OREANDA-NEWS. June 09, 2015. Healthcare systems’ operational costs continue to spiral out of control, increasing in all aspects of the organization. With a rapidly changing industry environment and evolving patient populations, GE Healthcare, a division of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), is showcasing a suite of new and enhanced offerings at the 2015 AAMI Annual Conference and Expo to help address these challenges.

The current healthcare environment shows that on average, 58% of a hospital’s assets are idle.(1) Every hour of unplanned downtime creates lost revenues and an inefficient workforce and can lead to tremendous waste and unnecessary spending. By using data and analytics, optimizing assets, and enabling a more productive workforce, GE Healthcare’s technologies and solutions are designed to help address healthcare providers’ operational and productivity challenges.

“The healthcare industry is evolving faster than we have ever seen.  Between consolidation, reimbursement challenges, staff shortages, and consumerism, providers are completely rethinking business models.” said Rob Reilly, VP & GM of U.S. and Canada Services at GE Healthcare. “The solutions that we’re showcasing at this year’s AAMI conference highlight how GE Healthcare is pivoting our innovation toward the productivity answers providers will need to succeed. Our goal is to help customers drive sustainability leveraging data and analytics, asset optimization techniques, and support services.” 

Pursuing no unplanned downtime: Using data & analytics to help facilitate better workflow

In 2015, GE Healthcare is introducing a new computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) for U.S. healthcare clients. The solution, AssetPlus, is designed to help hospitals better manage and prioritize equipment use and maintenance activities. AssetPlus brings an important innovation in healthcare operations management as it is an all-in-one solution helping to empower hospitals to achieve their financial goals as well as deliver high-quality patient care. It is designed to allow them to better manage the equipment lifecycle and help improve staff efficiency by eliminating tedious manual tasks for biomeds, finance, IT and nursing. 

Regardless of their location within the hospital network, hospital staff can leverage the AssetPlus intuitive interface to establish comprehensive maintenance reporting and tracking. AssetPlus provides instant access to inventory data for every asset, preventive and corrective maintenance history from all departments, and spare part inventory. With easy to use statistical reports and dashboards, teams can easily inventory stocks, prioritize maintenance, purchases, compliance and more importantly, help to balance workloads, allowing hospital staff to focus on productive work. When augmented by the GE AgileTrac real-time location system, AssetPlus frees nurses from searching for equipment and allows them more time for patient care.

Seamless connectivity: GE Healthcare Mobility Solutions

Hospital caregivers are often on the move and juggling many tasks, often spending only about 30% of their time in a patient’s room.(2) GE Healthcare’s mobility solution in collaboration with Ascom and AirStrip® brings selected information from monitors at the bedside to the caregiver, delivering data to secure smart phones.  From anywhere in the hospital, they have access to near real-time patient data including secondary notification of alarms, events and changes occurring on the primary bedside monitors. Communication is also enhanced via secure texting, voice or nurse call pillow integration. GE Healthcare’s mobility solution increases efficiency and continuity by reducing time spent in transit, such as extra trips for status checks, and improves overall care coordination.

GE Healthcare announces new capabilities for surgical instrument and endoscope repairs

GE Healthcare announces advanced capabilities for the repair of surgical equipment, instruments, and endoscopes.  Our goal is implementing an innovative approach to the repair management industry. This comprehensive service solution is designed to be one contract, one point of contact and one solution for all medical equipment service needs. GE Healthcare can now support both biomed and surgical equipment needs. These new repair service offerings include Rigid and Flexible Endoscopes, Camera and Couplers, Power Equipment, and Surgical Instrumentation (including on-location instrument repair).

Virtual interactivity: The Multiple Re-Configurable Training System enables hands-on education

Later this year, GE Healthcare will launch the Multiple Re-Configurable Training System (MRTS)* which is designed to serve as a virtual, immersive, training environment in which students perform hands-on training scenarios integrated into formal course instruction. The MRTS is based on touch-screen technology which allows for practicing planned maintenance tasks without impacting equipment availability. Training has already begun with GE Field Service Engineers.