Facility management award recognizes excellence

When thinking about your department’s 2017 plans and goals, consider applying for the ASHE Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award to highlight the work facility professionals do to help your organization meet its mission.

The Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award recognizes individuals or facility management departments that implement new or innovative programs or processes to optimize the physical environment and improve patient care. The award, presented by ASHE of the American Hospital Association and sponsored by Trane, is announced during National Health Care Facility and Engineering Week in October.

In 2016, New York-Presbyterian Hospital won the Excellence in Health Care Facility Management Award for a new space and asset management system that merged three disconnected applications into a single environment.

The team at New York-Presbyterian Hospital created the system to improve the reliability of its environment of care, improve the patient experience, and improve operational efficiencies. The hospital, a 2,515-bed academic medical center with six campuses and 10 million square feet, merged three disconnected applications — space utilization, patient experience and regulatory asset management — into an integrated environment. Because of the new system, the hospital has saved approximately $3 million and has seen a 30 percent decrease in the number of physical environment deficiencies.

“The tool allows interdisciplinary groups to collaborate seamlessly,” says Joseph Ienuso, group senior vice president for facilities and real estate at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. “This common collaboration platform allows for rapid adoption in a dynamic health care environment of regulatory changes and best practices.”

Previous award winners include St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Fla., which won the 2015 award for reducing common area slips, trips, and falls; and Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, Del., which won the 2014 award for developing a comprehensive spreadsheet tool that tracked compliance information during environmental tours. Consider the projects you and your department have completed to improve patient care and the physical environment, and consider submitted your application in 2017.

More information on all ASHE awards can be found at www.ashe.org/awards.

Deanna Martin is the membership and communications director at the American Society for Healthcare Engineering.

ASHE INSIGHTS

Important monographs available from ASHE

Following are two recently released monographs that can be accessed by ASHE members as free PDFs at the resource library.

• HCAHPS Scores, the Patient Experience, and the Affordable Care Act from the Facility Perspective. This new ASHE monograph explores how the health care physical environment and facility professionals can improve patient satisfaction scores.
• Risk Assessment of Medical Equipment. A key part of the Joint Commission’s environment of care management plans, risk assessments of medical equipment are covered in this new ASHE monograph. It presents a framework for facilities professionals to follow.

Design guidelines available to industry through ASHE

The 2014 editions of the Facility Guidelines Institute’s Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and Outpatient Facilities and the Guidelines for Design and Construction of Residential Health, Care, and Support Facilities can be purchased at www.ASHEstore.com.