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The effective maintenance management of medical technology influences the quality of care delivered and the profitability of healthcare facilities. Medical equipment maintenance in Jordan lacks an objective prioritization system; consequently, the system is not sensitive to the impact of equipment downtime on patient morbidity and mortality. The current work presents a novel software system (EQUIMEDCOMP) that is designed to achieve valuable improvements in the maintenance management of medical technology. This work-order prioritization model sorts medical maintenance requests by calculating a priority index for each request. Model performance was assessed by utilizing maintenance requests from several Jordanian hospitals. The system proved highly efficient in minimizing equipment downtime based on healthcare delivery capacity, and, consequently, patient outcome. Additionally, a preventive maintenance optimization module and an equipment quality control system are incorporated. The system is, therefore, expected to improve the reliability of medical equipment and significantly improve safety and cost-efficiency.

Clinical engineering (CE) and healthcare technology management (HTM) departments have the responsibility to manage many equipment and technology vendors, and healthcare facilities contract with vendors and third-party support organizations to implement and maintain many different types of technologies. However, most HTM departments are not proactive about monitoring vendor responsibilities and accountabilities; instead, they only interact with the vendor when problems occur. Trying to manage a vendor while in a downtime situation or after a crisis generally doesn't provide the outcomes for which organizations strive. This article seeks to provide insight and best practices to proactively contract with and manage vendor relationships through contracts. Vendor management requires a proactive approach to setting expectations, roles, and responsibilities between your organization and the vendor organization. Clear vendor deliverables, scorecards, and regular meetings help keep lines of communication open and minimize surprises at the end of projects or contracts.

Healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals have taken a hands-off approach to laboratory equipment maintenance. Typically, there isn't much of such equipment in the inventory, and the cost to train personnel to service can be a hurdle to making the move to in-house maintenance. Additionally, in some cases the equipment has been provided free of charge in return for a long-term contract for expendable supplies used to operate the equipment. Finally, regulatory oversight from College of American Pathologists or other agencies can discourage in-house maintenance. However, the author strongly encourage all HTM professionals to help bring laboratory maintenance back in-house. While there may be some short-term pain, the potential for long-term benefits is greater.

Questions about those subjects that matter most to you are answered. People have always said that if you go to a unit to work on that equipment, and it's on a patient, they have never, ever advocated taking it off a patient to see if it's working. They would expect you to have some sort of policy to guide you on the next steps. But if you were there and your intent was to work on it but it was in use, then you're good to go. While The Joint Commission does not survey against specific HIPAA regulations, the standards do require compliance with applicable law and regulation.

Several questions on alternative equipment maintenance (AEM) plan are answered. If your risk assessment results in placing certain equipment in an AEM, you may change either the manufacturer's scheduled maintenance activities or frequencies (or both) as long as your risk assessment indicates that these changes do not reduce the safety of equipment and that the changes are based on accepted standards of practice. Changes like this should only be made with corresponding changes in hospital policy. Hospitals should also have (and follow) robust policies that address how to capture equipment that was unavailable (\"in use\" or \"non-locatable\") during its scheduled maintenance window. The Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services allow hospitals to consider documented service histories from sources other than the hospital when conducting the risk assessment to determine what equipment to be included in an AEM.

In a roundtable, several executives talked about their greatest concerns or frustrations related to the supportability of healthcare technology. Michael Mestek, program manager, Medtronic, said that from an industry perspective, his greatest concerns are that healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals feel that training isn't available or accessible and that service documentation is difficult to find. Julio Huerta, district manager for Aramark and director of clinical engineering for the University of North Carolina Health Care System, said that his biggest concern is having access to affordable technical documentation, which is instrumental to ensuring that the healthcare technology for which he is responsible is safe and working properly. Michael Capuano, manager of biomedical, technology at Hamilton Health Sciences, said that original equipment manufacturers (OEM) seem to have misgivings about on-site HTM personnel having the tools, training, and resources needed to effectively support their technology. Rather than believing that they're the best ones to do it, OEMs need to be aware that HTM departments are able to support the equipment.