In the latest of our weekly articles guiding you through the categories for the 2014 Building Better Healthcare Awards, we are providing an overview of the hugely-popular Estates and Facilities Management class.
Recognising the huge input of estates and facilities teams in ensuring the safe and effective running of health and wellbeing services, the four awards have been chosen to reflect the current marketplace.
The Award for Most Innovative Carbon Reduction Initiative will recognise a product, process or service that has helped to reduce the carbon footprint of the healthcare trust involved. This can include single product deployments or service developments that have had a measurable positive effect on carbon emissions. This can cover areas including, but not restricted to, transport, procurement, energy, building systems, waste disposal, recycling etc. The award deals with initiatives and improvement programmes. Individual carbon reduction products or product ranges should be entered for the Award for Best Product for Sustainability and/or Reducing Energy within the Products class.
The second award is for Best Patient-Facing Estates and Facilities Service. This recognises the contribution of estates and facilities services to developing customer-focused changes to service delivery.
Applicants should be able to demonstrate significant improvements in patient experiences and this should be evidenced through statistical analysis of measures such as the National Inpatient Survey results, Family and Friends Test results, and other measurable outcomes. Entries should be able to evidence exceptional transformational change in service delivery models which have a meaningful impact on a patient’s experience.
Next is the Award for Compliance with CQC Standards . This recognises estates and facilities management services that can evidence awareness of, and compliance with, CQC standards. Applicants should be able to evidence how they audit their standards against the CQC requirements and how they are reported through to board level. Entries should identify how gaps in compliance were identified, what actions were taken, and provide evidence of improvement with the standards. The judges will be looking for examples of improvement against current standards and how estates and facilities play a key role within their organisation in responding to CQC standards.
Finally, is the Award for Most Innovative Cost-Saving Idea . The health service has to save money and become more efficient if it is to survive the current pressures. This award aims to highlight the efforts of estates and facilities professionals in helping to enhance services and improve the efficiency of the healthcare estate.
Entries should have Quality Impact Assessments (QIAs) underpinning them, supported by senior clinical staff to give assurance that service quality or patient experience is not impacted negatively from the cost-saving initiative. The initiatives must have been implemented between 1 January 2013 and 1 June 2014.
Jo Makosinski, editor of Building Better Healthcare and organiser of the awards, said: “The Estates and Facilities Management category is a very important one as it recognises the efforts of EFM professionals in helping, not only to improve the physical estates from which health services are delivered, but also the positive impact this has on the enhancement of medical and care services. They may not be on the frontline healing patients, but estates and facilities professionals have a vital role to play.”
Commenting on the entry process, she added: “When completing the forms, it is vital you explain clearly how the entry meets all the bulletpoints set out in the judging criteria, and that additional information enables the judges to picture the project in its entirety.
“It is important that the entry is completed by a senior member of the team as they are in the best position to describe the benefits and the thinking behind the project. In addition, entries need to be clearly written and succinct; dealing only with the details and impact of the project and how it will demonstrate improvements on what is currently available. This should be supported by genuine comments from patients and clinicians. If these guidelines are followed then the judges will have sufficient information on which to make an informed decision. If any of this information is lacking, then it could mean projects not getting through to the final stages of judging.”
Click here to read more about the awards, or on any of the award heading above to see the judging criteria.
