Why do we Need Predictive Maintenance in Healthcare Facilities?

Maintenance is an essential activity in any industry, including healthcare facilities. All equipment and machines must be in perfect working condition in a healthcare facility. Since these instruments are often used to treat patients or even in daily administrative functions, disturbance in their functions could prove detrimental.

Preventive maintenance involves the regular checking of machines at regular intervals irrespective of usage and time. Reactive maintenance is repairs done after a breakdown or equipment failure has occurred. However, predictive maintenance uses regular, continuous inspections to assess the need for maintenance and prevents untimely breakdown.  

Unlike other practices, where machines may need to be disconnected for assessing and repairing damages, predictive maintenance can be run in the background without interrupting any ongoing operations. Healthcare facility managers may get notified about the health and status of any equipment in the facility at any given time. In case of repairs or replacements, the necessary action can be undertaken quickly without interrupting usual services.

Key Elements of Predictive Maintenance

1. Use Of IoT And Telematics In The Healthcare Facility 

Predictive maintenance uses sensors, IoT, and other smart telematics to assess the daily functioning of all equipment. The sensors record data like vibrations, electricity and battery consumptions, temperature threshold, and other sensations to accurately predict when the machine needs maintenance. In addition, predictive maintenance assesses historical data collected over time, and this, paired with fresh information, allows for timely maintenance, reducing the overall cost of maintenance for the facility. 

Using telematics and smart sensors, it is possible to assess the working condition of the equipment continuously. In fact, with smart devices and applications, it is possible to effectively pinpoint the exact moment a particular machine would need maintenance. As a result, healthcare facilities can reduce labor costs with predictive maintenance. For example, rather than have a maintenance team pull apart a vast machine and try to identify the worn part, the correct damaged part can be identified straight away and repaired with predictive maintenance. 

Additionally, there may be a considerable cost involved in setting up a complete smart system with IoT and telematics, and servers to store the data collected from these devices. However, these expenses can be easily balanced by saving costs on repairs due to unexpected machinery breakdowns.

2. Timely Schedule For Overall Maintenance

In a healthcare facility, where patients’ lives and health may depend entirely on the optimal performance of the equipment, it is essential to keep all machines functioning correctly. It is easy to understand when a machine needs maintenance using IoT and telematics. Additionally, predictive maintenance provides facility managers with real-time data that can be used to schedule maintenance at timely intervals. 

For example, in a timely schedule, a hospital facility management can arrange the use of alternate machines to monitor patient health or even administrative work while the original equipment is undergoing repairs. Timely reminders about the state of equipment help reduce the overall time spent doing repairs. It is also critical to maintaining administrative equipment like computers, loudspeakers, etc. These help manage the schedule of doctors and patients concerning treatments and surgeries. 

3. Prevent Unexpected Machine Failure

Unexpected machine failure or sudden stop of services could prove harmful in a healthcare facility where patients’ life could be at stake. It is one of the significant instances that can impact the operations of any organization. For instance, if a machine breaks down during a critical part of treatment, the impact from this failed procedure could make a healthcare facility open to legal actions from patients or their families. 

It is easier for facility managers to predict when particular equipment or machine needs significant repairs with predictive maintenance. Predictive maintenance can also help identify minor repairs and maintenance in all machines and types of equipment in a healthcare facility. 

Repairing and maintaining equipment before they fall apart ensures that maintenance teams are not pulled away from other work to repair the broken machine, thus disrupting an otherwise orderly schedule. Predictive maintenance also reduces the number of times equipment may be out of service till repairs occur. 

4. Better Healthcare Services For Patients

The primary responsibility of a healthcare facility is to provide excellent and ongoing care to its patients. If a facility is prone to constant equipment failures, trust from patients and their families is reduced, and the healthcare facility might lose potential admissions. 

Using IoT, it is possible for healthcare facilities to remotely monitor their patients’ health statistics and provide effective medical solutions as required. It also provides information about possible disruptions that can be fixed to continue patient treatment effectively. 

Conclusion

Predictive maintenance is not static. Since smart sensors and devices power it, predictive maintenance is an ongoing learning process. Not only does it give real-time data, but the accuracy of the predictions improves over time as the process adapts and learns from the set parameters.     

Healthcare facilities need to provide top-notch health services to their patients. However, this can be possible only if there is no breakdown of equipment or unexpected maintenance activities disrupting routine operations. With the help of smart devices and IoT, predictive maintenance in healthcare facilities can help resolve these unforeseen problems and provide optimal care to their patients.