What Are the Common Maintenance Issues with Medical Equipment?

Medical pieces of equipment are essential tools of doctors and after all these types of equipment are also machines which means that they can fail & will not work eventually. That is why asset maintenance is important. Maintenance can be done with proper planning and scheduling, or it can be done with unplanned scheduled maintenance. Unplanned maintenance is more expensive which is why organizations emphasize scheduling maintenance.

Keeping assets maintained can be beneficial for hospital entities in terms of effective asset management! In this blog, we will know what common maintenance issues occur with medical equipment! How can you eliminate them! So, without wasting any time let us begin!

What Are Maintenance Issues That Occur with Medical Equipment?

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Below we have discussed maintenance issues that occur with medical equipment:

1. Unhygienic Equipment

Doctor's equipment is critical in day-to-day operations, especially surgical pieces of equipment. These assets not only need to be maintained but also should be in a condition of & clean, sanitized & ready to use.

It is an important practice to ensure that pieces of equipment are sanitized otherwise it can lead a patient to infection or some other issue.

2. Reduced Asset Life

Asset life can be extended, and reliability can be increased when you keep track of assets & maintain them.

However, when you don't do that or try the manual method then asset life end before expected asset life & its impacts on asset performance and downtime also increase.

When asset life decreases return on investment (ROI) decreases as well.

3. Not Having Accurate Information

When hospitals do not have accurate maintenance information for their medical equipment then a decision based on inaccurate information will be wrong as well. So as a result, even when every activity is done correctly even the result will not come as expected because of inaccurate information.

4. Decreased Asset Performance

Giving asset maintenance is important in order to keep asset performance on top! When asset performance is not good it will not be productive for the organization, and they will have to spend more money on maintenance expenses.

Asset performance is essential for hospitals because a lot of hospitals do not have much budget.

How to Overcome These Maintenance Issues?

Hospital equipment management programs have been in existence for more than two decades, still, problems are not resolved. The main reason behind the issues is that pieces of equipment are fixed when they are broken.

In simple words, reactive maintenance is provided, however, we know that most hospitals run their operation through donations, so they do not have a high budget for maintenance.

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However, medical equipment must be inspected on a timely basis for maintenance. In case, assets that are not in good condition get maintenance. The best technique to eliminate maintenance issues is proactive maintenance.

In this technique, assets are scheduled for maintenance in advance. This technique saves assets from sudden breakdown and plays a crucial role in boosting asset performance as well.

When assets are maintained your maintenance expenses decrease as well. An efficient & automated asset management software has essential features including proactive maintenance.

You can schedule maintenance easily and most importantly we know that the hospital has assets in abundance so once you must put all asset information in the system then with this system you will get an alert for each asset.

With this software in place hospital's maintenance managers will have to keep track of maintenance manually as this software will keep track of it & alert the maintenance team as well.

This software will provide several other benefits to the hospital as they can keep track of asset location that will keep assets safe and secure from theft and misplacement.

Conclusion

Hospitals have lots of medical assets and equipment that need maintenance. However, hospitals do not have much budget to keep track of maintenance. This is where maintenance management software comes into play.

It not only keeps track of maintenance but also offers a complete picture of assets. It allows hospitals to plan maintenance and schedule.

Moreover, it is also helpful in enhancing the productivity of the hospital. You can get detailed reports & analytics that increase productivity. As you get important information and enables you to make informed business decisions.

There is no doubt that this software can boost efficiency and make work operation optimized and keep hospital equipment sanitized and maintained. Moreover, it increases the life of hospital assets & equipment.

Therefore, investing is important for the growth of the hospital & other organizations as well.

Also Read: Why Does IT Asset Management Play a Vital Role in Data Security?

Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)

1. How does asset tracking is done in hospitals?‍

Asset tracking is done with asset tracking tags & labels. It can be done in various ways asset tracking techniques such as Barcode, QR Code (Quick Response Code), RFID (Radio-frequency identification), NFC (Near field communication), GPS (Global Positioning System), BLE (Bluetooth low energy), etc.

However, some of these methods are expensive and few are cost-effective. These tags and labels provide accurate location of assets and techniques such as RFID are helpful in providing accurate information of patients.

2. What are the other benefits of asset management software?‍

Other benefits of asset management software are discussed below:
1. Keeping assets secured from theft & misplacement
2. Set alerts & reminders for inventory management
3. Utility monitoring & management
4. Fast & quick audit for asset verification
5. Asset life cycle management

3. What are the objectives of maintenance management?‍

Objectives of maintenance management are given below:
1. To Improve operation efficiency & safety
2. To Increase asset lifespan
3. To Decrease maintenance expenses
4. To Optimize asset performance & reliability
5. To Improve asset condition

4. What are the various types of maintenance?‍

Various types of maintenance are as follows:
Preventive Maintenance - Schedules maintenance before asset failure can occur. It avoids sudden breakdown and helps in optimizing asset performance.
Condition-based Monitoring - In this practice assets are not disassembled, and the maintenance team works only on the issue, and it is time-saving as well.
Emergency Maintenance - It is unplanned maintenance in this practice assets are given maintenance as quickly as possible. It can be expensive maintenance.