Maintenance & Training

Introduction

The technical staff of hospital should ensure that equipment used in the patients care are operational, safe, properly configured to meet the mission of the medical treatment facility and continue to function effectively in a good working condition. For example, proper maintenance can extend the life of equipment. This is essential for providing good health services and saving the scarce resources.

Human factors engineering is used to influence medical device procurement decisions in hospitals. The process ensures that the safest, most efficient and effective devices are purchased. Human factors engineering is frequently being cited as an important method to reduce medical error and adverse events and to increase patient safety, when it is applied to the design and evaluation of medical devices.

The medical equipment life cycle includes the tendering and commissioning of new equipment in conjunction with the end users, the training and education of all devices for staff on their operation and application, performing the necessary preventive maintenance, conducting repairs and finally device disposal, at which point the life cycle begins again.