Asset management: A tool that helps maintain aged care homes and its residents

Asset management in aged care facilities is a complex process that requires careful planning, ongoing monitoring, and a commitment to providing the best possible care for elderly residents while adhering to regulatory requirements and financial constraints.

Asset management involves the systematic management of physical assets and infrastructure to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of aged care services. This includes managing a wide range of assets such as buildings,  care equipment, HVAC, vehicles and technology. 

MDFM is one of Australia’s leading aged care asset maintenance and facility management providers. They are experienced with the assets and services common to aged care facilities and the major service providers that support those systems. From air-conditioning to nurse calls, thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs) to lifts, waste contracts to pest control, they have experts to attend to all your  property needs and urgent calls to ensure the smooth functioning of your facility.

Technical services to upskill facilities

No matter how large or small the aged care facility is, asset management can help not just the top level management, but also its ground-level staff, saving them from drowning in countless hours of paperwork.

Goodwin, a large ACT-based not-for-profit aged care provider, originally engaged MDFM’s asset management services to create an Asset Management Plan (AMP) for their one NSW based retirement village to comply with the new AMP regulations, but after positive results the project was extended to do the same for all facilities and villages in the Goodwin portfolio.

MDFM demonstrated how their existing maintenance software MEX could be utilised to not only host the AMP at a single retirement village, but also manage maintenance across all of Goodwin’s facilities. Apart from providing an accurate asset register and customising the platform to suit the needs of the facilities, MDFM were also successful in training the relevant staff members in navigating MEX through a series of on-site demonstrations and video-link training sessions.

“MDFM showed understanding and compassion for the investment we had already made in MEX, and helped us leverage this platform so we can use it to make decisions and remain compliant,” says Erik Boddeus, Executive Manager Retirement Living, Property and Development at Goodwin.

Round the clock staff and resident assistance

Aged care facilities operate around the clock, 24/7, to meet the diverse and often unpredictable needs of residents. Whether it’s in the middle of the night or on a public holiday, staff always need to be available to provide assistance and support. In such environments, if there’s a plumbing problem or the air conditioning breaks down, it can disrupt services and cause inconvenience to everyone at the facility. 

Jess Johnson from MDFM says, “Once an issue is reported at any of the sites that use MDFM’s services, even if it’s in the middle of the night, someone from our team will attend to the issue and get it resolved. All they need to do is give us a call on our emergency number.”

“Where required MDFM also has maintenance staff at our client’s facilities, working on the ground full-time.”

Late last year, Vasey RSL Care engaged MDFM to assist them with managing their aged care facilities and  accommodation villages that house ex-services and veterans. Vasey’s management acknowledged that managing multiple facilities and maintenance contractors in-house was taking a considerable amount of time away from the core roles of the business’ staff, and that this was not a commercially viable solution.

MDFM identified that they would benefit from a complete and accurate asset register to facilitate quality asset management and an upgrade of their Computerised Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) to meet their needs as a large multi-site organisation.

MDFM provided onsite maintenance staff and took on the management of all maintenance contracts and reactive maintenance requests (including 24/7 emergency maintenance support), immediately taking the pressure off Vasey.

They also set up a dedicated hotline for Vasey’s ESA residents to call and log their maintenance issues directly to the MDFM maintenance team, saving time and confusion in the maintenance issue resolution process. 

Tony Wilcox, Commercial Manager, Property and Contracts at Vasey RSL Care says, “Quality, efficiency and resident satisfaction mean everything to us. The fact that we can now spend less energy and resources on fixing and managing assets, means more time [that] we can spend focussing on resident well being. It’s good for our residents and it’s good for business. And we have the data to prove it.”

“As part of our involvement, we have continually assisted all of Vasey RSL’s facilities with accurately maintaining their data which has seen a huge lift in their productivity. With the help of the new CMMS system, there is more transparency and all the information they need is at their fingertips,” adds Jess.

The transition to  an outsourced solution has led to a reduction in accounts overhead costs with the use of a single maintenance invoice per month, coded to each facility, for all maintenance expenditure. Most importantly, it has resulted in improved quality and efficiency in property maintenance. Since all maintenance requests are being received and actioned in a timely fashion with transparent communication, staff and residents can now focus on what matters the most, their community and their care.

For more information please visit https://mdfm.com.au/