White Papers

The Top 4 Challenges of Healthcare Facility Maintenance Today

Healthcare facilities management has fundamentally changed over the past decade, underlining the importance of dedicated healthcare facilities management teams and why every hospital leadership team needs to be in sync with their facility managers.

This white paper shows the ways Medxcel's facility managers shepherded 160 facilities through the height of the pandemic when other facilities were struggling with PPE shortages and when vaccines and variants alike swept through. Today, after years of adjusting to new normals, implementing new technologies and protocols, and finding a way through and beyond a pandemic remain critical issues.

We examine the top four challenges currently facing healthcare facility maintenance:
1. Staffing
2. Supply Chain
3. Technology
4. Preparing for the Next Emergency

Prioritizing Healthcare Facilities Readiness Among Budget Constraints

Hospitals are currently facing financial challenges never experienced before. The recent pandemic has challenged healthcare systems in ways many never imagined. Many systems halted elective surgeries and other procedures for a period of time, causing tremendous damage to the bottom line.  It is critical that the healthcare leaders work together more closely than ever before, keeping the overall health of the system a priority. Your facilities management leadership team should be at the table during the budging process, partnering alongside you to evaluate and control capital expenditures that affect compliance, patient safety, and your ability to withstand the next disaster.

This whitepaper helps navigate the ever-evolving budget landscape in a post-pandemic world while ensuring that the ability to prepare for the next crisis remains in your budget framework.  

COVID-19 and the Healing Environment: Successfully Navigating Healthcare's Greatest Challenge

In January 2020, news of a new strain of coronavirus began to hit the news headlines. At the time, it was just background noise for most of the population, but Medxcel was already prepared to face what would become one of the greatest healthcare challenges the United States has ever faced. Our Emergency Management team of experts had plans in place and was ready to execute them when the pandemic hit the United States shores. Medxcel leaders were quoted in the media saying, “Not if, but when”.

This white paper details how proper planning for an emergency allowed for the continuation of hospital operations during COVID-19. Medxcel’s associates came together to ensure that our 160 hospitals and the patients they serve would continue to receive the highest level of care during this unprecedented crisis.

Employee Engagement and Its Impact on the Patient Experience: A Deeper Look

When you think about employee engagement and the overall patient experience, there is often a disconnect.  You may think, "How does a maintenance technician's engagement level really impact the experience patients will have in my hospital on a daily basis?"   

Disengaged employees often stem from a place of stress in the workforce. On the other hand, when employees are engaged - that is, involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace - organizations can see a measurable impact on their company.

We will take a deep dive into the impacts of engaged, not-engaged and actively disengaged employees and connect the dots between employee engagement and the patient experience using data and identifying a road-map that can be used to optimize the level of employee engagement within your hospital.

Cost Containment: How to Tackle Healthcare CEOs' Top Concern

Cost control surpassed revenue growth as healthcare system CEOs’ number one priority in 2018. Sixty-two percent of respondents to Advisory Board’s Annual Health Care CEO Survey shared they were “extremely interested” in “preparing the enterprise for sustainable cost control.” This percentage exceeds any topic in the past four years of the survey’s existence.

CEOs understand that to deliver exceptional care, they must use competitive cost structures to build effective growth and financial sustainability. By investing in the people and processes serving in operational roles, healthcare enterprises will not only ensure their hospital runs effectively in the short term, they will also set their organizations up for long-term success and lower future costs. 

In this resource, we aim to:

• Walk through the four major areas affecting cost control in healthcare facilities: energy, workforce, compliance and standardization
• Examine areas for adjustment to stop cost overflow
• Plan for the future with solutions that can be enacted today

Our goal: to leave you with actionable insights that will benefit you now and in the future.

3 Components to High-Performing Healthcare Facilities: Data, Communication & Engagement

As healthcare leaders seek new ways to do, earn and serve more, they often overlook three  surefire sources of savings, efficiencies, and competitive advantage, particularly when combined: employee engagement, communications and data.

When organizations successfully engage their customers and employees, they experience a 240% boost in performance-related business outcomes, reports Gallup. On the surface, these may seem like separate issues – swaying internal audiences, showing value and engaging employees.  In this resource, we’ll help you understand how one fuels another, with data and communications helping you bridge the gap to build relationships that are fruitful and profitable for everyone involved.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to develop an employee engagement plan that increases productivity & efficiencies.
• How to build value and relationships with internal audiences through effective communications relevant to each audience.
• Identifying the right data and tools to engage internal and external audiences.

Addressing Ligature and Suicide Risks in Healthcare Facilities

Patient suicide ranks among the top three sentinel events, reports The Joint Commission (TJC), prompting regulators to focus heavily on ligature risks. If many suicide attempts are impulsive, TJC reasons, then reducing environmental risks and opportunities for self-harm is vital for curbing the suicide trend in healthcare settings.

With that in mind, surveyors are taking a hard look at ligatures: potential hanging or choking points in healthcare facilities. This whitepaper addresses these issues and provides vital information for you to utilize in your own healthcare facilities to ensure a smooth survey, and most importantly a safe healing environment.

Better Emergency Response: 8 Practices For Faster Crisis Resolution in Healthcare Environments

Tornadoes. Active shooters. Technology misfires, construction mishaps, infectious disease outbreaks, or other scenarios you never would’ve guessed. These are no longer rare occurrences: It only takes a cursory glance at news headlines to realize crises strike healthcare facilities and the people they serve every day.

The ability to respond and resolve crises with minimal loss — to people, property, productivity and profits — isn’t something healthcare facilities can afford to skimp on or put off.

In this resource, you’ll find practical guidance for emergency preparedness and response, specific to healthcare environments. You’ll learn essential practices that will save you from trouble in the future, and mistakes that can derail your efforts, sink your profits or reputation, and put patients at risk.

Our goal is to leave you with at least one idea you can implement immediately. With so much at stake, every improvement is another layer of protection against potentially catastrophic harm.

FTEs of the Future: Aligning Needs & Skills for Profitable Healthcare Facilities

Look around. Chances are most leaders in your organization are nearing retirement age. Who will carry your organization when the current generation of leaders ages out of the workforce? Just as important, what are you doing today to counter the massive productivity and revenue losses that follow employee disengagement, or misalignment between needs and skills? If you want the kind of organization that’s resilient and profitable for many years to come, you might be surprised to learn the very strategies many hospitals adopt to save money can actually cost them far more in a not-so-distant future.

In this resource, we’ll guide you through:

• Common pitfalls in employee engagement and succession planning
• Building a workforce that can dramatically enhance patient care and profitability
• Long-term considerations - succession planning, per se
• Immediate-impact challenges & solutions

Our goal: to leave you with actionable insights that will benefit you now and in the future.

Healing Amidst Violence: Workplace Violence & Active Shooter Planning for Healthcare Facilities

In this resource, we’ll help you understand key implementation strategies, including the use of Threat Assessment Teams, so you’re well prepared if or when the unthinkable happens.

Why is this important?

• In 2014, a 68-year-old patient pulled a bar from the side of his hospital bed and attacked a team of nurses at a Minnesota hospital. 
• In 2009, a hospital pharmacy worker known for his easygoing manner brought a gun to work and killed two of his managers, then himself, in California. 
• In 2016, a gunman entered a Florida hospital and shot a patient and an employee before being arrested.

You’ve no doubt heard of numerous other cases over the years. The rise of such threats make it imperative for your organization to know and practice your response long before it’s needed. In this resource, we’ll help you understand key implementation strategies, including the use of Threat Assessment Teams, so you’re well prepared if or when the unthinkable happens.

Pre-Audit Adaptation: Ensuring Daily Joint Commission Compliance

With the ever-changing landscape of regulatory compliance, the key to success is to be nimble and adaptable to the changes recently made by The Joint Commission and prepare for changes on the horizon.

In this white paper you will find:

• Break down of the major changes TJC adopted last year and what that means for healthcare organizations as they prepare for their next survey.
• Four crucial steps hospitals leaders should follow to allow for a more achievable (and less costly) resolution when deficiencies arise and ensure a smoother survey process.

The pressure to ensure constant compliance between surveys has never been stronger on hospital leadership as The Joint Commission and other Accreditation Organizations continually increases the accountability measures for accredited Healthcare Organizations.  The days when Healthcare Organizations could wait to address regulatory compliance issues 12-18 months before a survey have passed. Today’s Healthcare Organizations can’t simply spruce things up before a surveyor’s visit; they must integrate their Accredited Organization’s requirements into their daily practices, and plan for necessary investments and improvement plans across the two-to-three-year cycle between their audits. This is critical not just to keep accreditation, but also to manage budgets and project timelines.

Tools for the In-House Model

Patient safety and satisfaction demand safe, efficient facilities, which, in turn, demand ample resources.

Yet, healthcare facilities departments are often required to maintain or improve the quality and quantity of their services while their budgets shrink. Adding to this quandary is the fact that the right mix of resources and services isn’t easy to discern, varying wildly from one facility to another.