Artic Building Services reveals what the day in the life of an employee is really like…

Artic Building Services, Hard FM Specialists and the main HVAC Contractor at King’s College Hospital (KCH) have developed a strong partnership with the hospital, providing vital maintenance services that allow hospital staff to provide care to patients. Based at Denmark Hill, Tommy Hawley is the Site Manager at KCH responsible for overseeing the team of on-site engineers. He joined Artic as an apprentice ten years ago and has progressed through the ranks due to his leadership and engineering capabilities.

There is never a dull moment onsite and the busy hustle and bustle within the hospital mean that the Artic team are constantly reacting to everyday situations that arise. Their main role is to facilitate the smooth running of all HVAC plant, ensure the hospital is compliant with legislation, and ensure the hospital’s environment is comfortable for patients. The team ensure the equipment runs at optimal efficiency for the hospital’s crucial everyday operational duties through a strict PPM schedule and ad-hoc reactive works as they arise.

How The Team Functions at The Hospital

The Artic team start early and are onsite by 7am. To start the day, the Site Manager runs through the day’s scheduled tasks before holding a meeting to provide an update on the night shift and assign tasks to the team. To get the most out of his team, Tommy assigns tasks to specific engineers based on their skills and knowledge. This also gives Tommy the opportunity to undertake any toolbox talks with the team or convey any critical H&S updates. By 8am, the meeting is wrapped up and the team go to their first jobs.

As usual practice for Artic’s onsite communication, Tommy reports to the KCH Estates team to provide a simple wrap up on the previous day’s events and any upcoming works that may affect hospital business as usual. This is also the perfect opportunity for the estates team to relay any scheduled events that Artic will need to be aware of and potential impact to our planned works.

The skilled engineers spread out across the large hospital and its various outbuildings, making it challenging for Tommy to manage them. To overcome this issue, he frequently communicates with them using the team’s group chat and calls engineers when he needs something done quickly. The team’s exceptional knowledge of KCH and where systems are located helps them to quickly respond to faults around the hospital.

The team’s exceptional knowledge of KCH and where systems are located helps them to quickly respond to faults around the hospital

Regrouping at lunchtime, the team review the morning’s activities and tasks that must be completed in the afternoon. Their willingness to discuss work during their lunch break demonstrates Artic’s work ethic and commitment to KCH.

At the end of each day, the entire team undertake any CAFM updates or relay any serious plant issues to the Site Manager and Contract Manager, leaving their working areas safe and tidy before making their exit from site known to Tommy.

Artic To The Rescue

One busy Friday, during the pandemic the temperature reached 34°. One of the critical Theatre’s air handling unit malfunctioned resulting in the theatre being unavailable to perform procedures. A matter as urgent as this requires immediate, senior attention therefore Tommy accompanied with his support engineers responded to the callout to investigate within minutes. The fault was identified within the hour but more importantly a plan put in place to partially repair using the carefully selected critical site spares that ensured that the theatre could return to working order as soon as possible. Following on from this Tommy and his team worked through the weekend to procure, plan and carry out the full extent of repairs that were required but this time under controlled conditions that didn’t affect theatre programs. The air handling unit and theatre was back in full operation with the theatre procedure program back on track by Monday morning.

The Team’s Work Ethic

You get a real sense of teamwork when you’re around Artic’s engineers, who regularly leverage each other’s knowledge and offer assistance when an extra pair of hands would help speed up the completion of a task.

Working in a hospital demands a high level of discretion from the Artic team, who must conduct maintenance tasks without impacting the daily operations of the hospital. Tommy reminds his team each day that they must respect the privacy of the patients and remain almost invisible when working on-site to ensure that patient comfort and privacy is not compromised. The team are very conscious of their surroundings and ensure that they do not speak to patients or conduct maintenance tasks in wards without gaining approval from the hospital staff first.

Tommy’s Relationship With The Hospital

Tommy regularly communicates with the hospital’s Trust and has developed a strong relationship with them due to his comprehensive understanding of the hospital’s policies and expectations around maintenance and compliance. Knowing KCH’s requirements helps him to accurately communicate with them and direct his team more effectively, ensuring that the right tasks are completed at the right time based on their needs.

Knowing KCH’s requirements helps him to accurately communicate with them and direct his team more effectively, ensuring that the right tasks are completed at the right time based on their needs.

Compliance is at the heart of Tommy’s role as Site Manager at KCH, who manages his team accordingly to ensure the hospital is compliant with all building legislation and HTM regulations. Health and safety compliance and infection control are also key issues at the hospital and must be constantly considered by the Site Manager.

To meet KCH’s expectations, compliance-related issues are prioritised and Tommy ensures that his team follow best practices and never do anything that would compromise compliance within the hospital. The hospital’s Trust receives regular updates from Tommy to confirm that their assets are compliant with the latest legislation and signed off as safe to use.

How Issues Are Prioritised

A large part of Tommy’s role involves prioritising issues that are reported by the hospital staff and his team, ensuring that KCH’s critical assets are repaired with as little downtime as possible. To support this, high priority reactive tasks are triaged in and around the team’s regular PPM schedule to ensure that the reactive response correlates with the needs of the hospital without adversely affecting the PPM schedule. If the team are struggling to meet the needs of the hospital, Tommy can bring in extra Artic engineers to keep all workstreams on track.

Tommy uses Computer Aided Facility Management (CAFM) software every day to plan and prioritise reactive and PPM tasks taking place on-site. The integrated system is used to rank callouts based on their urgency, ranging from Priority 1 to Priority 5. The less urgent the task is, the more time they have to repair it.

Tommy is a highly skilled engineer and an excellent leader who is at the centre of all maintenance activities taking place and the main point of contact for his team and KCH

The CAFM software creates an auditable trail that details the start and finish time of each job, supporting legal and regulatory compliance, and helping Tommy monitor all maintenance activities. The team are also supported by the Building Management System (BMS), which indicates the state of equipment before, during, and after work has been completed, helping them to provide the hospital with accurate updates.

Summary

Through rigorously planned maintenance tasks and responsive ad-hoc activities, the team at KCH goes above and beyond to keep the hospital’s assets running at optimal efficiency and compliant with legislation. Tommy is a highly skilled engineer and an excellent leader who is at the centre of all maintenance activities taking place and the main point of contact for his team and KCH. Overseen by Tommy, the team’s tireless efforts maintain the hospital’s facilities and allow staff to provide life-saving care to patients.

For more information on our maintenance expertise, please contact us.