Every moment something is down in a resident’s unit, you risk the comfort and well-being of your residents.
But no matter how hard you try, things will break and need replacement, and operating at full capacity 24/7 is a tough order. A lot of equipment goes into a well-run community, and a lot of people are counting on it all running smoothly.
What you really need to do if you want to reduce downtime is engage in an effective preventive maintenance program. Because nothing limits downtime like preventing it in the first place.
Doing preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance is definitely one of those things that many maintenance departments want to do but find it difficult to find the time.
The benefits are huge, however. When you’re able to perform appropriate maintenance on your equipment — from HVAC to plumbing — you can keep things in top shape and prevent disaster occurring in the first place. You also can check your data and spot trends that might indicate that the particular asset requires replacement and get it done early rather than wait for the failure.
But when you’re dealing with other issues every single day, it is difficult to make the time.
How to find the time
First, you need to recognize that time spent now is more time saved later. The initial hurdle might seem daunting, but once you’re over it, the amount of time that you’ve spent in the long run more than pays for the sacrifice now.
All the same, it can be difficult to make that time when you’re drowning in other work orders. Figure out which of those can wait and what an appropriate schedule of preventive maintenance is for your community.
This does get easier when you’re in control of your work orders. This is best done with computerized maintenance management software.
Take control of your work orders
With digital work orders, preventive maintenance becomes much easier. First, you can reduce a ton of administrative time creating and managing your work orders. Second, you can set recurring tasks tied to the specific pieces of equipment.
Doing so allows you to keep up on maintaining your equipment while giving you access to a full history of all work performed on it as well as all information reported upon it. With this, you’ll be able to reduce downtime by paying attention to signs you need to repair or replace (before the costly incident occurs), and you’ll avoid countless reactive minor fixes that take you away from other work unexpectedly.
Focus on prevention
There’s really no better way to reduce downtime other than prevention. Stay diligent and work effectively, and you’ll have your senior living community running more comfortably and efficiently.
The opinions expressed in each McKnight’s Senior Living marketplace column are those of the author and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Senior Living.
