Director of Sales at CommercialFire

Bruce Falke

For multisite healthcare facilities, 2021 has presented even more challenges than we saw in 2020. With retail continuing to struggle, but predicted to make a strong comeback, an interesting shift has occurred in healthcare: the shift away from larger medical facilities to smaller sites that treat more specialized needs. With this comes an explosion of locations in the healthcare industry to keep up with demand and coverage.

So, what considerations do you have as a multisite facility manager (FM), when selecting a supplier partner? Focus on ensuring your supplier understands that maintaining a positive patient experience is critical and of the utmost priority. When handling facility management and maintenance, you must realize it is entirely different from typical retail and restaurant locations. In many cases, patients may be in pain or have heightened anxiety. This means the last thing your facility needs is a loud technician, drilling away, installing fire extinguishers, or repairing and replacing emergency/exit lighting.

Instead, design a program that can account for all of your site's specific needs. In many cases, there are office hours when technicians can come in and work quickly without having to worry about being in the way of your physicians and other staff. To expand on that point, security and patient privacy must be front of mind. Making sure that all sensitive information is out of sight helps ensure fire and life safety technicians can move about without worrying about stumbling across someone’s records that have been left out. In other words, schedule a specific inspection and/or repair services based upon each location's unique needs. And always validate this with the onsite doctor and/or management staff, and should the technician's schedule change for any reason whatsoever, it must be communicated and, if need be, rescheduled.

Next, be sure to provide explicit site instructions to each supplier partner. Make sure check-in and check-out procedures, along with any health safety requirements or special PPE that may be needed, are communicated to help your vendors maintain the status quo when entering your facilities.

Let’s now switch perspectives and discuss what FM’s should provide to their supplier partners.

The most significant point is providing open and regular lines of contact. Supplier partners also have busy schedules and are simply trying to ensure your facilities are appropriately maintained. While you do not have to talk every day or even every week, try to make a point to reach out monthly or quarterly to catch up on how they feel the project is going and any issues they may be running into that need to be addressed.

Along with having a clear line of communication, you also have to understand the urgency some repairs might need. While FMs do not have to know the technical ins and outs of all equipment/systems, they must never delay required repairs, as this could jeopardize life and property in the event of an actual fire and the equipment/system does not operate properly.

At the end of the day, choosing the correct Fire and Life Safety partner is critical. With over three decades of experience, our team at Commercial Fire has helped hundreds of facility managers overcome these issues and streamline their fire safety protocols and maintenance. If you are interested in learning more, contact Bruce Falke, who can help you craft the perfect package for your needs.