Designing a model of medical equipment management for Iranian hospitals, 2007

Optimum management of medical equipment in hospital settings has tremendous effects on decreasing costs and providing desired health and treatment services. This research has been undertaken to design a medical equipment management model for public hospitals of Iran. In this adaptive research, medical equipment management among United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Italy, which have successful experiences and determined patterns for medical equipment management, are assessed with respect to 6 dimensions as structure, purchase, control, maintenance, training and distribution; and according to the shared strategies in the mentioned countries, a model was designed for Iran's public hospitals. This model was validated using expert's survey in DELFI method. In all of the studied countries, the medical equipment engineering unit is established for effective management of medical equipments and in direction with the main purpose of ensuring safety and improving patient care, clinical engineers are being trained. Trainings are designed according to international federation course plan for clinical engineers “which are combination of necessary engineering and managing courses for activities of hospital medical equipment management”. Under study issues include: precise need assessment for medical devices, balancing, use of life span expenditure, stock management, location finding, and needed physical space prediction, selection and purchase committee establishment, entering controls plus reception test, performance and safety control, activities documentation, using computerized systems for preventive maintenance and semi-centered distribution, are among necessary processes in the medical equipment management cycle of under studied countrie's hospitals. Management and medical equipment engineering unit establishment in hospitals, selection and purchase committee formation, continuous equipment performance control during calibration process, equipment preventive maintenance according to workforce training schedule, training needed experts, and with respect to the topics of international federation courses for clinical engineering training in universities, will improve medical equipment efficiency in hospitals.