Assessing Scheduled Support of Medical Equipment: Tim Ritter
Assessing Scheduled Support of Medical Equipment: Tim Ritter
of
Medical Equipment
Presented by:
Tim Ritter
Senior Project Engineer
2006 ECRI.
Who is ECRI?
Nonprofit, international health services research agency
promoting the highest standards of safety, quality and
cost effectiveness in healthcare since 1969
What do our resources include?
Membership-based access to Web resources, databases,
research reports, guides, directories
Consultation services and special projects
Around the world, who relies on ECRIs services?
Hospitals, health systems, health plans, and insurers
Government agencies, legal and regulatory professionals
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In the Beginning . . .
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Initial Observations
Equipment management is essentially risk management.
Nothing can be 100% safe or 100% reliable!
Inspect something today and it can fail tomorrow . . .
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Initial Observations
Technology has become more reliable ?
Better designed and frequently double insulated
Devices have self diagnostics and error/event logs
Significant failures rarely identified during inspections
The need for preventive maintenance is declining
ECRI has no evidence of injury or death attributable to
the lack of inspection or preventive maintenance
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Initial Observations
Many PM programs are outdated ? electrical
safety and risk continue to be overemphasized
Manufacturer recommendations have not changed
Regulatory agencies continue to translate those
recommendations into requirements
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Overview
Is there value in performing periodic
inspection?
If so, do what and how often?
How to determine, document and sustain
the decision?
Are manufacturer recommendations for
preventive maintenance justified?
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What is Risk?
Risk
Combination of the probability of
occurrence of harm and the severity of
that harm.
ANSI/AAMI/ISO 14971:2000
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What is Risk?
Risk
the chance of something happening that
will have an impact upon objectives. It is
measured in terms of consequences
and likelihood.
AS/NZS 4360:1999
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High-risk devices
Life-support, key resuscitation, critical monitoring
and other likely devices whose failure or misuse is
reasonably likely to seriously injure patients or staff
Ventilators
Defibrillators
Anesthesia units
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Medium-risk devices
Devices, including many diagnostic instruments,
whose misuse, failure or absence (e.g. out of
service with no replacement available) would
have a significant impact on patient care, but
would not be likely to cause direct serious injury
Clinical laboratory equipment
Ultrasound scanners
Electrocardiographs
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Low-risk devices
Devices whose failure or misuse is
unlikely to result in serious consequences
Ophthalmoscopes
Electronic thermometers
Cast cutters
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Low-risk devices
If failure of a device is unlikely to result in
serious consequences . . .
then there is little or no value in
inspecting many low risk devices
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No
Scheduled Support
Required?
Document Decision
Change in Use
Review Annual
Repair Data
Yes
Document Decision
and Interval
Identify/Develop
IPM Procedure
Perform IPM(s)
Review Annual
IPM/Repair Data
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No
Any Problems
Minimized/Prevented
by IPM?
Decrease/Eliminate
Scheduled Support
Yes
Maintain/Increase
Scheduled Support
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Numeric/Formulaic
Assessment Tools
Can these tools produce an objective
determination?
Can they produce consistent results?
They typically emphasize failure effects
rather than failure data
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Sources of Information/Evidence
Internal
Maintenance management system Failure Data!
Use/environment considerations
External
Equipment manufacturers
Official bodies (TGA, MHRA, FDA, IEC)
Independent bodies (ECRI)
Other equipment users
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In Summary
Consider manufacturer recommendations
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In Summary
Document your decisions (ESSA form)
Present conclusions to hospitals
safety/quality committee for approval
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Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations (JCAHO)
OK not to schedule IPM but document decision
OK for different schedules for same device
based on differences in use
Hospitals may modify manufacturer protocols
based on their experience (2005)
Support decisions with records that identify issues
related to reliability, failures, and misuse
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An Interesting Study
Global Failure Rate: A Promising Medical
Equipment Management Outcome Benchmark
Journal of Clinical Engineering July/September 2006
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What is a Failure?
The device doesnt operate
Repair or calibration had to be performed
Shouldnt include work orders for user
abuse/error
Shouldnt include cosmetic repairs
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Definition Challenges
It may be difficult to determine when user abuse
or user error is the cause of a failure.
Similarly, environmental conditions (e.g.,
temperature, electrostatic discharge, line voltage
spikes) beyond manufacturer specifications
would ideally be excluded but are often not
easily identified.
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Questions?
[email protected]
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