Fast tracking the use of remote servicing in Latin America during the pandemic

Across Latin America, field service engineers face a range of challenges when they respond to a hospital maintenance request: it costs a lot of money to reach some sites as some hospitals are located hundreds of miles away from a field services engineer. Furthermore, not all hospitals have systems which are connected, allowing data from a modality to feed directly to a remote engineer, who can quickly diagnose a system failure. Even with connected systems the benefits of remote monitoring services are not always clear. Why is it better to have a problem solved remotely, when an engineer can turn up and fix it in person?

In the middle of a pandemic, the need for the shift to remote monitoring was abundantly clear.

Felipe Gonzalez Berthelon, Remote Service Manager for Latin America explains:

“While remote monitoring has high adoption rates in other parts of the world, we needed to convince our hospitals that there is a faster way of making sure they are supported with zero downtime. If we could connect their systems, we would have the chance to monitor those systems and predict and prevent failures. Latin American countries including Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile quickly innovated during the pandemic to provide remote services to hospitals using digital tools such as the video conferencing platform, Zoom, and the virtual reality platform, Reacts. These technologies were used to deliver customer training and to diagnose MRI problems remotely. As equipment issues emerged, hospital biomeds turned to remote support to get systems back up and running.” Felipe Gonzalez Berthelon continues: “In early 2020, remote resolution made up 26% of maintenance requests in Latin America before jumping to 39% in March and then 43% in April during the Covid-19 lockdowns, before steadying to between 35-37% for the months of May, June and July. ^[1] ”

He continues: “We started this transition to remote support in 2019 and we were looking to extend this model further in 2020. Then Covid-19 arrived and our hospitals asked for our help to fast track connection. Success stories quickly started to emerge because the Hospitals found the support really good and they could see the value. Covid-19 pushed a transformation that would have taken one or two years into the space of a few months.”

In Argentina, the healthcare provider Resonancia Magnetica Misiones SRL, which is located 1000kms away from field service engineer support in Buenos Aires, reported one of its MRIs was down during the Covid-19 outbreak. It was a complicated fault, that couldn’t immediately be diagnosed.

Reacts is the Philips platform of unique interactive tools that make it possible to provide secure expert solutions, and the training and support, needed for physicians to make definitive diagnostic decisions effectively and efficiently from anywhere, at anytime, anywhere in the world.

Using REACTS it took just an hour to detect a failure in the MRI’s gradient power supply working in combination with remote engineers, a field service engineer and the hospital’s biomed. The faulty part was identified and a replacement was ordered.

Gustavo Cordona, Philips Remote Service Engineer, explains:

“Our team shifted from doing long-haul flights and five nights in a hotel to delivering this service remotely. We were able to pinpoint the problem with the modality and then send an engineer with the correct part, which significantly reduced the impact on the hospital's operations.”

At another healthcare provider, Hospital San Roque in Buenos Aires, a PACS configuration took just 30 minutes for remote service engineers to resolve.

In each example, critical equipment was quickly bought back online to support staff and patients. In Peru and Chile hospital staff were trained by Philips remote engineers in how to monitor equipment themselves, a shift that will lead to 80% of customer training modules being delivered remotely, reducing time and costs ^[2] .

“What is happening here is a movement away from reactive to proactive maintenance,” says Claudio Palma, a Clinical Applications Specialist at Philips. “Eventually, customers will expect a range of digital tools from industry, including remote training, to help them manage fleets of medical equipment. This is the first step to transforming to a complete digital hub.”