The Caritas-Hospital and Siemens have been working together successfully for many years, especially in the service field. In 2004, the hospital introduced the Siemens Guardian Program for a cath lab as one of the first clinics in Germany. Particularly in this department, system availability and reliability are essential. When a system fails there, emergency patients would possibly have to be transferred or could not even be admitted. This would lead to needless delays of the patient’s treatment. Moreover, the working processes both in the cath lab and in the referring departments in and out of the hospital could be hindered.

Proactive Real-time Monitoring

The Guardian Program offers best possible system availability and reliability through proactive remote system monitoring in real-time. The systems are permanently monitored via remote access by Siemens experts in the Siemens Service Center. Deviations from norm values can be registered and malfunctions discovered before the customer experiences any problems. “Every technical device can have a malfunction eventually,” says Karl-Heinz Stump, Chief of Medical Technology in Caritas-Hospital. “In this case, we depend on quick and professional support from the supplier. And we can always rely on Siemens.”

Remote Service: Immediate Troubleshooting

If an error message appears, a Siemens expert will immediately notify the customer. Many system deviations can be solved instantly through the remote maintenance platform Siemens Remote Service that connects the system to the Siemens Service Center. If a more substantial problem occurs, the Siemens technician can at least bring the appropriate replacement part with him. Before Guardian was implemented, the technician had to search for the cause of the error on-site, which prolonged the time for repair.

System Availability of 99 Percent

Karl-Heinz Stump of the Caritas-Hospital Bad Mergentheim is satisfied: “With the Guardian Program, malfunctions could be resolved preventatively, which avoided a possible subsequent disturbance of the operating procedure. In 2007, the system availability could be increased further up to 99 percent – with a simultaneous operational availability of 24 hours. During the year, 18 service reports occurred, 10 of which could be solved by means of remote service. For example, the Siemens experts advised to unlock the automatic emergency control that the cleaning staff had touched accidentally. But these reports make for the impressive availability and reliability of the system in particular.”


Long-term Cost Savings

In regards to the costs, the proactive Siemens service is also attractive: „Without the Guardian Program, we would have had to take into account a new acquisition of the system due to the long useful life. But because of the good reliability of the system, the period in which we can use it is lengthened automatically. Calculated across the product life cycle, this reduces costs significantly,” adds Christian Kuhl, Managing Director of the Caritas-Hospital Bad Mergentheim.