Should I Automate or not? Find out what improves your management!

In a world where technology has been progressing rapidly and has so many benefits and facilities to automate day-to-day tasks, ignoring this technological wave and continuing to carry out procedures manually can greatly delay the development of a business, right?

For many people, introducing a tool that requires a major change in habits is quite challenging. And automating processes that have been done manually for years is an even greater challenge. However, this does not mean that it’s impossible, because the advantages of automating some processes within hospitals or any other health institution are so necessary that this change in habits becomes a great investment.

But let’s take it easy. First of all, let’s find out what automation is and how it applies in hospital management.

What is Automation?

In a simple way, we can define automation as the process of using machines, electronic devices or software to optimize and streamline processes that were previously done manually. In other words, It makes processes more automatic.

Don’t think that the fact that if you automate your management, or some processes within it, will bring losses or replace you. On the contrary, management automation appears as the right hand of managers, in the case of hospitals, it’s the support that a clinical engineer needs to perform quickly, practically and accurately, all processes related to their performance and for a service provider. It’s the guarantee that maintenance calculations, calibration and procedure records will be done quickly, efficiently and safely.

What changes on a daily basis?

We will show what automation software can change in the daily life of a clinical engineer and also what changes for the technical service provider.

For the Clinical Engineer

The clinical engineer is one of the most important professionals when it comes to managing the technology hospital’s equipaments, clinics, laboratories and other health institutions. Thus, some companies develop softwares whose main objective is to help these professionals in the management of these equipments.

When we talk about the management of medical equipments, we must encompass everything from the acquisition of equipment to the control, location, preventive and corrective maintenance, calibration, in other words, all stages of an equipment’s life until its disposal.

Therefore, the automation we are talking about enters into this management of medical equipment. To assist the clinical engineer, automation software provides:

A practical way to control your hospital’s technology equipments:

This is a crucial point when the need arises to change equipment from one sector to another, or to locate equipment for auditing, or even for a preventive and/or calibration. Also, one cannot forget the ease generated in relation to the life record of the equipment, which can be accessed quickly.

The ease of planning preventive maintenance:

As stated in the previous topic, the fact of having easier access to the equipment life sheet makes the analysis and planning of preventive maintenance more accurate, because knowing the history of the technology park, predicting its needs becomes a simple task.

And also the necessary calibrations:

The same happens with calibrations, which can be dated with greater precision, avoiding any damage to the equipment and mainly, avoiding damage to the patient’s health.

Monitoring the work of the technical team:

The automation of management with the support of the internet generates an even greater security regarding the traceability of what is being done in real time and this is a great facilitator of management in health institutions.

Storage in the cloud of all maintenance and calibration reports performed over a long period:

We know that the amount of documents, reports and data generated by a hospital is enormous. And calibration reports, maintenance and certificates must be stored for long periods for eventual consultations and audits. And this amount of data to be stored requires space and in some cases there is no such availability, so the option of cloud storage is so important, not to mention that locating a document is much easier when it is in the cloud.

Agility when deciding when equipment should or should not be replaced:

Through the life record, history of an equipment, the decision process of deactivating or replacing an equipment is much more intelligible, as it is possible to weigh the pros and cons of keeping such a device.

The ease in monitoring the equipment’s life and all these items listed together generate enormous savings in time and money, in addition to providing the patient with the security that his life is being well taken care of.

to the Service Provider

First let’s identify who the service providers are. Service providers, in this case, are those companies, or even self-employed technicians, that perform some type of maintenance and/or calibration on hospital medical equipment, which means, they are directly involved with the technological park of health institutions.

So how would the automation software help these service providers?

The automation software enables not only the management part, in the sense of reporting records and inventory control. There is also a part of the platform to assist technicians in their day-to-day work, such as:

Real-time tracking of open WOs (WORK ORDER):

This is a benefit that adds to both the clinical engineer and the service provider, because this provider can access in real time the open SOs, when they were closed, who was the responsible technician. That is, it is possible to have all the monitoring of the work being offered.

Easy access to previously made calibration records:

When integrated, software is an invaluable ally for service providers, because, as we already know, if you know the history of the equipment, knowing the next step to keep it in perfect working order is easy. When you have a record of standards for each equipment, which were the calibration standards used in the last measurement, it is even instinctive to notice if the current measurement is in error.

Closing WO and electronic signatures:

A point that, when done manually, becomes even more bureaucratic than it really is, is the closing of WOs, approval of the calibration certificate and signatures of these documents. Because, when completing a preventive/corrective maintenance or calibration, it’s necessary that this document, in order to become valid, go through the approval and signature of the person in charge, which takes time. But automation can also enter this point with electronic signatures and issuance of certificates made digitally.

Did you see how automating management and procedures can be of extreme value to your business?

Nowadays, where technology is so close to us, not taking advantage of this technological wave is literally a waste of time.

I hope this article has helped you understand some of the benefits of deploying maintenance software within your hospital or service provider. And if you want to know a little more about this type of software and its advantages, keep visiting our blog.

Ps.: Curious to know a software that has all the benefits mentioned in this article and much more? Access the Arkmeds website and learn about the best technological solutions for your business.