Medical Equipment Maintenance: Strategies and Best Practices

The importance of proper upkeep of healthcare equipment

The importance of comprehensive and effective maintenance of medical equipment cannot be overstated. Failure or less than optimal performance in monitoring, diagnostic, life-support or other medical equipment can and will mean degradation of medical care, diagnostic errors, ineffectiveness in treatment, and even loss of life.

Another consideration is that deviance from statutory requirements around medical equipment maintenance can have strong legal and financial consequences. This is of little consequence compared to the human consequences of equipment failure, but let’s not forget that non-compliance, and the resultant expenses (and even censure or loss of accreditation) can severely impact your ability to help patients.

For more detailed information on statutory requirements, reporting and compliance in the UK and Northern Ireland, we recommend consulting the NHS’s Health Technical Memorandum 00: Policies and principles of healthcare engineering, and for the Republic of Ireland you should follow current EU requirements, which are largely outlined in the Health Services Executive’s Medical Equipment Management Policy.

Keep in mind, though, that it is fully the responsibility of a healthcare facility, its management and staff, to know and follow all regulatory requirements related to healthcare equipment procurement, installation, use and maintenance, and even if the above documents were correct and current at the time of this writing you should determine if they still are, and if and how they apply to your facility and its operations.

How to maintain, service and repair medical equipment

It is beyond the scope of this short blog article to really describe or explain any maintenance procedures. For one thing, it is too technical and too complex – and too crucial of an operation – and so professionally produced and prepared documentation on operation and maintenance of medical and biomedical equipment is the only way forward.

And for another thing, the maintenance of a specific machine can be vastly different than another machine, even if they have identical functions, and can vary greatly depending on many other factors, including amount, frequency and type of use, environmental conditions, staff training and knowledge, interaction with other equipment, quality of previous maintenance procedures and more.

So again, consulting official documentation and availing yourself of all qualified support available – from the manufacturer, the vendor or the industry, not to mention any governmental or institutional entities – is so important, and a complete understanding of maintenance from all perspectives can really raise the effectiveness and stature of your health care facility.

The different approaches: reactive, preventive and predictive maintenance

Reactive Maintenance – the oldest and still most common approach to maintenance, reactive maintenance is performed only, or primarily, when a machine has failed or is clearly not operating correctly.

For obvious reasons, this approach is almost wholly inappropriate for medical equipment, and in most other industries this inefficient and expensive strategy is being rethought, and has largely been discarded.

Preventive Maintenance – preventive maintenance seeks to prevent equipment failure by anticipating service and maintenance needs. Regular maintenance and servicing is performed not when a machine acts up or shuts down, but on an optimal pre-determined schedule.

While a more appropriate approach for healthcare facilities, preventive maintenance can be more costly than reactive maintenance, and still doesn’t prevent equipment failure, malfunction or deterioration nearly as effective as the last approach we’ll consider – predictive maintenance.

Predictive maintenance – associated with Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), predictive maintenance is a wholly new approach to maintenance which is redefining the process across industries.

With predictive maintenance, also known as proactive maintenance, data sets and real-time data provided by sensors on the equipment are analysed using artificial intelligence. This allows accurate predictions of when a machine, system or service is most likely to fail as well as the optimal time to execute maintenance procedures.

Clearly the best maintenance strategy for healthcare, this new approach consistently extends the life and improves the effectiveness of equipment and reduces service interruptions and failures, saving time, effort and money.

Predictive maintenance of healthcare equipment

Proactive maintenance using AI and real-world data is enormously effective and beneficial in each and every use case, application and industry in which it has been employed, but it is perhaps most advantageous in healthcare applications. The benefits include:

Reliability – predictive maintenance solutions are demonstrably much more effective in preventing equipment failure and performance degradation, and will lead to better and more reliable patient care on all levels.

Cost effectiveness – predictive maintenance means less trained service staff need to be kept on, allowing personnel budget to go instead to medical and support staff. It also significantly reduces the need for stocking replacement parts, supplies and even tools, and extends the lifespan of equipment and machinery.

Of course in the current and assuredly ongoing reality of budget cuts and limited resources, these cost savings can be an extraordinary boon for any medical facility of any size.

Availability – proactive maintenance increases the effectiveness of maintenance procedures and reduces the frequency and time of that maintenance, meaning reduced downtime for critical monitoring, diagnostic and support machinery, less employee stress and improved patient care.

Though not specifically focused on the healthcare industry, you can find an even more complete look at the details and benefits of predictive maintenance in the following article: What is CMMS and Does Your Business Need CMMS Software.