ENGINEERING & DIGITISATION
‘Healthcare facilities face unique challenges when compared with other types of facility’, says Schneider Electric, as they need consistent high availability of assets and systems so patient care is never compromised.
Another challenge a service-partner can resolve is Kas Mohammed
Kas Mohammed has been with Schneider Electric for 18 years, and currently serves as the company’s vice president of Services for the UK & Ireland. He began his career in sales, and has since held roles across marketing, channel, operations, and leadership. Previously vice president of Digital Energy at Schneider Electric, he says he is ‘passionate about transforming and decarbonising buildings and the grid through smart, sustainable solutions in energy, power, IoT, and building services’.
when a site’s electrical equipment is regularly cutting out unexpectedly, or overheating and creating a potential fire risk. The root cause of these issues may be power quality phenomena called harmonics and voltage distortion. Harmonics occur when patterns of current and voltage become distorted. This can happen inside devices that convert alternating current (AC) from the grid into direct current (DC). In the healthcare sector, that can include equipment such as MRI machines, UPS systems, IT infrastructure, or even LED lighting. A power quality audit from a service partner can help FM teams in two ways – firstly identifying the root cause of power quality problems and recommending a solution. The other benefit is that when planning to install new equipment, a consultant with knowledge of harmonic effects can evaluate the existing system and check that it has the right capacity to support the new systems. As a result, the in-house team can take action in advance, and ensure that new equipment comes online as planned, without any surprises or delay to patient care.
Supported modernisation The NHS backlog has created a situation where healthcare facilities must make the most of existing equipment. This leaves little time for estates and facilities managers to work on plans to modernise assets in healthcare facilities, let alone prepare for the additional challenge of Net Zero operations. The answer is incremental modernisation. Using
this approach, an estates and facilities manager can upgrade technology on a step-by-step basis and within
A digitally-based maintenance-as-a-service strategy delivers a clear picture of infrastructure health that mirrors real world conditions
88 Health Estate Journal October 2025
the available budget. For example, a maintenance visit could also be an opportunity to deploy sensors on critical equipment without scheduling a dedicated visit by a technician – the point being that a service-partner builds a foundation for any modernisation. This supports healthcare FM teams as they work to strict budgets and schedules, removing the common barriers to digital transformation advancement in the sector. It’s useful to draw on service support when planning
brand new, energy-efficient equipment. New equipment can help to solve maintenance challenges by safeguarding availability and cut energy use. However, it introduces new tasks and technologies for FM teams to master. A service partner can help here by providing training and remote technical support to bed in new systems.
Importance of circularity Circularity is an important principle to protect resources during modernisation. For example, by retrofitting only time-served components and retaining assets like cabinets and cabling that remain in good condition, healthcare facilities can save on resources and CO2
emissions
associated with new equipment. This practice also limits on-site disruption, which improves productivity, and protects uptime for critical systems. Apart from investment, one of the biggest challenges to addressing the maintenance backlog is time. Frontline teams are time-pressured, and often need to carry out firefighting to address unplanned outages and maintain patient care. This is particularly true when relying on scheduled or reactive maintenance, as staff need to react to events when they happen. It’s also important when a site or building doesn’t have dedicated on-site engineering staff, as teams need to take account of travel time, as well as the time to maintain or repair equipment. Adopting digitisation will help, saving time by providing remote access to live data on asset health, regardless of where those assets are located. In addition, it will enable predictive maintenance, where operators use analytical data to get advance warning of failures before they happen. As a result, they can plan repairs around the site’s schedule, and avoid the ‘firefighting’ that’s needed to react to unexpected outages. Acting on digital insight can also reduce the total cost of ownership associated with complex
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