At 8.15 on a Monday morning, the general practitioner (GP) in Room 3 switches on the examination light and nothing happens. The hand basin beside it is slow to drain, and the split system is blowing warm air into a room with no window. The first patient is due at 8.30. The practice manager moves the GP into the treatment room, pushes the nurse’s dressings clinic back an hour, and sends a text to the electrician the clinic used last year. By lunchtime nobody knows whether anyone is coming.
In a clinic, a room that cannot be used is a list of appointments that has to move somewhere else. One closed consult room means a doctor sharing space, patients waiting longer and reception rebooking. Across a group of clinics, the same morning can bring a dead light in one suburb, a blocked toilet in the accessible bathroom of another and an automatic door stuck open in a third, each one sitting in a different inbox.
OpsChase puts every clinic room fault on one board: staff raise the job with a photo, the job goes to your own team or your contractors and is followed up until the work is done, and practice operations sees which rooms are still closed before the afternoon session starts.
From the consult room to a work order
Whoever finds the fault raises a work order from their phone against the clinic and the room: examination light out in Room 3, hand basin blocked, air conditioning blowing warm. They add a photo and a short note, and mark whether the room is closed to patients or can stay in use until the repair.
Faults that reception hears about from patients, such as a toilet that will not flush or a waiting room door that sticks, get raised the same way, so the complaint becomes a job with a clinic, a room, a trade and a time on it.
OpsChase looks after your clinic rooms, the faults raised in them and the work that fixes them. Appointments and patient records stay in the practice management software you already use.
Your team or contractors, per clinic and per trade
The electrician who knows the switchboard at your older clinic may not cover the new one across town. Set the order of your contractors per clinic and per trade: the firm on your service agreement first.
The faults that close a consult room
- Lights and power. Examination lights, dead power points and tripped circuits go to electrical; portable equipment due for checks goes to test and tag.
- Basins and bathrooms. Blocked hand basins, leaking taps and toilets in the accessible bathroom go to plumbing.
- Air. Rooms that will not cool or heat go to heating and cooling.
- Fridges. Treatment room and medicine fridges that will not hold temperature go to refrigeration.
- Doors and locks. Automatic entry doors, sliding doors and consult room locks go to doors and shutters and locksmith.
- Fittings. Loose privacy curtain tracks, broken blinds and damaged cupboards go to handyman and carpentry; lifting vinyl goes to flooring.
- Cleaning and waste. Spills and cleans after a leak go to cleaning and hygiene; missed bin collections go to waste.
Attend-by times that work around patient sessions
Every job carries an attend-by time that fits the room: within hours for a fridge that will not hold temperature or a door that will not lock; before the afternoon session for a consult room that is closed; within the week for a scuffed wall in the corridor.
Add a note on when the contractor can work: over the lunch break, after the last patient, or before the clinic opens. Late jobs show against your response targets, so practice operations can see which clinics have rooms closed before the next list is booked into them.
Contractor compliance before booking
Keep licence, public liability, induction and site-access details on file for each contractor firm through contractor compliance, so the clinic team can check them before booking. Clinics often have rooms a contractor should only enter when no patient is present, so keep a note on file of which rooms each contractor may work in and when a staff member needs to let them in.
Proof before the room reopens
Set proof templates per job type: before and after photos, a note from the contractor, and a certificate where electrical, gas or fire work needs one. With proof of completion on the work order, the practice manager can see the examination light works and the basin drains before putting the room back into the appointment book.
Rooms with faults that keep coming back
Some faults return every few weeks: the same split system, the same basin, the same automatic door. With Assets & planned maintenance switched on, each air conditioner, fridge and door keeps its own job and service history, and you can run planned maintenance such as filter cleans, fridge servicing and automatic door servicing through scheduling on the same queue as breakdowns. When the Room 3 air conditioner fails again, every visit is on the record, so the call between another repair and a replacement is made on what happened, not on memory.
What practice operations sees on one board
With every clinic on one board:
- Staff raise faults with a photo, the clinic, the room and whether it is closed to patients.
- Your contractors are sorted by clinic and by trade.
- Attend-by times follow closed rooms and fridges first, then everything else.
- Photos, notes and certificates are attached to the work order.
- Practice operations sees every closed room across the group in one view.
For vaccine fridges, after-hours works and planned plant before opening, read medical clinics: plant fixed before first patients. For the wider picture across a group of clinics, read about multi-site maintenance.
Starting with one clinic
Pick the clinic that lost the most room time to faults last month. Import its rooms, the contractor book and the trades each firm covers. Set roles for practice managers, nurses, reception and practice operations. Set proof templates for electrical, plumbing, refrigeration and doors. Raise the next room fault into OpsChase instead of a text to the electrician, then add the next clinic.
Read the medical clinics industry page or book a demo with your clinic list and contractor book. Check pricing when you are ready to put every clinic on one board.
A consult room that closes at 8.15 should have a contractor on the way before the morning list ends, so the afternoon patients are seen in the room they were booked into.