How Workflow Automations Can Save Time for HTM and HFM

From getting high-quality data to building trust between key stakeholders, there are several opportunities within healthcare to increase the use of workflow automations. Research finds that inefficient workflows are impacting stakeholders throughout the value chain, including operations, administrators, clinicians, and patients.

For those in healthcare technology (HTM) and facilities management (HFM), automations play a significant role in helping to maximize resources without sacrificing quality or compliance along the way.

Automations execute pre-defined tasks, without the need for a human to help and finalize the data. While artificial intelligence focuses on using technology to think like a human, workflow automations use functionality to automate tasks that have clear rules.

Both have a place within healthcare maintenance teams and can provide benefits to HTM and HFM. In this blog post, read more about how workflow automations can support teams – including the key use cases to get started.

Eliminate Errors & Maximize Data Entry

From compliance requirements to reporting initiatives, gathering more data continues to be a focus for many healthcare maintenance teams. However, this focus on capturing more information drains time on technicians who are focused on completing work.

Much of this feels repetitive and simple. Fields often get skipped. And if they aren’t skipped, maybe dummy information gets entered to bypass the requirements. This lack of quality and consistency doesn’t help any reporting initiatives.

Leveraging workflow automations help to minimize the amount of fields that need to be filled out; which means team members can save time – and focus on the data elements that they control. This increases the accuracy of information that gets captured, while eliminating the chance for human error.

As an added bonus, future developments will enable these workflow automations to run in the background. For instance, if a work order is classified in a certain way, a workflow can be set up to add in information within required fields. It may add in additional details that may otherwise be skipped. Once completed, this data can be documented and leveraged within reporting. 

Save Time & Money

Doing more with less has become a common theme across healthcare teams. It continues to drive priorities for those in technology and facilities management, especially as teams must determine key areas of focus. Finding ways to work more efficiently continues to be a priority.

Using a CMMS built for healthcare helps drives efficiency among healthcare maintenance teams by giving them software that can track and report on actions. Finding one that focuses on making technicians and users more efficient can make a world of difference.

For instance, HTM teams often face unique challenges compared to other asset leaders. From mobile assets to complex regulations, they require software solutions that adapt to the changing landscape within the hospital while adhering to rigid compliance requirements.

This is where using automations can play a large role in helping to make things easier. In turn, healthcare maintenance teams get a lift on how they spend their time – helping them become more efficient and productive.

Sometimes work orders need to change owners or even become secondary to other issues going on if there are other issues going on (i.e., if something bigger is detected via preventative maintenance). Instead of forcing the technician to fill out all the information on a work order that no longer fits within data entry needs, a workflow can automate this once a field is updated. 

To do this, a technician simply clicks a button. With Flow, which was recently built into FSI’s CMMS, admins can easily build automations to give lift to their technology and facilities management teams.

Fit Your Process

While there are standardized requirements within healthcare asset and facilities management, many organizations rely on their own processes and internal requirements. This requires flexibility within the CMMS for it to align with your unique needs.

Enter workflow automations. Existing processes improve by layering on automations to improve redundant steps or data entry; and it can help to enhance new processes by running in the background to capture essential data that may be skipped or entered inaccurately.

For work orders, this helps to manage the inevitable backlog. Closing out old work orders, or those that may be replaced by preventative maintenance strategies, helps to manage the entire data lifecycle within your CMMS.

Key Workflow Automation Use Cases for Healthcare Maintenance Teams

Because of the openness of workflow automations, it can be challenging to know what specific ways it can be used for HTM and HFM. Add to that the busyness that teams face, prioritizing features that help to drive efficiencies and a better user experience can quickly become a priority that gets pushed to the bottom of the to do list.

FSI's CMMS Flow offers several different options to maximize work efficiency; with many more features coming in the future. Knowing what's available now and in the future, here are the five that top our list for FSI's CMMS:

• Accepting a work order: Use workflow automations to remove all assignments and assign to the current user. The automation can also be set to change the status of the work order. 
• Updating missing asset: If an asset cannot be found, a technician can click a button that triggers a workflow automation to change the status of a work order. It can also then update the status of an asset and add a note for when it should be scheduled in the future. 
• Cleaning up child work orders: The addition of a child work order can result in the parent work order status being changed. Once the child work order(s) tied to a parent work order are all closed, the workflow automation can close the parent work order. (Future Flow functionality.)
• Updating billable work orders: Workflow automations can be leveraged to change the work order status of a billable work order, while setting the billable field. It can require a labor charge and follow up with an email response. (Future Flow functionality.)
• Streamlining approvals: A workflow automation can be used to define a certain threshold for material or labor change. If this threshold is over the limit, it can automatically send an approval email to the required approver. (Future Flow functionality.)

This is truly the start! As we’ve experienced with other technology for HTM and HFM teams, getting started opens the doors for many opportunities. These can often result in a significant return-on-investment by helping teams optimize the time and budget they have available, all without sacrificing the quality of work they deliver to their organizations.

Interested in learning more? Get a look at Flow to see how it can help your team simplify how work happens.