A Study of Current Maintenance Strategies and the Reliability of Critical Medical Equipment in Hospitals in Relation to Patient Outcomes

This study investigates the relationship between the reliability of critical medical equipment (CME) and the effectiveness of CME maintenance management strategies in relation to patient outcomes in 84 public hospitals of a top 20 OECD country. The work has examined the effectiveness of CME maintenance management strategies used by the public hospital system of a large state run health organization. The conceptual framework was designed to examine the significance of the relationship between six variables: (1) types of maintenance management strategies, (2) maintenance services, (3) maintenance practice, (4) medical equipment reliability, (5) maintenance costs and (6) patient outcomes. The results provide interesting insights into the effectiveness of the maintenance strategies used. For example, there appears to be about a 1 in 10 000 probability of failure of anesthesia equipment, but these seem to be confined to specific maintenance situations. There are also some findings in relation to outsourcing of maintenance. For each of the variables listed, results are reported in relation to the various types of maintenance strategies and services. Decision-makers may use these results to evaluate more effective maintenance strategies for their CME and generate more effective patient outcomes.

• Khelood A. Mkalaf
• Peter Gibson
• John Flanagan

• Critical medical equipment
• maintenance strategy
• patient outcomes
• reliability.

[1] Khalaf, A., K. Djouani, Y. Hamam, and Y. Alayli. Evidence-based
mathematical maintenance model for medical equipment. in Electronic
Devices, Systems and Applications (ICEDSA), 2010 Intl Conf on. 2010.
[2] Wang, B. and A. Levenson, Equipment inclusion criteria: a new
interpretation of JCAHO's medical equipment management standard. J
Clin Eng, 2000. 25(1): p. 26-35.
[3] Wang, B., Evidence-Based Maintenance. Soap Box, 2007.
[4] Tarawneh, W. and S. El-Sharo. Assessment Of Medical Equipment In
Respect To Their Down Time. 2009: Springer.
[5] da Silva, C.M.I., C.M.P. Cabrita, and J.C. de Oliveira Matias, Proactive
reliability maintenance: a case study concerning maintenance service
costs. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 2008. 14(4): p.
343-355.
[6] Murthy, D., A. Atrens, and J. Eccleston, Strategic maintenance
management. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 2002.
8(4): p. 287-305.
[7] Medhat, N., S. Samy, M.A. Wahed, and A. Mohamed. Medical
Equipment Quality Assurance by Making Continuous Improvement to
the System. 2008: IEEE.
[8] De Groote, P., Maintenance performance analysis: a practical
approach. Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 1995. 1(2):
p. 4-24.
[9] Manning, M. and D. Munro, The survey researcher's SPSS cookbook. 2
nd edition ed. 2007: Pearson Education-Australia.
[10] Mkalaf, K., A. and P. Gibson. A study of current maintenance strategies
and the reliability of medical equipment in hospitals in relation to
patient outcomes. 2012, (cited 5 April 2012,
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/65VK396); online survey available].
[11] Cannesson, M., G. Pestel, C. Ricks, A. Hoeft, and A. Perel,
Hemodynamic monitoring and management in patients undergoing high
risk surgery: a survey among North American and European
anesthesiologists. Crit Care, 2011. 15(4): p. R197.
[12] Wang , B., E. Furst, T. Cohen, O.R. Keil, M. Ridgway, and R. Stiefel,
Medical equipment management strategies. Biomedical Instrumentation
& Technology, 2006. 40(3): p. 233-237.
[13] Pintelon , L. and A. Parodi-Herz Maintenance: an evolutionary
perspective. Complex System Maintenance Handbook, 2008: p. 21-48.
[14] Endrenyi, J., S. Aboresheid, R. Allan, G. Anders, S. Asgarpoor, R.
Billinton, et al., The present status of maintenance strategies and the
impact of maintenance on reliability. Power Systems, IEEE
Transactions on, 2001. 16(4): p. 638-646.
[15] Temple-Bird, C., R. Mhiti, and G. Bloom, Medical equipment in
Botswana: a framework for management development. Geneva: World
Health Organisation, 1995.
[16] Slack, N., S. Chambers, C. Harland, A. Harrison, and R. Johnston,
Operation Management Second ed. ed. 1998, London: Pitman
Publishing. p742.
[17] Ghasemi, A., S. Yacout, and M.S. Ouali, Optimal Stategies for noncostly
and costly observations in Condition Based Maintenance. IAENG
International Journal of Applied Mathematics, 2008. 38(2).
[18] Pun, K.F., K.S. Chin, M.F. Chow, and H.C.W. Lau, An effectivenesscentred
approach to maintenance management: A case study. Journal of
Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 2002. 8(4): p. 346-368.
[19] Vanier, D. Asset management A to Z. 2010.