ASSET MANAGEMENT
A pioneering NHS foundation trust has a new way to control its £180m asset base, says Karen Conneely, Business Development Manager at Real Asset Management.
B
asildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust,
one of the first NHS foundation trusts in the country and an associate teach- ing hospital, has ‘gone live’ with a fully integrated asset management solution from Real Asset Management (RAM), including Asset4000, Project4000 and Forecast4000.
RAM’s solution enables the trust to im- prove the accuracy of its asset register and forecasts, as well as facilitating greater communication and transparency with other departments in the trust.
The trust provides an extensive range of acute medical services at Basildon University Hospital and Orsett Hospital and St Andrews, primarily serving the al- most 400,000 population of Basildon and Thurrock in Essex.
The implementation of the system comes at a time when NHS trusts are under in- creasing pressure to maximise efficiency, improve performance, cut costs, and pro- mote transparency and accountability.
Ian Child, financial controller at Basildon and Thurrock, comments: “It became clear that the old system couldn’t fulfil our re- quirements, as it simply logged assets and didn’t allow us to store sufficient informa- tion against them. It also didn’t have in- tegration capabilities and importing and exporting vital information was difficult.”
He continued: “The format of the RAM sys- tem is flexible, meaning that we can create new fields to suit our data input structure. Within each of these fields we have created lists to ensure that all information is en- tered uniformly.
“With Asset4000, we can make sure that sufficient information is listed against each asset, linking it in the parent/child relationship format where appropriate.”
As well as strengthening the asset register with Asset4000, the trust has also invested in Project4000 and Forecast4000 to cre- ate a completely integrated management system. Child added: “Project4000 allows us to process transactions directly from our financial package, iSOFT’s Integra Open Enterprise suite, avoiding the re-keying of data. The module then creates assets with
full transaction history, rather than with just basic value and costs.
“Forecast4000 is instrumental in mak- ing planning easier. We have the ability to carry out an accurate forecast of deprecia- tion which becomes very important when we are planning for depreciation of around £12m annually.”
Integrated trust-wide asset management software
Real Asset Management (RAM), formerly Britannia Software, is the UK’s leading provider of specialist IFRS compliant capital accounting and organisation- wide asset management software for use by finance, IT, estates and EBME Departments to provide a centralised solution whereby capital fixed assets, PCs, estates and medical equipment can be tracked from the same register.
With over 200 NHS Trusts using RAM’s software, including 40 foundation trusts, Series4000 incorporates every aspect of fixed asset and lease accounting, capital project and budgetary control, medical equipment management, estates management and asset tracking (bar-coding/RFID).
The centralised asset register has also helped Basildon and Thurrock improve inter-department workflow and commu- nication.
Child said: “We use a number of fields within Asset4000 which helps us track the location of medical equipment assets, as well as the maintenance carried out. This undoubtedly saves a lot of time, and im- proves the flow of information.”
And he added the trust was realising a number of key benefits through using an integrated asset management.
He explained: “The system helps us to do more with our time. More information is at our fingertips, so we can easily drill down into the detail. Importantly, the informa- tion is also accurate, streamlining process- es. We can easily identify which assets are coming to the end of their life and inform the clinical team, improving overall com- munication. The system is easy to use and meets all of our needs. We could not find another vendor that could offer the same functionality as RAM.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION
T: 01689 892 127 E:
solution@realassetmgt.co.uk W:
www.realassetmgt.co.uk
national health executive Mar/Apr 11 | 59
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