Family Health La Clinica
Limble helps a mission-driven healthcare organization maintain its mobile and brick-and-mortar clinics, improving cost and time efficiency by more than 50%.
Introduction
Family Health La Clinica is a Community Health Center operating six locations and a fleet of mobile clinics across central Wisconsin. They started in the 1960s to serve the area’s growing population of migrant farmworkers. Local healthcare professionals and church leaders collaborated to begin providing healthcare services in local church halls. Before long, they purchased their first mobile health unit, were designated a Community Health Center, and opened their first physical, year-round location.
The farms where these migrants worked provided food, housing, and wages, but La Clinica stepped in to provide healthcare services that the community lacked access to. Over the years, the organization continued to evolve. It now offers behavioral healthcare, substance abuse treatment, and dental care, and provides outreach to local schools and Amish communities.
The Challenge
Over the past decade, the organization has grown into a community institution. As a result, the facilities and equipment that have enabled their unique approach to care delivery began requiring a more structured and organized approach to maintenance.
“We had that old tap on the shoulder, sticky note, random email or phone call saying ‘hey we need this or that’ method.”
Michael Bicanic, Facility Manager for Family Health La Clinica
This method was particularly difficult given the geographic area the maintenance team needed to cover, with one location being a two hour drive from their headquarters. Frequently, the team would arrive at a location to fix one thing and find several others that needed attention. The lack of a standardized method for communicating work requests made planning and preparing for maintenance work nearly impossible. This reactive approach resulted in interruptions to work and extra trips to local hardware stores for parts — costing time and money they had no way of tracking.
“We would arrive there without the appropriate tools and without the appropriate parts. It would take what was already a full day of work and turn it into a multi-day project.”
Michael Bicanic, Facility Manager for Family Health La Clinica
In addition to operational frustrations and inefficiencies, there was no way to access data that could help them improve. With no record of what was fixed, how it was done, or the cost of repair, knowing where to start felt nearly impossible.
The Solution
Michael Bicanic, Facility Manager for Family Health La Clinica, had used technology to manage maintenance work in previous roles but those systems were primitive and built internally. He knew better solutions were out there.
One of his first responsibilities was to bring in technology that was user-friendly for anyone in the organization to use. He began looking for a modern CMMS and identified four leading contenders. He did thorough research on each, carefully evaluating the key features he needed:
- Easy-to-use work request portal that didn’t require a login or account
- Intuitive user interface
- Customizable fields and workflows
- Real-time reporting and the ability to share data on KPIs
Limble offered customizable work request portals that could be used by anyone, whether they had a Limble login or not. And the flexibility of the system allowed the maintenance team to gather all the information they needed to provide effective responses.
“Limble had that good combination of being established as well as innovative and user friendly. In order to adopt a program, it needs to be not only effective, but it needs to be friendly enough where everyone can hop on it and be able to pick it up very quickly.”
Michael Bicanic, Facility Manager at Family Health La Clinica
Implementation went well and because it was so easy to use, getting accustomed to the basic functions didn’t take long. The team at Limble did their due diligence to make sure Michael and his team had everything they needed to get started. With regular check-ins and responsive support, it took only three weeks to get fully up and running.
The Result
The team is seeing huge savings and efficiencies after moving to Limble, and it only took 30 days to start making an impact. Michael estimates that his team has earned back 50-60% in time and budget savings by organizing their work in Limble. And the rest of the staff at La Clinica have gained trust in the system too. They now have an easy-to-use mechanism to submit requests they know will be resolved quickly.
After experiencing the frustrations of unexpected issues and poor communication, the morale within the maintenance team has dramatically improved. They now have the ability to effectively manage their work and better serve their organization and community. They also have the data to prove it.
The impact is personal as well. Michael is now enjoying the ability to work and stay informed on the go — sometimes even from home — allowing more flexibility. When he goes on vacation, his team is better equipped to manage the workload without him, and he knows exactly what will be waiting for him when he returns to work.
Family Health La Clinica fills a critical gap in its community. Limble has now done the same for its maintenance team. As Michael says, “It gives you all the information you could ever want. It is facilities, it is utilities, it is fleet – it is the whole nine yards.”