it more to help us manage future purchases as well," Mr Caughey said.
Spotlight
Epworth places a strong emphasis on biomedical engineering, embracing the latest in evidence-based medicine to pioneer treatments and services for its patients. Through a deep understanding and engagement with hospitals and health care providers, TechnologyOne has provided Epworth with an integrated solution to fit its specific needs.
"The advantage for us in using TechnologyOne is that we could really configure it to our specific needs," said Manager - Group Biomedical Engineering, Valerie Bommarito.
"The Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard tool has been really useful in helping us manage our workflow.
"From a managerial perspective, the BI dashboards have given me a way to see exactly what's going on from my desktop. I can see which work orders are getting completed, and which are outstanding, and it has helped me to manage the department more effectively and efficiently.
"The contracts module and its integration with Asset Management has also been really been beneficial for us, especially compared to our old system. Previously we didn't really have a contracts management system - so this has been a real improvement. I now know which assets are under contract and how much that is costing us against the assets.
"Being able to capture the information has allowed me to manage our assets better - it has really helped a lot."
About Epworth HealthCare
Epworth HealthCare is Victoria's largest not-for-profit private health care group, with eight hospitals across the Melbourne metropolitan area. Epworth is an innovator in Australia's health system, embracing the latest in evidence-based medicine to pioneer treatments and services for its patients. It invests all surplus funds back into training staff, developing its facilities and purchasing the latest technology to keep it at the forefront of medical treatment.
