Furniture, equipment and tooling (FET) costs are the second largest costs after construction costs (ref : Smith Magazine – Jason Walker) : why not pay it the same level of attention ?
To ensure to create modern, efficient infrastructures that meet actual and future needs of clients, healthcare decision-makers do not hesitate to call on teams of experts and professionals to carry out the planning, implementation, monitoring and acceptance phases of the buildings. But what about equipment and furniture?
In Quebec, the task of furniture and equipment planning is often entrusted to the establishment’s internal resources. Although the expertise is there, assigning this responsibility to the required resources may become problematic, since they are already occupied at maximum of their capacity by their service’s normal activities.
The equipment consultant: a guarantee of success for a large-scale project
The furniture and equipment consultant completes the team of professionals to:
- provide a long-term vision of the technology;
- concentrate on the task of planning by leveraging experience and specific tools (standardized lists, recent cost data, inventory management applications) to accelerate the process;
- offer a better standardization;
- avoid design and implementation problems resulting from poor planning;
- ensure of optimal choice of materials depending on clinical use and requirements for infection control.
A structures approach to better identify and meet needs
The use of an equipment consultant is is nonetheless a recognized and widespread practice for healthcare construction projects in other parts of Canada and globally. The FF&E (Furniture, Fixture and Equipment) consultant completes the teams of professionals and provides the expertise required to plan furniture and equipment needs, including specialized medical equipment. He coordinates and executes the following activities:
- inventory of current equipment and assessment of obsolescence;
- assessment of additional needs based on the existing situation and the required/available budget;
- technology watch based on the latest innovations and current best practices;
- codification and standardization of technical requirements (dimensions and clearances, utilities, connections, etc.);
- identification of reusable equipment;
- equipment lists by rooms according to design evolution;
- identification of lots to be supplied;
- tender documents;
- coordination of technical or clinical evaluations and compliance and quality testing;
- analysis of bids and recommendations;
- planning and coordination of commissioning, acceptance or management of deficiencies;
- stocking using a CMMS system;
- budget tracking/accounting.
The traps are known and avoidable
All of these tasks could be performed by internal resources, but they are often ill-equipped to meet the challenges inherent in these activities:
- underestimate the great variety, technological innovations and importance of FET;
- lack of experience (first or only major construction project);
- conflict between needs of the project and normal service workload;
- knowledge limited to one sector: furniture, equipment, medical equipment;
- incomplete or non-existent inventory of current equipment (e.g. furniture);
- lack of inventory and quantity management tools.
Consequences of a bad FET planning can be disastrous: delay in planning, design or activation; needs not fulfilled; design errors; patches after activation; cost overruns; sub-optimal reuse of existing assets.
The expertise is at hand
In the wake of major hospital projects in Quebec in recent years, we have granted a growing consideration to furniture and equipment planning. The expertise has therefore developed and now contributes to the realization of small and large-scale projects. As we can see with the evolution of the New Hospital Center (NHC) project in Quebec City, standardized approaches have proven to be successful. Follow the major developments of this project : NCH – Québec.
