MRI Planet keeps South West Yorkshire NHS Trust on top of compliance

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (“SW Yorkshire”) is an NHS trust which provides mental health, learning disability and community health care services to the 1.22m people who live across South and West Yorkshire in the local authorities in Calderdale, Kirklees, Wakefield and Barnsley.

The trust has been a user of MRI Planet (formerly Qube Planet) facilities management software for numerous years, and the team have seen many benefits to processes and efficiency.

Business Challenge
When the government made it mandatory for NHS trusts to keep and maintain an asset register, Cecilia Crump was drafted into SW Yorkshire to find a solution. With 45-50 locations to manage across a vast geographic location, a robust tool was required to ensure that all assets could be managed effectively.

Additionally, as an NHS trust, compliance for medical equipment is vital for the health and safety of patients and staff. Therefore, a system to properly keep track of changing regulations, maintenance and repairs that had taken place, as well as storing all relevant documentation securely, was fundamental. With many trusts using paper-based systems at the time, inefficiencies, lost records, and inconsistent data entries were common challenges that needed a resolution.

Solution
After conducting research into available FM solutions, Cecilia chose MRI Planet to build and manage the asset register for the Trust. However, the myriad of other benefits that MRI Planet could provide became clear. It was rolled out across the department and began improving processes across the organisation.

Soon, Cecilia began to advocate MRI Planet to other NHS trusts across the country and has now introduced the system to Doncaster and Bassetlaw, and Birmingham, with more on the horizon.

Compliance information at your fingertips
Cecilia and her team have found that the comprehensive compliance tracking and management functionality to be an efficiency booster and time saver. With configurable fields to suit the organisation, information on service and repair dates, and which assets are due servicing, Cecilia and her team can access and analyse the general state of compliance across the whole organisation within minutes, through standard and configured reports.

NHS trusts send reports to NHS England to demonstrate compliance across all sites, and with the intuitive user experience, compiling this report for services including water, electricity, and mechanical facilities is made quicker, easier, and more accurate compared to the trust’s previous paper-based system.

Planned Preventative Maintenance
In order to effectively manage the Trust’s PPM schedules, Planet allows for detailed planning, including breaking down each job into hours, which allows for works planners to take into account staff training or annual leave requirements and other roadblocks. Cecilia explains,

“Before, we might know how many PPM jobs we’d got but didn’t realise the long-term picture, so changes could compound longer term issues…Planet gives works planners the ability to manage the workforce straight away and reschedule work where necessary.”

Before the COVID-19 crisis caused access issues for maintenance staff and contractors, Cecilia’s team was achieving an impressive 98.5% PPM service level agreement (SLA) completion rate.

Flexibility
One of the biggest changes to operations within the NHS has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which has meant that extra safety and compliance measures have needed to be implemented to protect both its staff and patients. Thanks to MRI Planet’s flexibility, the team at SW Yorkshire have been able to keep on top of the ever-changing and unpredictable guidance, and ensure maintenance teams and contractors are protected when carrying out essential works on high risk areas such as COVID wards.

This includes being able to flag locations across the trust as live COVID areas so that staff being assigned to jobs are aware of this, as well as including information and checklists regarding precautions to be taken before entering high risk areas and the disposal of PPE.

Vaccination clinics also require extra measures to be put in place, and with the real time information that MRI Planet provides, issues such as ensuring car parks are safe and queues for jabs can form without placing patients in danger can be dealt with efficiently and effectively.

Excellent support
The adoption of the system at SW Yorkshire was smooth, and the team were given training and explained the benefits of this shift in process to ensure they were fully onboard with the new system and operation.

“MRI’s support teams have taught me a lot about how to get the best out of Planet. It doesn’t matter how many times I pick up the phone in a day, I’ve always liked the support that I was getting. They don’t just leave you to it but help you get to the bottom of what you’re trying to achieve.” – Cecilia Crump.

With access to support from MRI, the SW Yorkshire team can solve issues quickly and find new ways of using Planet to achieve their goals. This level of trust between MRI and Cecilia’s team means that SW Yorkshire can use the system to its full potential.

Sharing Efficiencies
“I’m a big advocate of Planet, it does everything that you’d want it to do.” – Cecilia Crump.

Going forward, Cecilia’s role is including more work with different trusts to introduce them to MRI Planet. With nearly a third of NHS trusts across the UK now using it, it’s a testament to the system’s flexibility and benefits to the organisation that so many have adopted it and will continue to drive efficiencies and maintain compliance for years to come.