SRHA Launches Homegrown Maintenance Management System

The Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) has developed and implemented its own Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to more effectively manage the maintenance of infrastructure and equipment at hospitals and health centres across the region.

The digital platform, built by staff members Rohan Smith, Toni-Ann Rodney, Ryan Dixon, Saede Nisbeth, O’Nelia Caballero and Jozané Bryan, overhauls traditional maintenance approaches, improving the maintenance, tracking, and servicing of equipment across the parishes of Manchester, Clarendon, and St. Elizabeth.

It is expected to improve efficiency, lower costs, reduce downtime for critical medical equipment, and support better healthcare delivery.

Addressing the official launch of the system at the SRHA offices in Mandeville on Thursday (February 5), State Minister in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Hon. Krystal Lee, hailed the ingenuity of the staff members.

“When I heard about the system, I kept asking, ‘Who’s the provider? Was it outsourced? How much did they pay for it?’ And all I kept hearing is, ‘They did it. They’re the ones that did it’… So, to hear that this very system that we’re celebrating today that we’re launching today, was done right here, built by the team internally at the Southern Regional Health Authority, is exceptional, we have to applaud them for that,” she said.

She noted that implementation of the CMMS “is not simply an upgrading of tools; it is an overhaul of our entire approach to equipment management across the region’s health services. This was a direct result of the Ministry’s Medical Management Equipment Policy that was started some years ago through a service-level agreement with the regional health authorities”.

She informed that the agreement called for preventive maintenance procedures and the strengthening of equipment management.

“Core aspects of this policy include training of technical in-house staff, mandatory user manuals, and maintenance agreements. Embedded within the policy is this CMMS system that we’re launching here today,” she pointed out.

The system was piloted at the Percy Junor Hospital and is being implemented at all SRHA facilities.

Miss Lee said she hopes that the system will be shared with other regional health authorities.

For his part, Chairman-designate, SRHA, Michael Stern, noted that the authority is leading the way in terms of governance setting higher standards for accountability and transparency.

“We’re going to incorporate many of the successes we have had into procedures and policies. Governance, to me, is a big deal. By the next two years, we will be the region in health that will receive awards in governance, because we’re laying the foundation for it today. This is a region that you can use as a benchmark. We have worked hard,” Mr. Stern said.