Datastream Maintains Operational Health At Queens Medical Centre

	Quick Facts Over 100 maintenance department employees £120 million asset turnover 140 maintenance requests per day

With over 6,000 employees, 1,200 beds, and 25 operating theatres spread across 190,000 square meters of floor space, the Queen's Medical Centre is one of the largest, purpose-built teaching hospitals in Europe. It consists of a number of departments including University Hospital, the University of Nottingham Medical School, and the Nottingham School of Nursing and Division of Midwifery.

While it complements the traditional core disciplines, it continually develops and adapts to the changing nature of medical care and professional development. Its unique and innovative approach to the integrated nature of medical science has helped the Centre gain an international reputation.

The Challenge
The maintenance department, which has over 100 on staff, is responsible for all routine and breakdown maintenance within the Trust's remit. With the critical nature of medicine and surgery, this service is provided 24 hours a day, 365 days each and every year and can involve the repair of steam-raising boilers and steam distribution to the monitoring of theatre equipment and medical gas services. Perhaps the biggest challenge for the department is to make an inadequate maintenance budget stretch as far as possible while ensuring that the most critical of services continue to be maintained to a safe and adequate standard, without endangering the safety of staff and patients.

"Datastream's asset management solution stood head and shoulders above the systems we considered", says Peter Slater, estates information manager at Queens Medical Centre. "It's functionality, flexibility and capacity to integrate with the Trust's existing IT strategy, which is based around Microsoft SQL Server, were crucial to our final decision."

"It became apparent that we had to replace our existing system, as it was neither Y2K compatible nor could it be updated sufficiently to meet the increasing maintenance needs of the Trust," continues Slater. "It was vital that we found something which was not only able to meet our critical requirements but also evolve with the department, which has a £120 million asset turnover and receives 140 maintenance requests each day."

	"We now have a system which addresses and anticipates the many problems faced in keeping a hospital maintenance facility operating effec-tively and cost-efficiently, making us a proactive and not a reactive unit." Peter Slater Estates Information Manager

The Solution
Following careful consideration of several products available on the market, the Queens Medical Centre selected a Datastream asset management solution, which has been developed from the shop floor upwards with a great deal of input from customers across the world.

Datastream software is a completely integrated asset management package that enables customers to organize and track inventory, manage equipment costs, track equipment history, schedule preventive maintenance tasks, maintain confidential labor records, allocate resources, generate work orders, requisition and purchase parts, and project and prevent equipment failure.

The Results
Since it was installed at the Centre, the Datastream system has made a considerable impact on operational efficiency, including a reduction in equipment downtime, an increase in productivity, a decrease in inventory levels, and a reduction in production costs. When construction was completed on a new £10 million ophthalmology center, the Datastream asset management system was ready to take full automated control of the Centre's maintenance facility.

All assets—from heating and mechanical equipment to sterilizers and operating theatre maintenance—are organized by Datastream software. This allows the Centre's 20 end users to effectively manage job expenses, reporting, billing, stock control, and consumables-against-work, allowing the facility to meet more demands within the finances allocated.

The system controls the allocation and scheduling of breakdown work and scheduled maintenance, manages the allocation of stock, and advises for re-ordering. It is also used for work requests, work orders, purchasing control, inventory control, preventive maintenance tasks, and data analysis.

"Datastream has empowered our staff, allowing them the freedom to track, monitor, and analyze all aspects of the Centre's maintenance function more creatively and efficiently," continues Slater. "We now have a system which addresses and anticipates the many problems faced in keeping a hospital maintenance facility operating effectively and cost-efficiently, making us a proactive and not a reactive unit."

In order to maintain the stability of the Centre's operational structure and to limit the possibility of disruption, the new system was introduced gradually over a period of four to five months. During this time, Datastream worked closely with the Centre's team, providing all software, installation, training, and consulting in order to reduce equipment downtime.

"The support we received from Datastream was outstanding and played an essential part in the subsequent success of the system," confirms Slater. "As part of the overall package, our staff received one week's consultation for installation and migration, a week for training, and another week for post-installation support and training."