Importance of proper planning for Medical Equipment Management
Medical Equipment is a core asset for all types of healthcare facilities, as it plays a vital role in care delivery. Biomedical supplies used at a hospital can range from things simple and small like Smart transducer to bigger and more complex devices like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines and patient monitors. This ranking is generally based on the differences in utilized technologies and their intended applications. On the whole, it is vital that hospitals manage their biomedical equipment and supplies in a competent manner to keep their expenses under control and ensure the quality of healthcare delivery.
Medical Equipment Management (MEM) is known to take place in the context of organizational, structural, human and financial resources. This is a process that aids hospitals to effectively develop, monitor, and manage their supplies, including cutting-edge Pacific Medical Equipment, while promoting effective, safe and economical use and maintenance of equipment. Healthcare facilities must properly setup and regularly review MEM aids in ensuring that a well-suited medical device is used in accordance to the instructions of the manufacturer, and is maintained in a dependable manner.
MEM is a systematic way to properly manage medical equipment and optimize all phases in the useful life of the device. While this life cycle approach was traditionally developed for major equipment, today it also applies to non-major yet important medical devices and can extend to additional device.
Planning for MEM
Planning process is extremely important for decision making of any kind, including in regards to MEM, as it provides valuable information for management. It tends to offer a technology vision where healthcare facilities must position itself. A robust planning approach can specify the following conditions to aid the decision-making process:
- Regulatory compliance
- Adequate environment support
- Available qualified users
- Demonstrated benefits and needs
- Confirmed maintenance services and support
These conditions are fairly simple and must be applied to the any routine acquisition of a medical device, even if it is being purchased from a reputed source like Patient Monitoring Company. Having a well-defined policy for medical device acquisition meeting such conditions as prerequisites to acquisition would be helpful in reducing problems later in the life cycle of the device. For example, appropriate financial planning for medical equipment can ensure optimum position for operating and service costs of the relevant device. The role of planning in MEM largely involves the maintenance of a balance between clinical and technology aspects of healthcare facilities.
