1. Story about the trend:

Back in time about 10 or 20 years ago, whenever we had a chance to go to hospital, apart from the main group of hospital workforce with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, ... we can see a supported team, which is the staff of the hospital, majoring in 3 groups: cleaning, security and technical system operation.

Today, in most hospitals, we often find security staff, cleaning staff with uniforms and professional manners - those are personnel provided by outsourced service companies. Meanwhile, the technical system operatorion team is still mostly belong to the hospital.

When looking at buildings of a scale equivalent to or larger than the scale of a hospital (by area, number of floors, number of basements) such as: apartment buildings, offices, commercial centers, we always see the three teams: security, cleaning and technical system operation that are all professional service provided by outsourced companies.

Looking into the future 5 years, 10 years from now, we strongly believe that the technical operation team that operates the hospital will definitely be provided by outsourced service companies. There are 3 main reasons to support this statement, namely:

- Firstly - Professionalism:

• Personnel: suitable expertise, arranged according to ability and expertise.
• Formal Process: Standard - as a result of working with a variety of projects and partners.
• Support: technicians at the main office of the service company & the application of information technology in management, service performance monitoring & record keeping.

- Secondly - accountability:

The operator of the hospital technical system will be held accountable to the Hospital when:

• Problem: either force majeure or operation error.
• Authorities of the state department checking: Department of Health, Ministry of Health, Fire Police, Environmental Police, ...

- Thirdly - Efficiency:

• Reduce direct operating costs: personnel, electricity, water.
• Reduce the cost of repairing machines, equipment damaged by incidents.
• Increased service time due to reduced downtime interruptions.

2. What are the scopes of work of operating the hospital technical systems?

Operation of hospital technical systems is to do 3 main things:

- Firstly: Operation of technical systems. All engineering systems (except medical equipment) will be within the scope of the operator work. Examples include: HVAC system, lighting system, elevator system, generator system, water supply and drainage system, fire protection system, automatic transmission system, medical gas system, patient sample transfer system, ... Four main tasks of operating hospital technical systems include:

• Develop operational plan. Ensuring 3 criteria: (1) safety; (2) save energy; & (3) ready to serve.
• 24/7 operation of technical systems.
• Keep operating records.
• Track energy consumption.

- Secondly: Repair, troubleshoot. As its name implies, when there is any problem related to the technical system, the technical operation team is the one to repair and fix it. Some jobs can be named here such as: changing lights, unclog the toilet, regular maintenance of floor electrical cabinets, isolating elevator jam, troubleshooting power outages, troubleshooting elevators, ...

- Thirdly: Supervise the periodic maintenance contractors. Periodic maintenance contractors will sign contracts directly with the Hospital & the operator of the technical system will supervise the contractor's performance on behalf of the hospital. The four main tasks of Supervision of Periodic Maintenance Contractors include:

• Recommend contractors for periodic maintenance.
• Keep track of periodic maintenance.
• Contractor maintenance supervision.
• Contractor performance evaluation report.  

3. How to operate hospital technical systems effectively?

This is the contractor's job. The operation of hospital technical systems must be performed and continuously upgraded in order to improve the quality of the service:

- Firstly: Operational personnel organization. The personnel structure should combine between experienced and inexperienced people, engineers and specialists, and a reasonable structure of expertise in the group. In particular, there should be a detailed and clear job description for each position so that the operator is not dependent on a few certain people, ready to be transferred or replaced when needed by the workforce that is available in the market.

- Secondly: Processes & forms. Just like soldiers in battle need weapons, technical staff who operate hospital technical systems when doing their jobs also need tools, that is a system of processes & forms. Some basic forms can be taken for example: daily checklists, annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily work plans, proposal forms, meeting minutes, field minutes, and report,…

- Thirdly: Coordinate with management team and hospital staff. This is the most important factor that determines the efficiency of the operation. Why is that?

• The operation plan is prepared by the operator and submitted to the hospital for approval. If the hospital doesn't approve it, the plan won't work, no matter how brilliant.
• During the operation, the operator will have reports & suggestions on renovating, repairing, replacing equipment, parts, ... of the hospital. If the proposals are delayed to be considered and resolved, it will not only affect the operational efficiency but also affect the safety of the operation.
• Most of the electricity consumed by the systems in the wards, the joint effort of all hospital staff determines the efficiency of the operation. For example: adjust the temperature in the room from 25oC to 26oC, turn off the lights and air conditioner when going back, etc.

4. Transparency in the operation of hospital technical systems.

The implementation and operation of hospital technical systems should be transparent not only for the Hospital but also for the management team of the operating unit. The contents that need to be transparent and can be monitored 24/7 include but are not limited to the following:

• Daily tasks performed by the technical team;
• Reporting and monitoring the performance of the hospital operation team and the periodic maintenance contractor;
• Report/update the status of critical systems/devices.

This will be operated by the unit operating the hospital technical systems through software application with the goal: simple, fast and effective.

Thank you for your interest in Sicom's service of operating hospital technical systems.
 

For detailed support, please contact:

SICOM CONSTRUCTION INVESTMENT JOINT STOCK COMPANY

Phone: 0909 941 334 | Hotline: 0909 207 578 | Email: info@sicom.com.vn

Thank you very much.

Sicom's team.