Development and Psychometrics of "Medical Equipment Management Scale" in Tehran Hospitals

Evaluation of medical equipment management should provide the possibility of timely identification of shortcomings and gaps in this process. The current research was conducted to develop and psychometrically measure the "Medical Equipment Management Scale" in Tehran hospitals.

The current research is of a methodological type. At first, a wide review of the texts related to the research topic, including library documents and scientific articles from 2018 to 2022, was conducted and by analyzing them in the form of a “Data Extraction Form”, "Medical Equipment Management Scale" was developed. Then in the quantitative section, the content validity ratio and the content validity index of the scale were measured by asking the opinion of 24 experts in the field of health and treatment management with the purposeful sampling method using the snowball method. Construct validity was measured by exploratory factor analysis, convergent validity, and divergent validity by distributing the developed scale among 78 experts in the field of health and medical services management by convenience sampling method. Composite reliability and internal consistency reliability were calculated by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The data were analyzed in SPSS. 24 and Amos. 24.

In the qualitative section, "Medical Equipment Management Scale" was developed with 13 items. In the quantitative part, content validity ratio and content validity index were measured and 1 item was removed and 12 items remained. Construct validity results showed 4 subscales. Convergent validity was 0.50 and divergent validity was >0.90. Composite reliability and internal consistency reliability by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was reported as 0.89.

"Medical Equipment Management Scale" with 12 items and 4 subscales is valid and reliable. It is suggested to use the developed scale in research related to healthcare services.