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External Facilities Management Companies:
Profile – Drake & Scull
A
s South Africa’s foremost facilities management company,
Drake & Scull is proud of being
trusted by its clients to manage their
facilities across a range of sectors. One
such sector is healthcare, and one
such facility is the Inkosi Albert Luthuli
Hospital (IALCH), the largest referral
hospital in South Africa. The Drake &
Scull facilities management team, and
its partners, has been managing the
facilities for some 15 years. The 846bed state-of-the-art hospital is run as
a public-private partnership (PPP) with
Impilo Consortium. The consortium, a
black empowered enterprise, is made
up of Siemens Medical Solutions (SMS),
which supplies medical equipment to
the hospital, Drake & Scull, Vulindlela
Holdings, Mbekani Health and Wellbeing, Oname Investments and the Austrian information technology company
AME. The government wanted a public
sector hospital that matched the best
that the private sector could provide.
This goal has been accomplished.
The fact that IALCH has achieved, if
the backdrop of dismal scenarios and
negative publicity of other facilities,
Albert Luthuli has proved its exception
with its resoundingly successful audit. It
is truly a flagship hospital, receiving visitors from Europe and the United States
to experience first-hand the expertise
that abounds in this facility. From an FM
perspective, Drake & Scull has to ensure
ing services, procurement and stores
management. The scope also includes
management of a crèche, a 465-bed
residential village and retail outlets. The
company also manages all soft facilities management including security,
not exceeded, its mandate speaks
volumes for all involved in the operation of the hospital. The Department
of Health has national core standards
against which all public sector hospitals are audited every year. Against
that the demanding standards are
met. The Drake & Scull team, together
with its subsidiary Umongi Facilities Services are responsible for all FM services.
The scope of services includes building maintenance, specialist engineer-
catering, cleaning, patient transfers
to wards, landscaping, parking and
waste management,
There are several aspects to the
on-going success of the FM in the hospital. Central to the operations is a 24
External Facilities Management Companies:
Profile – Drake & Scull
there was an issue.
The standard of healthcare care that
hour, 365 days a year central help­desk.
All requests are logged at this centre
meaning that the management team
has line of sight in one place for all the
operational issues. A second factor in
ensuring success is the tracking and
analysis of all key data. Technology is
used to monitor performance in real-time
against service level agreements. The
use of metrics and data has absolutely
been key in managing the hospital at the
required standard. The third key factor is
a continuous hands-on “walk the floor”
identification process by the team and
the immediate reporting of problem
issues. More than 60-70% of maintenance
problems are reported and sorted out by
the quality control team so quickly that
the client is not often even aware that
patients receive is paramount. The
patients’ experience of every aspect of
the hospital must be positive. Everything
Drake & Scull does at IALCH revolves
around meeting the priorities of the
hospital’s healthcare targets. This is all part
of the Drake & Scull ethos. The company
does not view themselves merely as facility
managers, but instead as an integral part
of the healthcare cycle of the hospital.
Over 15 years on ongoing operations
Drake & Scull are proud of helping IALCH
achieve its goal of being the best public
sector referral hospital in South Africa.
website: www.dake-scull.co.za