Overview
Eclipse-fm® 2009 Release Details - Highlights
For full details please see our Release Notice on the Eclipse-fm® website. You may also click on any of the underlined headings below for topic specific detail.
There have been major changes to legislation connected with Corporate Manslaughter and Health & Safety over the past 12 months. In particular, these changes place greater emphasis on the benefits of being able to produce a clear and accurate audit trail of service/ maintenance work carried out on critical systems or equipment.
Eclipse-fm® 2009 introduces many new features that enhance the ability of Estates and Facilities staff to satisfy the requirements of regulatory bodies who may request such information.
In addition, the Purchase Order module now operates via a single tabbed screen thereby reducing the time needed to create and process an order.
User Access Profiling
The increase in the number of trusts operating across more than one site means that management and staff will often need their access to data tailored to their specific site, specialism, management unit, etc.
The user login profile now optionally allows defining access to data matching only such customised access requirements.
Asset Management
There have been a number of changes within Asset Management. The majority have been developed to take into account the specialist needs of EBME/Medical Devices support whilst others provide enhanced functionality for all involved in Asset Management.
The existing Task centred approach to FM has been augmented by providing more specific asset details where appropriate to a task, and provision for marking and acting on Assets that have missed PPM deadlines.
Missing Asset Recording
Badly maintained assets can be both a liability and a danger. It is now possible to mark an Asset as "Missing", being currently not locatable or having missed two routine maintenance procedures and consequently best not to be in use. By identifying such "Missing" assets it is possible to initiate warning notices that the asset should not be used before maintenance has been performed, formal searches for the asset, etc.
A Safety Action Bulletin Alerting system has been added, a particular requirement for EBME asset management, but also applicable to other types of Assets.
Specialist Maintenance Definitions
The Asset module is enhanced to allow for the management of equipment types not traditionally associated with the estates function, such as EBME equipment, IT equipment, Vehicles.
These classifications are not pre-defined, but determined by you as users to your own needs.
PAT Test Recording is now available where appropriate to the Asset type.
Enhanced recording of Loan Items - the Asset Library
The Loan Item facility has been enhanced to make the recording of "loaned" Assets easier. The resulting comprehensive listing of where assets may be found if not in the "expected" location is a key requirement for EBME management
Purchase Orders
The whole process for any one order can now be viewed from the one place, or by remaining on one of the tabs, several orders can be processed in sequence.
Job Tickets and Contractor details may now be linked to Purchase orders.
Multiple Budget and Cost Centres can be allocated to a Purchase order, on a line by line basis.
Purchase Order management is of necessity a fairly complex process, and one that needs both a method of controlled progression, and a record of that progression. The new Eclipse-fm® Purchase Orders System meets both of these needs, while the new "All in one place" approach makes progressing orders from stage to stage very easy and hard to get wrong.
Purchase Orders - a Beta Test Opinion
Mike Thew from Ealing Primary Care Trust was our first Beta tester for the new Purchase Orders System. We asked him how different it was:-
Chalk and Cheese.
This is how I found the new Eclipse Financial Order System, having extensively used the old system using the various pull down menus.
It was a breath of fresh air using the new module, with only two screens now available from the pull down menu, the first covering the whole order process and the second for re-allocation of the account codes on a processed order.
The main screen displays the main order information - names addresses, order status, costs etc. At this point all previous orders are available for interrogation from pull down tabs with filtered searches and all pull downs are capable of sorting and search using the search routines. Separate tabs are available for the input of invoices, credits notes, levels of authorisation and order history.
Compared to Eclipse-fm® version 3.1, the raising of requisitions and orders is easily completed from the on screen displays, including linking to Asset Headers and Activity Codes.
Having Beta tested the module over two a two day period the amount of queries that I had was negligible with only minor tweaks required. Getting to grips with the software was easily achieved, the hard part was getting used to the (much easier!) one screen approach.
The reports, although accessed from the original tabs, are much improved with full order details being displayed alongside the financial information.
In passing, other modules would benefit with the concept of a single access screen, as this shows a marked improvement compared with the overall operation of the software.
Overall I was pleasantly surprised at the improvement and overall speed improvements over version 3.1. The raising of requisitions and orders from inception to completion is much simpler to understand and carry out.
All Requisitions and Purchase Orders information is now gathered together into one place, streamlining the creation and processing of Purchase Orders. Filtered access allows you to concentrate on Requisitions only, or Orders only, or Approved Orders only, etc.
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Not just an abstract record of the minimum necessary records, and more than ever in the new version, Eclipse-fm® once fully set up will play a big roll in actually managing your facilities operation. This is because Eclipse-fm® is not just a passive record of what has been done, it allows cooperative working between all the personnel involved in delivering FM services.
Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the new Purchase Ordering system. "Buying" in any big organisation has to be more than just picking up the phone and ordering more widgets. Someone needs to check that the widgets really are needed, are not already in stock but overlooked, are not gold plated, won’t break the budget, etc, etc. And that there are no places where orders can "disappear without trace"!
The new PO system looks after all this, from setting and managing budgets, to making it easy for "practical" staff to create requisitions of what is needed, which will pass to the purchasing staff to approve and order, and then back to the warehouse staff to handle the incoming delivery. All done electronically, without papers to lose or forget!
All this was present in the previous version, but in a very disjointed fashion, deriving from pre-windows ways of working. Now, it’s all in one place, and with the additional features of login determined access to data, and the authorisation system, its both easy to use and "bullet proof" from an audit point of view.
There are many other aspects of Eclipse-fm® where you will find this kind of active procedural help is in place.
Eclipse-fm® - not just a bureaucratic imposition, an active and well trained assistant FM Manager!
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Eclipse-fm® and Health and Safety 2008
New legislation, the Health and Safety Offences Act 2008, which will increase penalties and provide courts with greater sentencing powers for those who flout health and safety legislation has been welcomed by DWP Ministers.
The Act raises the maximum penalties that can be imposed for breaching health and safety regulations in the lower courts from £5,000 to £20,000 and the range of offences for which an individual can be imprisoned has also been broadened.
"It is generally accepted that the level of fines for some health and safety offences is too low. These changes will ensure that sentences can now be more easily set at a level to deter businesses that do not take their health and safety management responsibilities seriously and further encourage employers and others to comply with the law.
"Furthermore, by extending the £20,000 maximum fine to the lower courts and making imprisonment an option, more cases will be resolved in the lower courts and justice will be faster, less costly and more efficient.
"Jail sentences for particularly blameworthy health and safety offences committed by individuals, can now be imposed reflecting the severity of such crimes, whereas there were more limited options in the past".
OK, so what has this got to do with Eclipse-fm®?
Simply, FM in the NHS is a critical function, not just to the Health and Safety of employees, though that is a serious enough consideration, but also to our patients who may be treated with complex, and if not properly maintained, life threatening equipment! In a climate of heightened health and safety awareness, and increasing legislative vigilance as illustrated by the above, it becomes ever more vital that asset management is both done properly, but can be proven to have been done properly.
- Has it been maintained according to the maintenance schedule
- Has it been maintained by the appropriately qualified staff?
- Is it within its operational life xpan?
- Have we had any problems with this kind of equipment
- Has anyone else had problems - notified via the Critical notices system?
Used to its full, we believe that Eclipse-fm® will build a comprehensive record of correct FM practice, one that will not only protect you and your staff from any Health and Safety issues arising from asset maintenance, but might even reduce your insurance premiums in this area.
As well as ensuring that your assets are always well maintained, and a credit to your staff’s efforts, and most importantly, maximising patient safety.
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