A comprehensive study on the maintenance of medical equipment at tertiary care hospital in India

Background: It is essential for any health-care facility, regardless of its size, to implement a maintenance programme for medical equipment. The maintenance not only has a positive impact on the safety and effectiveness of healthcare technology, but also increases the lifetime of equipment and thus helps to save scarce investment resources. It also enhances the demand for health services. Demand for services availability is crucial of functioning healthcare technology.Methods: A comprehensive descriptive study of the maintenance of equipment at a tertiary care corporate hospital in India from January 2012 to May 2012. A convenient sampling method was used to capture data from Key Participants which included two categories of staff viz technicians and managers/administrators. There were 40 technicians and 10 managers who responded to the questionnaire. Both the primary and secondary sources of data were used.Results: Breakdown data analysis showed that the major cause of breakdown was human errors. About 40% of breakdown that occurred in the hospital was mainly because of manual errors followed by electrical and mechanical issues.  Average down time for the time period of 5 months came to around 19 hours, which was quite high. Analysis of KAP questionnaire showed that about 55% technicians were not having the educational qualification required for handling the medical equipment, about 15% were not given training at the time of purchase of the equipment. Similarly, few managers were not aware about maintenance practices and importance of maintenance management for smooth and efficient functioning.Conclusions: Good and effective maintenance practices can reduce the cost of maintenance of equipment that arises due to breakdown. The training of equipment users and maintenance managers reduces the equipment downtime. To reduce the possibility of equipment malfunction following service or repair, all personnel involved in maintaining and servicing equipment should be trained

Cost cutting measures for the maintenance of hospital medical equipment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The Eastern Cape Department of Health is located in Bisho, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and about 88 percent of the EC population is serviced by the public health sector. Most of the facilities are situated in remote areas and for the maintenance of medical equipment they rely on the service of the few private equipment vendors that are situated in two cities, East London and Port Elizabeth and in some instances these vendors are located in Gauteng province. The location of vendors makes it difficult and impossible for these medical equipment vendors to render the acceptable service to the Department. This study was undertaken to systematically study the cost cutting measures of medical equipment department of health, Eastern Cape. A quantitative method approach was used using exploratory and descriptive research design during the 2019-20 financial year (April 2019 to March 2020). The sample for this study was limited to managers who have the ability to provide the information about the acquisition, maintenance and management of medical equipment. The total sample size was 100. The major finding was that outsourcing is not feasible. The respondents preferred insourcing, standardisation of medical equipment and procuring equipment with comprehensive maintenance contracts. The findings from the study were that the Department will cut costs associated with medical equipment if maintenance of medical equipment is in-sourced, equipment is standardized and equipment is procured with maintenance contracts. The study recommended that the Department should revisit some of its medical equipment maintenance strategies and draw up comprehensive interventions to reduce costs associated with maintenance of medical equipment and improve service delivery in the Department.Thesis (MPA) -- Faculty of Health Science, 202

Cost cutting measures for the maintenance of hospital medical equipment in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

The Eastern Cape Department of Health is located in Bisho, Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and about 88 percent of the EC population is serviced by the public health sector. Most of the facilities are situated in remote areas and for the maintenance of medical equipment they rely on the service of the few private equipment vendors that are situated in two cities, East London and Port Elizabeth and in some instances these vendors are located in Gauteng province. The location of vendors makes it difficult and impossible for these medical equipment vendors to render the acceptable service to the Department. This study was undertaken to systematically study the cost cutting measures of medical equipment department of health, Eastern Cape. A quantitative method approach was used using exploratory and descriptive research design during the 2019-20 financial year (April 2019 to March 2020). The sample for this study was limited to managers who have the ability to provide the information about the acquisition, maintenance and management of medical equipment. The total sample size was 100. The major finding was that outsourcing is not feasible. The respondents preferred insourcing, standardisation of medical equipment and procuring equipment with comprehensive maintenance contracts. The findings from the study were that the Department will cut costs associated with medical equipment if maintenance of medical equipment is in-sourced, equipment is standardized and equipment is procured with maintenance contracts. The study recommended that the Department should revisit some of its medical equipment maintenance strategies and draw up comprehensive interventions to reduce costs associated with maintenance of medical equipment and improve service delivery in the Department.Thesis (MPA) -- Faculty of Health Science, 202

Aplicación Lean Maintenance para mejorar disponibilidad de equipos médicos en Hospital de Chancay y S.B.S Dr. Hidalgo Atoche López 2020

La presente investigación cuyo título es: “Aplicación Lean Maintenance para mejorar disponibilidad de equipos médicos en Hospital de Chancay y S.B.S Dr. Hidalgo Atoche López 2020”, tuvo por objetivo: Determinar cómo Lean Maintenance mejora la disponibilidad de equipos médicos en el Hospital de Chancay y SBS Dr. Hidalgo Atoche López, 2020. El problema de la investigación planteado fue ¿De qué manera Lean Maintenance mejorará la disponibilidad de equipos médicos en el Hospital de Chancay y Sbs Dr. Hidalgo Atoche López, 2020? Se utilizó el tipo de investigación cuantitativa y por su finalidad aplicada, siendo su diseño de investigación pre experimental. La población estuvo conformada por los mantenimientos efectuados a los equipos médicos. Se hizo uso de fichas de recolección de datos fueron procesados y analizados por el software SPSS versión 24. Se evidenció una mejora en 22.39 en la disponibilidad de equipos médicos, también una mejora de 2.83 en la fiabilidad de equipos y una mejora de 0.38 en la mantenibilidad de equipos cuyo nivel de confiabilidad logrado en las hipótesis permitió validar la hipótesis planteada por el investigador

Holistic Approach Framework for Cloud Computing Strategic Decision-Making in the Healthcare Sector (HAF-CCS)

Cloud Computing is an evolving information technology paradigm that impacts many sectors in many countries. Cloud Computing offers IT services anytime, anywhere via any device and is applicable to healthcare organisations, offering a potential cost saving of 15% to 37%. This research investigates Cloud Computing as a facilitating technology to solve some of the challenges experienced by healthcare organisations such as the high cost of implementing IT solutions. The purpose of this research is to develop and apply an Holistic Approach Framework for Cloud Computing Strategic Decision-Making in the Healthcare Sector (HAF-CCS) to provide a systematic approach to the adoption of Cloud Computing that considers different perspectives. Although, Cloud Computing is becoming widely used, there is limited evidence in the literature concerning its application in the Saudi healthcare sector. In the thesis, current cloud adoption decision-making frameworks are analysed and the need to develop a strategic framework for Cloud Computing decision-making processes which emphasises a multidisciplinary holistic approach is identified. Understanding the different strategic aspects of Cloud Computing is important and could encourage organisations to adopt this model of computing since the decision regarding whether to adopt Cloud Computing is potentially a complex process; there are many perspectives to be considered, and studying this process requires a multiple perspective framework. The framework developed in this thesis aims to support decision-makers in healthcare organisations by covering five perspectives of Cloud Computing adoption: Organisation, Technology, Environment, Human and Business. The framework integrates the TOE (Technology-Organisation-Environment) framework with the Information Systems Strategy Triangle (IS Triangle) and the HOT-fit (Human- Organisation-Technology) model to support an holistic evaluation of the determinants of Cloud Computing adoption in healthcare organisations. The factors that will affect Cloud Computing adoption in healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia have been identified using quantitative and qualitative methods, and a case study approach was implemented to validate the framework. The results of the validation showed that the framework can support decision-makers in understanding an organisation’s position regarding Cloud Computing and identifying any gaps that may hinder Cloud Computing adoption. The framework can also provide healthcare organisations with a strategic assessment tool to help in gaining the advantages of Cloud Computing

Downtime Reduction on Medical Equipment Maintenance at The Directorate of Biomedical Engineering in the Jordanian MOH

Medical equipment needs to be managed effectively and carefully from the first step of buying the equipment till being scraped. This includes purchasing procedure, operational procedures and he maintenance policies used in this regards. Managing the maintenance of medical equipment is vital for the patient and for the hospital itself. One of the main problems in healthcare sector today is the availability of medical equipment, which is largely affected by downtime variation needed to repair the medical equipment. This study presents a process improvement study applied on the Downtime of the medical equipments during the maintenance work in the Jordanian of Health Hospitals, based on customized Six Sigma methodology- DMAIC- (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control). Data was collected from different locations and different equipments to study the problem and make the necessary actions to resolve or reduce downtime. Obtained results indicate that the downtime reduced by 35% by introducing a new procedure to the clinical engineer to used when dealing with any medical equipment for maintenance work

Technology Transfer to the Middle East

A report by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that "clarifies the policy issues surrounding technology transfer to developing countries, by highlighting tradeoffs among various commercial, political, and development assistance policy goals, and by suggesting options for more consistent policies affecting technology transfer to developing countries" (p. iii)