Facilities management interaction with healthcare delivery process

The healthcare industry is growing increasingly complex and providing a safe healthcare setting has become challenging for many healthcare facility managers. Most facility information is not linked to the healthcare delivery process, making it difficult to identify interactions and overlaps that may have critical implications for the smooth operation of the healthcare delivery process and patient safety. This inhibits the potential to capture real-time information that can facilitate timely interventions when hazardous situations develop. The impact of using real-time facilities information to ensure efficient healthcare operations has not been adequately studied. This paper is focused on an investigation of specific links and overlaps between facilities information and the healthcare delivery process. An understanding of the interactions between these two facets of healthcare delivery provides the healthcare industry a unique opportunity to enhance real-time decision-making thereby avoiding costly disruptions to the healthcare delivery process. The study presented in this paper involved a review of existing guidelines and standards for healthcare facilities management, interviews with key healthcare practitioners in a major hospital, and cognitive walkthroughs with the facilities management personnel. Based on the information obtained and the identification of typical facility failures, use cases were developed to determine synergies between facilities management and the healthcare delivery process, and to assess the potential for improvements from a patient safety perspective. The paper makes recommendations for improved use of real-time facilities information to support the healthcare delivery process.