By Joe Eichberger, EQ2 CEO
EQ2’s HEMS® CMMS has been used exclusively by healthcare clients for over 25 years. We do not market to, nor do we intend to offer our CMMS product to other markets. We believe the healthcare market needs are sufficiently unique that any CMMS offering sold in multiple markets will be a compromised product. HEMS is designed to help manage compliance with accrediting agencies, to help with an Alternative Equipment Management (AEM) Program, to provide an integrated tool for keeping track of manufacturers’ notices and recalls, for helping assure that hospital processes are defined and adhered to, for improving productivity and for benchmarking a hospital’s own performance over time. All of these tools help to improve patient outcomes while helping to run a cost-effective, efficient operation. Our reporting and dashboard tools provide HTM management with the metrics they need to not only document and show their efficacy, but to help them continuously improve their operations. Finally, our system is easy to use – based on the feedback we have received from our customers.
There are only a few CMMS products that are solely healthcare market focused. And not all of these offer both a client server and cloud-based solution. Some newcomers like to champion their “no legacy” roots, but what they fail to note is they also have no scar tissue, and know little about the hospital environment. We are not the largest player in the hospital market, just the best. We are growing nicely and always put our client’s needs first.
About five years ago, HEMS became available on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Our setup people are experts in working with the client’s IT staff to set up Active Directory in any of its flavors, and for managing mobile users.
The Unique Architecture of HEMS
The architecture behind EQ2’s HEMS CMMS is designed with the focused purpose of meeting our hospital clients’ needs. Our family of products provides flexibility for our clients. One service area such as HTM can get started and others such as Facilities, Support Services, EVS, IT, Supply Chain, etc. can be added later if desired.
Technicians are able to more efficiently and more easily complete work using our mobile app: HEMS Remote. This app downloads all current work orders while connected and then when the technician goes to a location or part of a hospital that lacks connectivity, he/she still accesses all of those same work orders in their entirety and updates just as when connected. Once connected again, those updates are synced to the HEMS CMMS. A wizard-like interface and use of the device’s camera for photo attachments and scanning barcodes truly makes for a complete approach to addressing work orders.
We have established connective services with many healthcare affiliated vendors such as ServiceNow, ECRI, OneSOURCE, PartsSource, Glassbeam and RTLS providers. HEMS interfaces directly with a number of medical testers including Fluke, Datrend and Rigel. We have effected other interfaces with various software providers as needed by our individual hospital clients and will continue to release new interfaces as our users may need. For example, ZingBox enables network scans for threats and devices to be flagged; the data retrieved will then populate IT fields.
Since HEMS has its own platform, we are able to modify the architecture to meet the needs of hospitals as they arise in the future. This assures HEMS will continue to be a robust 21st century solution.
Powerful Data Tools
We have certain reports and dashboards that are specifically designed for helping the HTM team stay in compliance and for documentation required by regulators and for the Environment of Care (EOC) committee meeting. Specifically, our AEM dashboard is lauded by customers for its powerful ability to guide management of the program device by device.
Another product – the HEMS Performance and Benchmarking Analyzer (PBA) – unleashes the power of data in new ways to take the HTM department to the next level. First, our Implementation Team will analyze the current data in a hospital’s existing CMMS to identify potential issues and work with the hospital to standardize and clean it, if necessary. Using best practices means that the data will be consistent and feed dashboards and reports that are accurate and meaningful which leads to good decision making.
As KPIs and trends in our dashboards and reports emerge, opportunities for benchmarking and continuous improvement abound. The department’s strengths and ever-improving performance can also be showcased to upper management.
The Future
EQ2 is the pioneer in “Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise Patient Care Device” (IHE PCD) and is the only CMMS vendor to successfully test the integrations with vendors like GE, Philips, Baxter, Smiths Medical, etc. at the IHE Connectathon. Now, EQ2 is in a position to utilize volumes of data from these smart and connected devices while creating an AI system that will analyze this data to help provide better equipment replacement planning. It will have real device utilization pattern reports and error reports. HEMS will also be able to provide suggestions on which model is safe, reliable and has the lowest total cost of ownership.
Another example of AI (and machine learning) is our new interface with Glassbeam. Potential issues with devices are identified before a failure or other concern occurs. Other ways that CMMS can learn from the constant flow of data coming in for predictive maintenance is by analyzing new kinds of data that testers and devices will be providing in the future.
Choosing a CMMS
Our clients include small specialty clinics, large hospitals as well as multi-hospital institutions. This, combined with over 25 years of best practice design and development, assures our customers achieve quality improvement and a quantifiable return on the investment they made in selecting and using the HEMS software. With HEMS you have the opportunity to choose a proven hospital product on the leading edge of technology, developed and supported by experienced professionals.
For more information, visit eq2llc.com.
