In an article which first appeared in the September 2012 issue of The Australian Hospital Engineer magazine, Mark Stokoe, acting manager, Infrastructure Support, for Western Australia’s Women & Newborn Health Service and Child & Adolescent Health Service, considers how, in the light of a current decline in its use, a benchmarking tool harnessed by healthcare estates and facilities managers at some 60 Australian hospitals since its original establishment in 1996 might be revitalised, and its relevance extended, including via the launch of a new online version.
He also explains, in some detail, the tool’s key features and benefits to those working within the Australian healthcare estates community.
In 1996 The Institute of Hospital Engineering, Australia (IHEA) formed a working group of experienced hospital facility managers to investigate available benchmarking systems. Due to the lack of viable hospital facility management benchmarking processes, the IHEA applied its industry experience to develop a process that was based on best practice. A database was developed to make comparative analyses of the data and reporting. The AssetMark database facilitates the production of 12 standard reports, and is capable of producing ad hoc reports for any combination of data points. Since 1996 60 different hospitals have undertaken AssetMark, and at least 10 have been back for a second review, with one hospital undertaking the process five times. Currently the fee structure for a full completed review is A$2,500. The database for AssetMark is held in a Microsoft Access program that was put together especially for the purpose of delivering the comparison report.
What is AssetMark?
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