Abstract
The optimization of maintenance in healthcare buildings reduces operating costs and contributes towards increasing the sustainability of the healthcare system. This paper proposes a tool to schedule preventive maintenance for healthcare centers using Markov chains. To this end, the authors analyzed 25 healthcare centers belonging to the three Healthcare Districts of Spain and built between 1985 and 2005. Markov chains proved useful in choosing the most suitable maintenance policies for each healthcare building without exceeding a specific degradation boundary, which enabled achieving an ideal maintenance frequency and reduced the use of resources. Markov chains have also proven useful in optimizing the periodicity of routine maintenance tasks, ensuring a suitable level of maintenance according to the frequency of the failures and reducing the cost and carbon footprint. The healthcare centers observed during the study managed to save more than 700 km of journeys, reduce emissions in its operations as a whole by 174.3 kg of CO2 per month and increase the overall efficiency of maintenance operations by 15%. This approach, therefore, renders it advisable to plan the maintenance of healthcare buildings.
Highlights
Maintenance is one of the most critical activities in healthcare buildings since the safety of users and workers depends on its proper management [1]
Markov chains have been useful in biomedical research in both animal and human experimentation, including but not limited to, blood pressure, the state of the patient during an illness and safety culture of health organizations [9], but have not been applied to the maintenance of healthcare buildings
As the healthcare buildings studied here are isolated centers located in large urban centers, specialists should carry out routine patrol maintenance every certain period of time
Summary
Maintenance is one of the most critical activities in healthcare buildings since the safety of users and workers depends on its proper management [1]. It entails considerable operating costs, mainly due to the high intensity of use of their facilities [2] and limits the productivity of an organization [3]. Markov chains have been useful in biomedical research in both animal and human experimentation, including but not limited to, blood pressure, the state of the patient during an illness and safety culture of health organizations [9], but have not been applied to the maintenance of healthcare buildings
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