At 2.10 on a Tuesday morning, the air handling unit serving a day-surgery wing tripped. The after-hours engineer paged the mechanical contractor, wrote it on the handover sheet and went back to a lift fault in the ward block. By the 7am shift change, the morning team could not tell whether the contractor had confirmed, whether anyone had attended, or whether the unit would be running before the first theatre list.
Hospital estates teams carry more than most facilities desks. A single campus can hold ward blocks, theatres, kitchens, plant rooms, car parks and admin buildings, and a health service may run several campuses plus smaller sites across a region. Each one has its own contractor book, its own access rules and its own after-hours cover. The fault is usually clear. Knowing who confirmed, who attended and what was left on site is where the night goes.
OpsChase gives every campus one queue: your regular mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire contractors are offered the job first, every attendance is followed up until photos and sign-off, and morning engineering sees every open job without rebuilding the night from radio calls and a handover sheet.
From a fault to a work order
The estates coordinator, after-hours engineer or plant room technician raises a work order against the campus, the building and the item: an air handling unit on level 3, a bed lift in the east wing, a leaking ceiling over a corridor, an automatic door at the emergency entrance that will not close. Add a photo and a short note on what is at stake: a theatre list at 8am, bed bays without cooling, or a main entrance that cannot be secured.
Put the access note on the job too: the plant room key or badge, whether the contractor needs an escort, restricted areas, the quiet hours for a ward, and any infection-control flag the site uses. A contractor who arrives at the wrong entrance without a badge loses an hour, and so does the coordinator who has to walk them in.
Your contractors per campus and per trade
The firm that covers the metro campus may not cover the regional hospital two hours away. Set the order of your contractors per campus and per trade, with the overnight cover listed separately where it differs: the mechanical firm on the metro service agreement first and its after-hours technician for night faults.
The jobs that fill an estates week
- Air and controls. Air handling units, chillers, fan coil units and ward cooling go to heating and cooling; alarms and setpoints on the building management system go to building management and controls.
- Power and standby. Lighting, outlets and switchboard faults go to electrical; standby generators and their load tests go to generators.
- Water. Leaks, blocked drains and warm water faults go to plumbing; cooling tower and water system treatment goes to water treatment; testable backflow devices go to backflow.
- Fire and egress. Detection faults, sprinkler issues and fire doors that do not latch go to fire protection.
- Lifts and doors. Bed lifts and passenger lifts go to lifts; automatic entrance doors and roller shutters on loading docks go to doors and shutters.
- Access and security. Card readers, door controllers and security camera (CCTV) faults go to security.
- Kitchens and stores. Cool rooms and freezers in the main kitchen go to refrigeration; pest sightings in kitchens and stores go to pest control.
- Older wings. Suspected asbestos before anyone drills or lifts a ceiling tile goes to asbestos.
Attend-by times that match the risk
Every job carries an attend-by time that fits what is at stake: within the hour for cooling to a theatre or a lift that is the only route to a ward, within the shift for a leaking ceiling over a corridor, within the week for a sticking door in an admin building. Late jobs show against your response targets, so engineering can see which campus is still waiting and why.
Work near patients
Work in or above clinical areas often needs more than a time and a key. Record the infection-control flag, dust and noise limits, and who on the ward has to be told before the contractor starts, as notes on the job. Ask for the contractor’s safe work method statement for high-risk work and attach it to the work order, so the person who signs the job off can see what was agreed before anyone went above the ceiling.
Contractor compliance before booking
Keep licence, public liability, induction and site-access details on file for each contractor through contractor compliance, so the estates team can check them before booking. A contractor who has not done the campus induction should not be the one sent to a plant room at 2am.
Proof engineering can read
Set proof templates per job type: before and after photos, the service report, test results and any certificate the work needs. Proof of completion lives on the work order, so the morning handover is built from what the contractor actually did, not from a line on a sheet that says “contractor called”.
Planned maintenance across every campus
Generator load tests, fire system servicing, warm water system checks, filter changes on air handling units and lift servicing repeat on a schedule at every campus. With Assets & planned maintenance switched on, run planned maintenance through scheduling on the same queue as breakdowns, and each generator, air handling unit and lift keeps its own job and service history. When the engineering manager asks when the north campus generator was last load tested, the answer is on the asset.
What estates sees on one queue
With every campus on one queue:
- Coordinators and after-hours engineers raise jobs with photos, access notes and infection-control flags.
- Your contractors stay in calling order per campus and per trade, with overnight cover set.
- Attend-by times follow the risk, not whoever answered the radio.
- Reports, test results and photos are attached to the work order.
- Regional engineering sees every open job across every campus in one view.
OpsChase is not a clinical or patient system. Clinical records, patient systems and bed management stay where they are; OpsChase is the contractor follow-up and proof behind each estates job. If today’s process runs on a single-company dispatch tool, see how that compares with legacy field service software. For smaller sites, see medical clinics and aged care.
Starting with one campus
Pick the campus with the most after-hours faults, usually the largest. Import its buildings and plant rooms, the contractor book and the trades each firm covers. Set roles for estates coordinators, after-hours engineers and engineering managers. Set proof templates for mechanical, electrical and fire jobs. Raise the next fault into OpsChase instead of the handover sheet, then add the next campus.
Read the hospitals industry page or book a demo with your campus list and contractor book. Check pricing when you are ready to put every campus on one flow.
A fault at 2am should not still be a question at the 7am handover. Put every campus on one queue, get the regular contractor through the right door, and start the morning shift knowing what was fixed and what is still open.