THIRA Health Triples the BOMA Industry Average Ratio of Reactive to Proactive Work Orders

Overview

As the Senior Facilities Manager at THIRA Health in Bellevue, Washington, Phil Snyder’s job is to operationally ensure a safe, healthy, comfortable, and functional environment for patients, staff, and guests. This includes everything from IT support, managing inventory (medical and office supplies), maintaining infection control best practices, reacting timely to maintenance requests, conducting preventative maintenance tasks (daily rounds), working closely across departmental lines to meet the mission and goals of the leadership team, and managing various projects (i.e., helping to expand into a new facility)

For Phil, “improving the day-to-day processes translates to supporting the various departments (i.e., nursing, medical, therapists, programming) to do their jobs without frustrations from a facility aspect.” Phil noted that the focus “is for the Facilities team to work behind the scenes to minimize the impact on patient programs.” The goal is that Facilities’ work is never the cause of someone’s frustration.

Challenges

“There’s not much to say here except that before MaintainX,” Phil said, “THIRA managed the facility with Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Teams.” This was not okay for Phil, and he knew he could not continue to improve facilities management at Thira using these methods. “People constantly stopped me in the hall or sent me messages asking for things,” Phil recalled. “These ‘Dracula Moments’ took up too much time.”

Solution

Phil had come to THIRA from a corporate organization with many efficiencies. “I came to Thira to make an impact on facilities.”

So, looking for the opportunity to improve facilities management, Phil visited the App Store and came across MaintainX. “From there, it was a pretty quick process,” Phil said. “I've never looked back because you guys made it so easy.”

Now, when people stop Phil in the hall, they know his response will be “MX it.” This is because he has fully integrated MaintainX at THIRA. He uses MaintainX to conduct bi-weekly inventories of medical and office supplies and even created an SOP to establish triggers on supply levels. “This is where I really enjoy the accountability within MaintainX’s SOP process and procedure library. Now there’s a process we can follow and document it.”  

Within just a few months, Phil was able to use MaintainX’s real-time Reporting feature to show the THIRA leadership team how much work was getting done. “Once leadership got on board,” Phil said, “with their backing, it gave me the ability to encourage others to use it.”

As Phil explained, “Initially, we introduced everyone to MaintainX through your video, highlighting how it works in general. Then, we registered everyone and asked them to submit fictional requests to get used to it. Then we asked people to put it on their phones, but only after we promised them that MaintainX doesn’t send out advertisements. So then, with MaintainX on people’s phones, they could take pictures and submit requests. With MaintainX up and running,” Phil said, “People are responding great overall.”

“MaintainX functions so well in real time on the desktop and the phone. It’s BOOM!  The support is amazing, and the opportunity for collaboration into the specifics of maintenance requests is a huge opportunity for us.”
^{—Phil Snyder, THIRA Senior Facilities Manager}

As Phil became more familiar with MaintainX, he began setting up procedures and then adding them to the procedure Library. The daily rounds became daily procedures, and the inspections became monthly and annual procedures. “Anything that had a routine in it was a no-brainer to set up as a procedure,” Phil said. “MaintainX is great for efficiency: if there's a way to minimize the number of steps it takes, I create a process for it, and it just works.” In addition, using MaintainX work requests helps Phil create procedures he may not have thought of before.

For example, Phil recalled, “We got a request to calibrate the weight scales in the exam rooms. So, I started digging into it, and it turns out there's a regulation that requires scales to be calibrated every six months. So, now, MaintainX tells us when we need to contact the vendor to come in and calibrate. And all the vendor information is already in the procedure.”

“MaintainX brings sanity to the workplace.”
^{—Phil Snyder, Thira Senior Facilities Manager}

In MaintainX, Phil also created SOPs for onboarding and offboarding (i.e., turning off employees’ key fobs so they no longer have access to the building.) This is an important SOP because THIRA is HIPPA compliant with security and safety. With MaintainX, they can automatically follow the proper protocols via digital SOP checklists. “So if someone is leaving,” Phil noted, “and we need to deactivate access, we send out an SOP work order, and it gets done.”

The real-time aspect of MaintainX allows Phil and his team to react much faster to work requests and issues. In addition, he emphasized, “MaintainX’s simplicity is a significant benefit, especially when not disrupting others in their work.”

Result

With more than 152 users, 4900+ work orders, 60+ procedures, and 1000+ assets, MaintainX’s customizable reporting dashboards come in handy. In addition, Phil noted that the ratio of reactive to proactive work orders increased from 13% to 36%, almost three times the BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association) industry average. To accomplish this, Phil’s team turned any repeating routine into a procedure and added it to their library. “Thanks to MaintainX, we are better at managing time.”

Through the Reporting dashboard, by aggregating work requests, Phil “can see how we spend our time. And with MaintainX, we can control costs better with preventive maintenance and take care of our equipment.”

In other words, unlike their previous system, MaintainX allows Phil to anticipate issues. For example, if someone needs to stay home, “Now someone else can conduct their daily rounds to ensure the equipment for virtual meetings is ready and working and does not interrupt the continuum of care. This is crucial.”

Likewise, digitized and automated SOPs have made it easier to train staff, especially around security and safety drills. For example, one of Facilities’ responsibilities is to manage life-safety equipment, such as emergency generators that get checked weekly and tested monthly or epi-pens that must have their expiration dates checked regularly. Automated SOPs also help when inspectors come in. “They can just look at the report generated by MaintainX. Our processes are visible.”

With this level of visibility and transparency, THIRA’s leadership can see how much the Facilities team accomplishes. “Here, MaintainX’s Reporting has been extremely helpful,” Phil explained. Furthermore, he noted that MaintainX has helped elevate Facilities from a typical facilities profile to being recognized as an integral part of other programs. “Now, everything is intertwined. Using MaintainX has helped us improve the organization for everyone and has influenced other departments to make it a better experience for those people.”

In reflecting on the MaintainX integration and implementation process, Phil said, “MaintainX support is phenomenal. Your support people have the know-how and experience. They are so good that I can easily translate it back to my coworkers.”

And then he added, “We want everything to go through MaintainX. I wouldn't be here if we tried to do all this without it. MaintainX brings sanity to the workplace and does it all.”

Spotlight on the Customer

THIRA Health’s mission revolves around evidence-based treatment for women, teen girls, and gender non-conforming individuals with eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and other co-occurring conditions.

With a team of more than 150 employees and growing, Thira has its main campus just outside downtime Bellevue, Washington. The Retreat at THIRA, in Kirkland, Washington, is located in a renovated mid-century modern home adjoining a 500-acre state park with more than 27 miles of walking trails. In addition, Thira has plans to open a new 16-bed treatment center.

The Facilities team strives to perform most operational tasks behind the scenes to minimize any impact on patients and staff.