MACHINERY, EQUIPMENT & LINEN
INTRODUCTION
Machinery
and equipment's are essential and basic tools for hospital services, used on an
everyday basis for patient care. Handling materials and equipment's are very
important responsibility of the nurse working in the hospital.
A nurse
working in type of health •care facility must have awareness about the basic
care and handling of equipment, machinery and housekeeping, so that a nursing
care can be provided swiftly and an optimum patient satisfaction can be
achieved. With increased modernization and upgradation of technology, highly
sophisticated equipment is in use in modern day
nursing care. Hence the nurses should be able to use and care
the equipment properly
EQUIPMENT:
The
term equipment is used for more permanent type of article and may be classified
as fixed and movables.
Fixed equipment is not a structure of the
building, but it is attached to the walls or floors.
Movable equipment includes furniture, instruments
Health
Technology
The
application of organized knowledge and skills in the form of devices,
medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems developed to solve a health problem
and improve quality of life.
Medical
Devices
An
article, instrument, apparatus or machine that is used in the
diagnosis or treatment
of illness or disease or for detecting, measuring, restoring, correcting or
modifying the structure or function of the body for some health purpose.
Medical
equipment
Medical devices requiring calibration, maintenance,
repair user training and decommissioning — activities usually managed by
clinical engineers. Medical equipment is
used for the
specific purposes of diagnosis and treatment of disease or rehabilitation following
disease or injury.
MAINTENANCE OF EQUIPMENT
Equipment
maintenance is a set of activities done to keep equipment in their optimum
working condition and consists of routine inspection and maintenance practices.
An effective medical equipment maintenance programme consists of adequate
planning, management and
implementation.
Purposes
of Equipment Maintenance
Maximum
availability and reliability of equipment
2. Equipment Maintenance
The
basic objective of the maintenance is to have increased availability of
equipment, with increased safety. Maintenance management involves managing the
functions of maintenance.
Maintaining
equipment has been a challenging task as the hospital equipment are highly sophisticated
and expensive, therefore effective maintenance management is very important in
terms of cost optimization
Medical
equipment maintenance can be divided into two categories:
Inspection and Preventive
Maintenance (IPM)
Corrective
Maintenance (CM).
IPM
includes all scheduled activities that ensure equipment functionality and
prevents breakdowns and failures.
PM
refers to scheduled activities performed to extend the life of a device and
prevent failure
(i.e.
by calibration, part replacement, lubrication, cleaning etc.)
Inventory
Inventory
management is the assessment of supply and storage of items in order to ensure adequate
supply and prevention of oversupply. It is a system designed for internal
control and accounting purpose
as this is direct cost to the hospital. There should be proper procedures for
the inventory flow and management to optimize the cost and also to supplies on
time.
For
the pose of procurement or indent, equipment is categorized into
instruments or low — value instruments. Another classification
is sophisticated. equipment electronics and non - electronic equipment. Indent
for routine or low value equipment can be done weekly, monthly or annually.
Equipment
is procured by submitting a statement of case (SOC) or an indent form depending
on the hospital policy. The SOC or indent form should be approved the competent
authority. An• annual acquisition plan can be prepared which indicates be
outlay for the procurement of specific kind of equipment.
- Maximum return on investment done on the equipment
- Prevention of wastage of consumables and spares
- Extended useful life of equipment
- Readiness of the equipment for emergency use whenever required.
Equipment
Maintenance Process
Hospital
diagnostic equipment includes stethoscope, sphygmanometer, thermometers,
protoscope, bronchoscope, laryngoscope, surgical equipment and scanning devices
such as X-ray machines, computed axial tomography or CAT scanners and magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI)
All
equipment required in the hospital are procured, stocked and annual inventory maintained.
Equipment Maintenance Process
M
1.
Indent/
Procurement of. the equipment
2.
Equipment
Maintenance
3.
Inventory
1. Indent/ Procurement of the equipment
Some
of the identified techniques are:
1.
First
in, first. out (FIFO)
2.
Inspection
of stock levels
3.
Security
of stock
1. First in, first out (FIFO)
It is
mostly employed for perishable or limited self— life items like drugs. For
example in a
pharmacy,
if new stock coming in would get taken immediately then older stock would
expire, causing great loss. Hence old stock should be arranged in front or
stock must be arranged by date received.
2.
Inspection of stock levels
Minimum
stock level should be maintained which will fill up the gap while the supplies
are reordered. Proper consideration should be given to emergencies besides the
time that vendors take to replenish the stock. This will help in arriving at
just in time (JIT) ordering, where stock is held for a minimum amount of time.
3.
Security of stock
Security
is necessary to control cost. High value items are to be properly secured and
kept and proper periodic inventory is to be done. Security guards, cameras, bar
codes and security devices can be used.
COMMENTS