How Leading Healthcare Institutions Are Monitoring Critical Spaces with Fault Detection and Diagnostics

November 15, 2024

In an era where healthcare facilities face mounting pressure to maintain strict environmental controls while optimizing operational efficiency, two industry leaders have pioneered innovative approaches using fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) technology. Their successes offer a blueprint for healthcare facilities worldwide.

The insights shared at the 2024 Clockworks Client Summit highlighted how innovative healthcare organizations are leveraging advanced analytics to transform their operations. During a focused breakout session on compliance in critical spaces, facility leaders from two of the nation’s most respected health systems shared their journeys and success stories with fellow industry professionals.

Transforming Pharmacy Compliance Monitoring

At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where pharmacies serve 700 patients daily with 2,000 drug preparations, Director of Operations James Store faced a critical challenge: manually monitoring 500,000 data points across multiple pharmacies while ensuring strict USP compliance for patient safety.

“When you’re generating $10-12 million daily in infusions, you can’t afford environmental control failures,” Store explains. The implementation of Clockworks’ FDD platform transformed their operation:

Replaced 36 daily Excel reports with real-time compliance dashboards

Eliminated 15 days of manual data analysis per month

Provided instant root cause analysis for environmental excursions

Enabled proactive maintenance through predictive fault detection

Central to this transformation is Clockworks Analytics’ Pharmacy Compliance Dashboard, specifically designed to meet USP 795/797/800 standards for critical compounding spaces. The dashboard provides comprehensive monitoring of temperature, relative humidity, pressurization, and air change requirements—essential parameters for maintaining safe pharmaceutical operations.

Store’s team particularly values the system’s ability to identify equipment faults proactively, allowing them to address potential issues before they impact operations. The platform’s customizable views and direct access for pharmacy staff have dramatically improved cross-departmental visibility while showcasing the facilities team’s crucial role in maintaining patient safety.

“The fault detection capabilities save our staff tremendous troubleshooting time,” Store notes. “Instead of guessing why a room is too humid, the system identifies specific valve or equipment issues immediately.”

Revolutionizing OR Environmental Control

A leading national healthcare provider tackled similar challenges across their operating rooms. Their A leading healthcare organization with 44 markets nationwide transformed their operating room environmental monitoring from a labor-intensive manual process to an automated, intelligent system using Clockworks Analytics. This case study examines their implementation journey, challenges overcome, and the resulting operational improvements.

Challenge

The organization faced several critical challenges in monitoring their operating room environments. Staff members were required to manually pull reports at 5 AM daily, regardless of holidays or vacations, creating an unsustainable burden on personnel. The complexity was compounded by multiple Building Management Systems (BMS) across different facilities, leading to inconsistent data trending and point naming conventions. The organization lacked a standardized way to monitor critical space compliance, while infection prevention and control teams had limited visibility into environmental conditions. Additionally, the troubleshooting process for environmental issues was time-consuming and often required extensive investigation to identify root causes.

Solution

The organization implemented Clockworks Analytics’ monitoring platform with two key focus areas:

The solution integrates data from multiple BMS systems into a single, comprehensive dashboard with continuous data trending capabilities. The platform features single sign-on access for staff and cross-filterable diagnostics for detailed analysis. The system provides near real-time monitoring with data refreshing every 1-1.5 hours, ensuring timely insights into environmental conditions.
The implementation includes custom dashboards designed specifically for infection prevention and control teams, providing them with direct access to root cause analysis tools. The system integrates seamlessly with existing real-time alarm systems and supports comprehensive compliance monitoring and reporting. The platform’s flexible configuration options accommodate different space types, allowing for customized monitoring of various critical areas.

Results

The implementation has delivered significant improvements across several key areas:

1. Operational Efficiency

The new system has eliminated the burdensome requirement for daily 5 AM manual reporting. Troubleshooting time has been substantially reduced through advanced root cause analysis capabilities. The platform enables proactive issue identification, allowing staff to address potential problems before they impact operations. Infection prevention teams now have streamlined access to critical environmental data, improving their ability to monitor and maintain safe conditions.

2. Compliance Management

Environmental monitoring has become more comprehensive and reliable, with improved documentation to support regulatory requirements. The system provides enhanced visibility into system performance and supports the ASHRAE 43 risk-based management approach, allowing for more flexible and efficient operations while maintaining strict compliance standards.

3. Staff Empowerment

Operating room staff now have read-only access to environmental monitoring data, enabling them to quickly verify conditions in their spaces. Facility operations can respond more rapidly to environmental adjustment requests, and the system has reduced dependency on specialized technical staff for basic adjustments. This has led to improved cross-departmental collaboration and more efficient resource utilization.

“What started as an energy initiative evolved into a comprehensive facilities management transformation,” explains their Senior Energy Manager. “The more layers of value we could add, the more engagement we saw from our engineering teams.” more layers of value we could add, the more engagement we saw from our engineering teams.”

Future-Proofing Healthcare Facilities

Both institutions are expanding their FDD implementations. MD Anderson plans to add 11 more pharmacies to their monitoring system, while Kaiser Permanente is scaling from 3 to 44 markets. Their successes demonstrate how advanced fault detection technology can:

Ensure regulatory compliance

Protect patient safety

Optimize staff efficiency

Reduce operational costs

Support risk-based management aligned with ASHRAE 43 guidelines

For healthcare facilities looking to modernize their critical space monitoring, these implementations provide a clear roadmap to operational excellence through data-driven facility management.

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