BioMeds/ Plant Operations

Equipmentfiles.com is the result of 30 years of experience in the medical equipment service industry and learning the benefits of automating those tasks. Equipmentfiles.com is an internet-based computer maintenance management software which will take your service business to a next level by simplifying your work load and increasing your knowledge base. It’s a great tool for getting you and your staff organized. Improve your communications, response times and quotes by putting all your information in one place.

• FDA/ Alert Notifications with Automatic Work Order Creation

  Patient safety, compliance, equipment safety, being a team player, always be reachable, smile with doctors when they fail to do a simple but required preoperative check of equipment before use, laugh with the nurse as you reestablish electron flow to a device (plug it in) In short biomeds have to walk on water, know everything about everything and then be marginally paid for it. But we love our chosen field.

  One way to make our job easier is to automate functions.  Compliance and safety are the primary factors in Biomedical engineering and plant operations.  Medical facilities and medical equipment service providers are required by law to have a method to process equipment hazard and alerts as issued by the FDA and manufacturers. By uploading your inventory it is compared daily to the FDA recall/ hazard notifications.  If there is a match a work order is automatically generated and emailed or text to the appropriate persons.  Reminders to address the alert are also placed in your personal communication log. (more on the communication log later)

  Equipmentfiles .com references several accreditation agencies and National/State regulatory  groups to assist biomedical support personel, Plant operations and End users meet requirements for certification and safety. CMS (Center for medicare Services), TJC (The Joint Commission),  DNV(Det Norske Veritas), AAAHC, AAAASF, NFPA, FDA, IMQ

• Upload your Entire Equipment Inventory at one Time

  As a biomed I receive incredible joy when I need to enter in a new clients inventory  Usually I enter the record one at a time cause I have no life,  Actually you’ll appreciate the ability to upload the entire inventory and its data at one time,  Spreadsheet, text delimited, scan a pdf list into an OCR. Send us a fax or email list and we’ll import it.  There are multiple ways to place data into the database fields.

  Once the inventory is entered it is compared to a equipment manufacturer database with links to manuals, checklists, procedures, risk factors and PM replacement parts.  The equipment database information grows with each new entry.  Equipment is tracked not only for a specific facilities need, but also for the shareware concept of equipmentfiles.com.  Track not only biomedical equipment and computer hardware, but also software and virtual assets found in the increasingly popular cloud computing realm.

      

   

   

   

• Generate Work Orders (Service Calls) for Repairs, Maintenance, and Scheduled Safety Inspections

  It wouldn’t be a program at all if it couldn’t do these rudimentary tasks.  Equipmentfiles.com allows the Biomed manager or client manager to generate repair work orders and then email/text them to the appropriate overworked biomed.  Scheduled PMs/Safety Inspection/ Periodic inspections, are created monthly or at your discretion at setup.  The work orders have attached inspection procedures that are industry standard or you can upload your own.  Technicians can even view what other service companies procedures are, if shareware is enabled.  The shareware feature limits what one is willing to share.

  Equipmentfiles.com equipment tracking features allow you to generate detailed service histories while reducing costs through the elimination of inefficient paperwork. Your teams have 24/7 web access to work assignments, while you simultaneously monitor all schedules. The easy-to-use Customer Portal helps you build stronger ties with your customers

  View PM forecast schedules up to 12 months.  Individual PM service reports can be exported or printed.  Electrical Safety and measurable output findings can be listed on subsequent PM reports as reference data.  Default open and closing comments can be printed on the work orders for each type of equipment.  Test equipment is categorized with specific equipment and can be listed on the PM reports.  Short form inspection reports can be printed for field service use. Work orders are viewed or filtered via dialog boxes to call up all or a selected group by any parameter you chose.

  Work order management provides for work order tracking; with customized distribution to different departments, supervised work flow and automated group assignments, services and tasks assignments, priority levels, schedule output to staff, and vendors.  View audit trails, labor and materials tracking, email alerts, system faxing and text messaging.

  As a department manager or business owner, you know how important it is to monitor and predict work load, expenses and cash flow.  Equipmentfiles.com makes it easier to evaluate your business position with built-in reports.  Managers use more efficient Dashboards to access the software as opposed to clients whom typically need more visual representation of their data.

  Standard reports are included but not limited to:

  • Service summaries with totals and percentages
  • Service  summary detail reports; Line by line detail reporting  for each PM result code.
  • Inventory Listings, full or filtered
  • Unable to Locate, Removed from service
  • FDA Alerts, Regulatory notices, compliance activities and recommendations
  • Technician productivity reports, open/closed work orders ,Work order aging reports
  • Invoicing reports, invoice aging
  • Mean time between failure, Failure codes reporting
  • Policy and Procedure (Environment of Care) reports
  • Case Assignment (equipment scheduling)

  Contact our customer service for any custom reports.

  Give vendors ability to view their own files and or specific equipment.  Vendor files and any other documentation can be attached/uploaded to any work order or any piece of equipment.  Receive an update in your communication log when the service is complete.

  To facilitate reports and categorizing of work order Equipmentfiles.com uses Service Request Codes, Service Provided Codes and Service Result Codes.  This allows for  focused safety committee reports, compliance reports, failure monitoring and evaluation and easier tracking and follow up of failed or missing equipment.  Work order tracking for hospital and clinics differ. Use our standard code or modify if for you specific needs.

  Tech Notes, troubleshooting guides:
  Failure code summaries and repairs can be shared (if so desired).  No facility, personal, serial number, or technical staff information is shared.  Only the result, any cause, and remedy will be available to subscribing technical staff.  Most biomeds have specialties and experience that would benefit others and are encouraged to contribute.  We’ll even pay to create in-services for your specialty.  Of course everyone is concerned about competition, hence the ability to share or not.

  Plant Operations can use the same software profile as biomedical engineering or assign plants ops designation as a work type using a less stringent record keeping system. Any item can be tracked or inventoried in the system, then assigned an asset type to be included in a maintenance program or just inventoried.  This software serves several functions at one low monthly fee.

  Your data belongs to you and will never be sold or given to 3rd parties.  We respect the privacy of your data.  If you’re a service company, we have no interest in trying to sell anything to your clients outside of our agreement with you.  Your clients or facility records will never be held hostage.  You are free to export your data using our built-in export features.

  If there is ever an issue on non-payment or misuse of the site, your records are your records and you will always have access to them. To protect our business model and copyright certain program features will be disabled until there is resolution to our misunderstanding.

• Create Invoicing from Monthly Agreement, or Time and Material Work Orders

  For business owners, reducing data entry time helps you get invoices out the door faster, thus decreasing the time it takes to get paid. Saving hours each month and getting paid faster.  Integration saves hours of data entry time each month by eliminating the need to reenter work orders to an invoicing program.  Equipmentfiles.com uses a simple invoicing structure to mark time and material invoices for inclusion in an invoice.

  For contract clients one can setup, monthly, quarterly, biannual even annual billing from your service agreement terms.  Client is late in billing? No problem, add interest, your not their banker.  Send a note to the communications log to notify clients and staff that payment is late and may effect future servicing.  Other functions include; Service/ Sales order processing and sales invoicing, period billing.  The ability to auto-generate service contract invoices.

  For departments, a cost review enables managers to justify new purchases and evaluate operational and repair costs of existing equipment.

• Assign Technicians and view work load, text or email for service calls

  Primary and secondary technicians are assigned to service a facility (general biomeds) or a group of equipment to a specialist.  When the user creates a work order request everyone on the assignment list is text and or emailed with updated equipment and service history information from the database.  The communication log of users, and service technicians is updated with each entry.  An alternate method of technicians scheduling and assignment is from a drop down list or visual drag and drop calendar.

  For service companies getting your technicians to adopt a service management system is probably not high on their list.  But they understand what is good for the company is good for them. One can’t bill unless the reports are completed.  Money has to come in on a regular basis to pay for all those perks and benefits techs receive. Company gets paid, they get paid. They don’t need to be accountant to see that math. At the very least, productivity and efficiency are always tied to raises.

  Like most service companies, your team is probably on the go most of the time. Getting access to your service management system from anywhere, anytime is a real time and frustration saver.  Technicians will receive text service calls, call up the information on their phone/tablet/computer of choice, check client status, complete the work order, send it to the user, and even sent it for invoicing, without ever having to come in and see the boss.

• Client Contract Reminders and Keep-In-Touch-With-Clients Newsletter

  Each month clients or department manager can be emailed a reminder to contact the service provider, or to expect a call, leading to setting up an appointment for the inspection service.  E-letters, business and service related articles, brochures, product advertising, medical equipment tidbits, can be printed for direct mailing.  Keep your services in the forefront of the client mind.

• Equipment Operator and Service Manuals ,Quick Reference and Equipment Trouble-Shooting Guides

  As part of accreditation requirements facilities are required to have on hand documentation for operators and service personnel.  Equipmentfiles.com allows users to upload manuals, pictures, forms, checklists, in-service information.  Nearly unlimited documentation can be uploaded as a group or to individual units.  Inspection scheduling allows for different level inspection with different task,   i.e. 6month, 12 month etc can have different procedures.

• Policy and Procedure Manuals, Personnel Certification and License Data

  Default Environment of Care manual for safety, security, emergency management, hazardous materials, utilities, medical equipment and life safety are provided as templates. Each policy elicits a work order or reminder based on the policy’s purpose The end user or service organization can upload their own policy and procedures and list the manual in the Home page of the site for all facility users to have access to as a reference.

  Often overlooked by biomeds and maintenance staff  but, often requested by inspectors are test equipment certification, technician job descriptions, continuing education, business license, BAA (Business associate agreement), service agreement, insurance. All can be uploaded for access as needed for manager or those pesky surprise inspector visits.

• Technician and End User Communications Logs

  Communication is the key to maintaining a good client /service relationship.  As each user logs in to their portal the communication log displays and any non-routine actions are listed in a brief one line description.  Users can open up the log entry to view the report, dismiss it, or keep in the queue for later review.

  The log can remain in the background or can be closed for the session. From our experience the communication log helps you build stronger ties with your clients, use it frequently either individually to each client or bulk posting to multiple clients to reach a greater number of clients with you message.

• Work Order Batch processing for Open, Updating, Closing and Billing, Documentation by Exception Batch Processing

  Work orders can be processed one at a time.  Unfortunately it’s not very efficient nor cost effective.  Facilities inspection work orders can be open in bulk (normal practice) when due.  Biomed managers also have the ability to bulk update and bulk close work orders.  Documentation by exception is defined as when all inspection tasks have met expected outcomes.

  The work orders can be bulk closed.  Units that have not met expected inspection results are not passed and must be closed manually.  (PM refers to periodic maintenance or preventative maintenance or safety and operational performance evaluation as your service provides) (Bulk can also be referred to as global).  You will love the bulk close feature. Of course some larger facilities may elect not to use this function as it may conflict with in-house policy.

• Continuing Education Presentations with Exams for Technician and Staff Improvement

  Staff in-service education and refresher courses will be available to maintain and prove personnel competency or just for information.  Use the library or create your own. Upload presentations for your own staff or open it up to other users.

  Typically instructional video or power point are provided for the most common equipment and will grow as members add to it.  Service companies can create equipment test protocols for their technician’s to verify staff familiarity with servicing equipment.  All are encouraged to contribute to in-service development.  This will be developed on a separate platform linked by this site.  There may be a small honorarium for certain in-service submissions.

• Scheduled Parts Replacement Alerts for Safety, Compliance and as an Income Generator

  Life support and high risk equipment have more stringent inspection procedures. Typically the manufacturer test procedures must be used to verify high risk equipment operating characteristics.  Industry standard test procedures are often used for non-high risk equipment. The tasks must be of sufficient scope to determine functionally of equipment. Safety committees typically review and authorize support service activities.

  Equipment is assigned an industry standard check list as well as a manufacturer checklist as it become available.  Service companies or hospital biomeds can import their own test procedure or use the library.  It is the responsibility of the service provider and end user to determine if library service templates are suitable.

  Scheduled parts replacement is a necessity of a preventative maintenance programs.  Typically parts replacement are set up on a recommended schedule. This is a largely overlooked income generator for a service company.  A reminder email can be sent to the user and technician when part replacement is due.

  This assists the technician in ordering parts for a inspection and serves as a reminder for the user that parts, such as a battery, hoses, filter, sensors require replacement as part of the PM and will incur additional charges.  Therefore, generating more income for the service company.

  Parts Inventory Management: Order parts from multiple vendors, track consumption, set minimal levels,  physical counts, make adjustments, price levels for different clients. Percentage markup schedules.  Parts sales can dramatically increase a service companies bottom line and often offsets any additional labor one expends in managing PM parts replacement.

  Other benefits of this concept are;
  1) Sourcing for parts from other service providers can decrease parts costs.
  2) Specialists can share their expertise creating a better knowledge base.
  3) Troubleshooting guides and repair insight can assist in quicker turn around and less expensive repairs.
  4) Video/power point in-services will help create better trained staff and a better educated end user.
  5) FDA alerts and manufacturers bulletins are obtained from several sources and are frequently updated.
  6) Standards and regulations are constantly revised.  This program will continually be updated.

  The shareware concept is not new, but will benefit every technician, nurse and student.