Steve Terry points to a cleaning device propped behind the door of his office at Deaconess Medical Center.


Its called a mega mop, and Terry contends it cleans faster and more thoroughly than a conventional cloth mop, which means Deaconess can reduce labor costs by using it.


The mega mop is a small example of how Deaconess parent, Empire Health Services, hopes to fulfill a larger goal: finding ways to do things faster and more efficientlyand thereby save money. Empire Health Services, which also operates Valley Hospital & Medical Center, has been pushing hard to turn around financial woes that caused it to cut pay across the board and put some construction projects on hold. A portion of employee pay since has been restored, and some construction projects are back on the drawing boards.


Terry is the general manager here for Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp., with which Empire signed a five-year contract earlier this year to handle many of its non-medical operations.


Aramark now oversees food service, housekeeping, building maintenance, equipment service, and energy management at Empires two hospitals. About 230 former Empire employees now work in such capacities for Aramark, Terry says. Some of those employees are unionized.


Empire has cited the outsourcing effort as one of several factors that have allowed the nonprofit hospital operator to return to the black after operating at a net loss last year.


Prior to its arrangement with Aramark, Empire had handled all such operations in-house. Sacred Heart Medical Center, of Spokane, doesnt outsource any of its operations currently, spokeswoman Maureen Goins says. Terry says, however, that Aramark provides outsourcing services at Kootenai Medical Center, in Coeur dAlene.


Terry says Empire began contracting with Aramark in May with a simple goalto save the hospital operator $1.5 million over the course of the five-year contract.


At this stage, he says, it appears the company will far exceed that goal.


Were bringing in equipment, operations, negotiation, and expertise that allow us to do things more efficiently, he says.


For example, Aramark has taken over energy management at Empires facilities, including installing temperature-control thermostats, upgrading other energy equipment, and negotiating utility rates.


Terry says he expects the energy-management changes alone to save Empire Health $2.7 million over the next 10 years.


In its food-service operation, Aramark has begun using hand-held computers with which order takers record patients meal orders. Typically, an order taker will read a menu to a patient and ask if thats acceptable. If the patient wants something else, the request is noted. The orders then are downloaded from the hand-held computers at the kitchen, and that information helps kitchen staff know quickly what quantities of each food item to prepare.


Terry says the system allows the kitchen to prepare food more quickly than when the orders were taken on paper and enables it to save by wasting less food.


Aramark also has established a resource center that fields calls regarding all of its areas of responsibility. That center operates around the clock with anywhere from one to four people fielding calls at any given time.


Now, hospital personnel can call one phone number to report any of a variety of problems, ranging from spilled coffee in a hallway to a burned-out bathroom light bulb to a piece of medical equipment that needs to be repaired.


The resource center currently is handling about 500 calls a day, Terry says.


When a call is placed, a work order is dispatched. After the task is completed, Terry says resource center employees follow up with the person who made the request to determine whether the problem was solved to their satisfaction.


In its assessment of the organizations handling of such problems previously, Terry says Aramark determined that requests many times werent followed up, and sometimes personnel were unsure whether a problem had been fixed.


In instances where employees spotted problems in a common area, such as a broken chair in a waiting area, they said they were unsure whom to call.


Aramark is among the nations largest outsourcing-services companies and has about 200,000 employees in 18 countries. In addition to the health-care field, the company provides outsourcing services to universities, correctional facilities, convention centers, sports and entertainment complexes, and resorts, among others.


Empire and Kootenai Medical Center are the companys only clients in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.