Reason #3 Reduce Costs

Reason #3: You’ll reduce costs.

Of course, every manager, and not just the COO of your facility, is looking to reduce costs. It’s tempting to think that if you handle all of your projects internally, you’ll be saving your organization money. If you have facilities and project-management staff in-house, you might think that hiring an outside company to help you manage your move or renovation project isn’t necessary and would simply add to your costs. But there’s more involved here than you might think.

Yes, hiring a professional service always costs money. But there are other ways to measure “costs”—including service and facility disruption, not to mention stress levels and employee morale. Here’s a question to ask up front: how many staff members actually could take on the time-consuming and complex task of handling a massive (months-long, up to a year or longer in some cases) project outside of their daily responsibilities? It’s likely the answer to that is no one. Everyone is just too busy trying to stay on top of their day-to-day schedule already.

For the internal person who would be responsible for working with outside vendors for the project—a professional move manager is their new best friend. A professional move manager not only partners with the internal manager to take on all the detailed tasks involved with the physical move but is also there to reduce the stress involved in these projects. The internal project manager has enough on their plate with their overall responsibilities of the project.

I should note that it also makes perfect sense for a hospital that’s simply moving its administrative offices to use move management services. Again, that’s largely because everyone is busy doing their own job already. Moves involving computer equipment, file storage and furniture require just as much organization as moving a hospital unit. Meticulous planning always saves money, and that’s where an expert move manager excels. An external move manager can write a tight scope of work that streamlines activities and results in more competitive pricing from movers and other suppliers.

Also remember, as I mentioned in my previous post, a highly detailed plan saves money because it allows your construction crews to get their work done faster, too. Maximizing construction days benefits your schedule and will directly affect your costs.

That word “planning” brings me to another big reason to hire a move manager. Before an organization/department can move they will need space planning done way in advance so they can confirm that their program will fit within their new space. A move manager will work with an architect, but easily can work with your internal planners, too. Most of that planning is related to your workflow, equipment and supplies, including replacing older equipment and furniture to fit your new space if needed. This effort, referred to as FF&E planning, reduces your costs even more by completing assessments of your furniture and equipment as a first step. By doing an inventory to assess your existing assets, they can determine which items, including furniture and equipment, can be reused. This is critical if you use modular cubicles which require intricate knowledge of their many parts and pieces and how they are configured.

Naturally, hospitals work with a list of preferred vendors, so be sure to work with a move manager that enthusiastically works with your department heads and your vendors to make sure you have everything you need in order and in place once your relocation is complete. An external move manager should be able to acclimate themselves to your internal procurement process and fully understand the do’s and don’ts of your organization along with making sure that they are also staying within your furniture and equipment standards in order to yield the best pricing. At Vargas Associates, we work very closely with your purchasing department and we have a lot of experience with bidding, which has resulted in consistently bringing cost savings to our clients.

I hope you can see why hiring an experienced move manager is one of the smartest things you can do when it’s time to start a new renovation or relocation project in your hospital or other clinical space. Their benefit to you – and everyone in your organization—is reducing costs during the process.

Stay tuned for my next post, when I’ll write about how a move manager helps your clinical unit stay organized during your project. Thanks again for reading, and I hope you’ll come back here again soon for reason #4 to hire a move manager. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to get in touch with us.