The organization
A 400-bed acute care hospital has a biomedical engineering team that looks after infusion pumps, patient monitors, defibrillators, ventilators and imaging support equipment across patient units, operating rooms and intensive care.
The team plans preventive maintenance by manufacturer interval, runs electrical safety tests, handles recalls and answers to accreditation surveyors who ask for the record of any device at any time.
The challenge
Device records live in a spreadsheet and test results on paper in binders. Before a survey, the team spends weeks pulling records together instead of maintaining equipment.
- Devices move between patient units, so technicians cannot find units that are due.
- Safety test sheets get misfiled or lack the reading that proves a pass.
- A recall notice means checking serial numbers by hand across the hospital.
- Overdue maintenance is found by the surveyor, not by the team.
- Vendor-serviced equipment has no record in the hospital’s own system.
How it is set up in Asset Infinity
The team keeps one register of medical devices in Asset Infinity, with maintenance plans, safety inspections and recall work recorded against each unit.
One medical device register
Every device has its make, model, serial number, location, department, warranty and documents, with a QR label technicians scan on the unit. (Assets)
PM plans by manufacturer interval
Each device type has date-based preventive plans that raise work orders on schedule, assigned to an in-house technician or a service vendor. (Maintenance)
Safety tests as inspections
Electrical safety and performance checks are checklists with required readings, photos and a signature. A failed check raises corrective work. (Maintenance)
Survey-ready reports
Dashboards show completed, due and overdue maintenance by department, and any device’s full history comes out as a report on request. (Insight)
How it works day to day
Here is how the team’s week runs, from a due PM to a recall notice.
- System: raises the week’s PM work. Date-based plans raise work orders for devices coming due, grouped by department, and assign them to the technician who covers that area.
- Biomedical technician: finds the device and scans it. The work order shows the device’s last recorded location. Scanning its label on the unit opens the job and confirms the right unit.
- Biomedical technician: runs the safety test. The inspection checklist asks for each reading, such as earth resistance and leakage current, with required fields and a signature.
- System: turns a failure into repair. A failed reading raises a corrective work order, and the device’s status shows it is out of service until the repair is closed.
- Biomedical manager: handles a recall notice. The manager filters the register by manufacturer, model and serial range, then raises a work order for each affected unit.
- Service vendor: records vendor work. Visits by an outside vendor are recorded against the device, with the service report attached to the work order.
- Biomedical manager: prepares for the survey. Dashboards show PM completion by department, and the history of any device the surveyor names is pulled as a report.
Before and after
| Before | With Asset Infinity | |
|---|---|---|
| Device inventory | A spreadsheet, rarely current | One register with labels and locations |
| PM scheduling | Tracked by hand | Date-based plans raise work orders |
| Safety tests | Paper sheets in binders | Checklists with required readings and signatures |
| Recalls | Serial numbers checked by hand | Register filtered, a work order per unit |
| Vendor service | Reports kept by the vendor | Recorded against each device |
| Survey preparation | Weeks pulling records together | Reports from the live record |
The first month
- Inventory imported and labeled. The spreadsheet was imported, then technicians labeled devices unit by unit and corrected locations as they went.
- Plans and test checklists set. Manufacturer intervals became preventive plans, and the paper safety test sheet became a checklist.
- Technicians and vendors live. Technicians worked from the mobile app, and vendor visits were recorded against each device.
Example results
- 100% of medical devices in the register with a preventive maintenance plan
- Every safety test recorded with readings, a result and a signature
- Minutes to list every unit affected by a manufacturer recall
- Technicians scan a device on the unit and see what is due, its history and its manuals.
- Overdue maintenance shows on the dashboard by department before a surveyor finds it.
- Recall work is tracked to closure for every affected serial number.
- Vendor service visits sit in the same record as in-house work.
Why it worked
The record is made at the device
Technicians scan the unit and enter readings on the spot, so the record matches the device that was actually tested.
Failures cannot be lost
A failed safety check raises corrective work automatically, so a faulty device does not go back into use unnoticed.
Always ready to show
Because the work is recorded as it happens, survey readiness is a report, not a project.
Looking ahead
With every medical device, plan and test in one register, the biomedical team spends its time on equipment instead of paperwork, and the record a surveyor asks for is already there.
The same history shows which models fail most and what each costs to keep, which helps the hospital plan replacements and negotiate service contracts.