Sponsored By Medigate
By Samuel Hill
Biomed teams work hard to ensure that every device performs optimally in each life-cycle stage, but they are plagued by poor operational data. This problem shows up when it takes hundreds of hours to locate devices for preventative maintenance (PM), overspending on new devices, and constantly being asked by front-line care teams for more devices. Accurate data improves the efficiency of every device and enables better decision making. Through more efficient device utilization, hospitals can save significant money and time, while keeping more devices available for front-line care.
Here is a short list of improvements healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) can expect by improving their access to accurate device data, as proven by dozens of hospitals around the world.
- Accurate Data in the CMMS: Keeping the computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) up-to-date typically requires a lot of manual data entry, which − let’s not lie − nobody’s got the time for. Since devices move around so much and keeping the CMMS updated is hard, it can quickly get out of hand! With accurate data being fed to the CMMS in near real-time, HDOs can learn to trust that their asset inventory, and other data points, are correct.
- Biomed Time: The saying, “Time is money,” rings true here. Every hour a highly trained and specialized biomedical engineer spends walking around looking for a device is a waste of their time and costs HDOs significant amounts of dollars each year, in addition to generating lots of frustration. Through saving hundreds of hours’ worth of work, biomed teams can focus on the other parts of their critical jobs.
- Reduced Annual Device Spend: On average, a hospital will replace around 10% of their clinical devices each year. This line item in your capital plan can be a costly and variable portion of the budget. While some of this replacement is needed due to life cycle and device age, other pieces ensure staff has enough devices to do their job. But what about all the devices you bought last year? Where did all of those go? Improved device tracking allows for the front-line teams to have the devices they need, while reducing the need to buy more devices.
- Device Availability: Keeping devices out on the patient floors so that front-line staff can use them for patient care is one of the goals for most HTM departments. No biomedical engineer wants to take devices from nurses even though they need to. The end goal is always for a nurse to find what they need when they need it. Accurate utilization data allows for PM to be scheduled and completed at a convenient time for the device and the care team, ensuring it is back in service quickly.
- Heavy Iron Acquisition Costs: Large radiological devices cost millions for the device and the construction to prep the physical space for these complex machines. With this cost being so high, any additional requisitions for these devices are scrutinized heavily. Tracking the types of studies done by these devices can provide a baseline for evaluation to help determine future acquisition needs. Understanding the capabilities and utilization of large radiological devices can significantly improve the capital expenditure decision making process.
The goal of biomed teams has not changed, but the tools they need to do their job most effectively have. Through improved device data, these hard-working women and men can ensure the devices they care for consistently are available, and their life cycle is optimized. If these outcomes are any indication, improved device data has a wide-reaching impact on the whole hospital operation. It’s time to allow our devices to work as hard as the biomed teams who maintain them.
To learn more about clinical device efficiency, visit medigate.io/cde.
