FM:Systems: The North Metropolitan Health Service,
Perth Tracks Leasing and Facility Details

Serving a population of more than 820,000 people in Perth, Western Australia, The North Metropolitan Area Health Service (NMAHS) consists of five facilities with a staff of more than 10,000. The Health Service is using FM:Systems’ FM:Interact to track leasing and facility details.

The Service consists of:

• Sir Charles Gairdner Group, including Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
  (SCGH) and Osborne Park Hospital Program (OPHP)
• Swan/Kalamunda Health Service (SKHS), including  Swan Districts

Hospital and Kalamunda Hospital

• Joondalup Health Service (JHS), including Joondalup Health Campus
• North Metropolitan Area Health Service Mental Health Services, including Graylands Hospital
• North Metropolitan Area Health Service Ambulatory Care
• King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women

There are five key metropolitan hospitals within NMAHS that link to mental health and community health services in Perth’s northern suburbs. The sixth NMAHS Hospital is Graylands Hospital, which is used exclusively to accommodate mental health patients.

Facilities & Property Overview
The Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre (QEIIMC) is operated by a Trust, a statutory authority established under the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre Act 1966. The QEIIMC Trust acts as a landlord and its main responsibility is for the operation and development of the campus. 

The QEIIMC campus, managed by Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital on behalf of the Trust, consists of 21 buildings totaling 2,368,060 square feet (220,000 square meters) and 47 “site tenants”.

Sir Charles Gairdner is the largest of the hospitals and a fully accredited teaching hospital. The hospital has 502 staffed beds, including 105 day beds and 18 intensive care beds. Planning and documentation is well-underway for a $276.8M redevelopment of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and related services. Early planning is also underway to transfer the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to the QEIIMC site with a strategy to relocate the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women at a future date.

Adequate space challenges
A frequent challenge for the healthcare industry is providing adequate space for professionals to operate effectively. As functions change, occupants move out, and space is re-allocated. Healthcare facilities managers face the daunting task of managing and maintaining up-to-date information regarding space utilization.
In order to overcome this problem for the QEIIMC campus, Roy Aitken, manager, Area Facilities Development for the North Metropolitan Area Heath Service, knew he needed to replace its outdated system of hard-copy building plans recorded in a large filing system that contained old CAD drawings and other indexed materials. QEIIMC needed a solution that would better monitor and manage space allocation, tenants, and building plans.

Solution: Automate
Aitken began researching solutions that could potentially replace the manual system with one that could easily integrate information across multiple real estate and facility management functions and maintain facilities, space utilization, and leasing details data on a real-time basis.

The FM:Systems Web-based FM:Interact solution was implemented into the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital to manage space, documentation and details involved in the management of the QEIIMC buildings on campus and handle strategic building planning.
The QEIIMC campus used FM:Interact in three main areas:

• space management
• tenant charging management;  and
• document management.

FM:Interact has now been implemented in three other NMAHS sites.

The results include:

Efficient space management
With the new solution in place, the QEIIMC campus was able to plan for space use by visualizing space and occupancy information on floor plans. Once planning was successful, the QEIIMC campus continued to use FM:Interact for space allocation. This ensures space is used effectively and has enhanced the collaboration of staff.

More efficient processes
The NMAHS also put the FM:Systems solutions to work calculating ‘replacement capital valuation’ (RCV) compliance for the State Auditor General. With information such as the existing space inventory and department and utilization assignments right at its fingertips, the cost to calculate RCV for the NMAHS sites was significantly reduced and completed in hours as opposed to months.

Space and building asset data is easily available to consultants for the planning scheme, enabling quick updates to the master plan and data requests to be filled immediately.

Easier and accurate billing
NMAHS also utilizes FM:Interact to maintain its tenant charging system. By accurately demonstrating the amount of space allotted to each tenant, NMAHS can charge its tenants by area used for utilities consumed. In addition, NMAHS is able to send an annual space allocation report to each tenant stating the amount of space for which they are charged. This account gives tenants the opportunity to report on internal moves made without notification to the facility management team, assuring facility managers are able to maintain accurate occupancy details.

System is quickly put to use
Because of the openness and configurability of FM:Interact, the system easily integrated with QEIIMC’s technical document management system, (currently in the implementation phase) without the need for programming. This provides complete facility details, incorporating asset-management, maintenance management, space management, and space planning in one central, Web-based location. Now all assets and space documentation can be quickly retrieved when an individual enquires about a specific room. Documentation is now organized to include numerous search possibilities.

Continually striving to improve its Asset Management Module, NMAHS integrated FM:Interact with its document management system.  Now project managers can quickly and easily find the project, departmental documents, and equipment manuals for assets and corresponding locations within FM:Interact.

Facilities information is housed and managed centrally
Prior to the implementation, maintaining current and accurate space information was impossible because departments changed rooms and swapped room functions internally. In addition, campus staff was unable to help maintain the hard-copy facility database, so these moves often went unreported.

The implementation of FM:Interact across the QEIIMC campus and other NMAHS sites successfully created a central Web-based system for the management of all facilities information and documentation, saving paper, time and money.  This enables campus facility managers and other relevant staff appropriate levels of access to information and documentation for facilities information from anywhere on campus, as well as a means of updating information resulting from building refurbishment and redevelopment without interruption.

New functionality meets group’s needs
Campus car parking was recently added as a module by leveraging the flexibility of FM:Interact. The parking manager actively uses FM:Interact for planning ahead of the considerable disruption that occurs during major construction work at the QEIIMC site.

Scenario planning for the possible swine flu pandemic was much easier for the emergency procedures coordinator. When identifying occupants to be relocated, the floor plans are always in real-time.
The system also integrates with AutoDesk Mapguide for a geospatial view of information on sites outside the building line information, such as services, signage, and car parks.

Information is easily shared
The implementation of FM:Systems has eliminated unnecessary information silos where only a handful of staff possessed knowledge of building services. Now, all relevant staff has access to space allocation and related information—a valuable succession-planning tool. The number of supervisory staff and hospital departments that recognize the value of the web-based FM:Systems solution and are requesting access continues to grow.

“The implementation of FM:Interact has encouraged facility management staff and other hospital departments throughout the QEIIMC campus to resist focusing on paper-based records, allowing them more time to focus on the day-to-day operation and maintenance of their sites,” says Aitken.

For more information on FM:Systems, visit: www.fmsystems.com