Case Study: Rowcroft Hospice Healthcare Asset Management

Rowcroft Hospice is a large specialist care institution located in South Devon supporting patients and their families suffering progressive and life-limiting illnesses. With an extensive estate across 22 acres and three large buildings comprising medical wards, offices and kitchens, as well as 13 local fundraising stores, the facilities, IT and financial departments needed to find a more effective way to track and manage their healthcare, IT and facilities assets.

The hospice management team chose Assettrac for its experience in healthcare asset management and its ability to provide an end-to-end solution that included the an initial inventory audit and asset tagging as well as the provision of a customised asset management software solution.

Full Service Asset Management:
Audit – Asset Tagging – Tracking – Asset Management Software – Implementation & Training

Assettrac’s asset management consultants delivered the project in two phases. Phase 1, the audit and phase 2, customised software, implementation and training. The project met the following objectives:

To identify and log their assets and equipment including furniture, IT, medical equipment and M&E (Mechanical and Electrical) equipment, in-situ, based upon pre-agreed specifications and restricted area availability.
To provide a secure cloud-based and paperless mobile solution for the following uses:
- To offer different departments business information on estate items and their value for procurement and insurance purposes
- To help reduce leakage and unnecessary expenditure.
- To maximise utilisation of owned assets and equipment.
- Track frequently moved items around site and off-site.
- The ability to undertake safety inspections and monitoring of specific machinery and systems through paperless real-time inspections by key personnel.
- To provide an audit trail of equipment for full lifecycle management and demonstrate compliance where necessary.
- To store and archive disposed asset information in case requirement to reference later.

The Assettrac Approach

On-site auditors undertook an initial phase on the main site comprising asset tagging, logging of all items and data collection of agreed items. This phase was completed in three days with auditors working around the specific needs and timings of medical wards and equipment stores. The information was uploaded in real-time to a pre-designed online portal.

With the data collected, Assettrac’s consultants configured and set up Rowcroft’s customised online asset tracking system, populated with all tagged assets from the on-site visit. The team then provided training on-site for key personnel from multiple departments which was tailored to the needs of their specific roles.

To enable Rowcroft to keep their asset management system (and inventory) up-to-date, handheld mobile devices, pre-installed with Assettrac’s mobile app were supplied for the facilities team. Training was then delivered showing the Facilities Team how they could use the system to undertake quick inspections of equipment whenever they are on-site. Via the handheld device they could see the current status of an item and critical review dates such as maintenance.

A Cutting-Edge Asset Management System Delivered in 1 Week

After the agreement of scope and the hardware selection was agreed, the entire project including on-site asset auditing, their customised portal and user training accomplished in a concentrated weeks visit. As a result, Rowcroft Hospice are now able to access the details of their complete asset holding and value, as well as manage key M&E installations by generating instant reports from their secure, customised cloud portal. What’s more, the hospice benefits from greater asset visibility and is able to maximise equipment usage, knowing where every item is at any time. With better access to full lifecycle information on their equipment, financial management and planning is improved and the facilities departments are able to save considerable time on asset inspections across the whole estate.