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ESTATES AND FACILITIES MANAGEMENT


Harnessing the expertise of external benchmarkers


The healthcare sector is facing an unprecedented set of challenges that include providing an ever higher quality of service without increasing costs. Healthcare estates and facilities management personnel are among those being tasked with ‘delivering more from less’, and are increasingly also being asked to step up their work on sustainability. Here Mike Boxall, managing director of specialist in FM best practice benchmarking, Sitemark, discusses benchmarking’s key role in enabling the healthcare estates management and healthcare engineering sector to achieve these seemingly contradictory goals.


Estates and facilities managers at hospitals and other healthcare facilities are often tasked with objectives that can seem contradictory – improve processes, increase compliance, and increase sustainability, but all while reducing costs. To truly succeed in all of these goals, it is vital to regularly conduct a thorough audit and overview of the current situation, ideally through an outside organisation with an impartial view, as well as knowledge of industry best practice. Benchmarking can play a crucial role in healthcare FM, identifying what outcomes are being achieved and – given improvements, could potentially be achieved – and also in ensuring that any positive changes implemented stay in place long-term.


Managed in ‘silos’


Facilities management has, of course, never been a simple task in the healthcare sector. Historically, healthcare estates were very often managed in ‘silos’, making sharing knowledge and best practice extremely difficult. Cooperation and knowledge-sharing between neighbouring NHS Trusts has not always happened to the extent which might have been helpful, while, with the retirement of the most seasoned and experienced healthcare estates professionals, the loss of the associated talent and expertise meant loss of institutional memory, and estates and facilities teams then had to restart developing their own best practice. The guidance and legal requirements placed upon healthcare estates and facilities management teams are also extensive, can be onerous, and are oft- changing. There is always a possibility of the Care Quality Commission arriving at a site – announced or unannounced – to inspect everything from hospital buildings and clinics to a Trust’s procedures and records. While healthcare EFM Teams are under pressure to both utilise and improve upon established processes, as well as to ensure compliance within a wide range of activities and disciplines, there is


simultaneously a growing demand to reduce costs. This could become even more of a challenge under post-Brexit immigration plans, which some fear will lead to labour shortages.


Increasing wage costs Skills shortages, combined with a significant recent ‘hike’ in the Living Wage, will require somebody to absorb increased wage costs. The estate, and the running, upkeep, and maintenance of buildings of all sizes and ages, are a major cost for any healthcare provider, and the third greatest cost for the NHS. It is therefore more important than ever that estates and facilities managers offer added value in their services. An additional challenge to ensuring that estates management reaches the highest quality is the breadth of roles that estates and facilities teams carry out. A holistic view of the estate is required, alongside a view of the sector as a whole, and an understanding of best practice. Healthcare estates are large and complex facilities, so this is no simple matter.


Best practice benchmarking Best practice benchmarking is a means of ensuring that all practices and processes not only meet required standards, but are


working at maximum efficiency. While benchmarking can often be used to achieve significant savings, its real benefit is ensuring that teams are working in a way that delivers the best value for money for the sums invested into them. There are three central steps to benchmarking, beginning with a review. The review is an in-depth assessment of all relevant facilities, teams, and processes. Outcomes are not the only consideration. In cleaning, for example, the cleanliness of a facility needs to be examined alongside the speed and efficiency of the cleaning process, including the regularity of cleaning, what products are used, and whether current practice is efficient, sustainable, and cost- effective, as well as compliant with any regulations.


A capable and experienced external benchmarking organisation will have the ability to compare an analysis based around all of these factors with current best-in-class industry practice. A detailed analysis of documentation, policies, and procedures, will be carried out, and the results provided, highlighting what improvements can be made, and the best way to achieve them.


The second step is the implementation process. The report provided through


May 2020 Health Estate Journal 67


©Monster Ztudio/stock.adobe.com


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