Medical Equipment management is a vital feature of handling a clinical department and must not be taken lightly by those that manage such a department. This includes maintaining an oversight over all the medical equipment that is required to monitor, diagnose or treat a patient correctly. The activities concerned with such management include selection and purchasing of the required equipments along with its maintenance, inspection and final disposal. This kind of management is a recognized profession within the medical domain. The purpose of such a manager is to ensure that the medical equipment acquired by the facility is safe and operational and fulfills the purpose of the requirement.
A detailed function list of a Medical Equipment Manager is as follows: His most important function is Equipment control and management of assets. For this he has to be supported by automated information assistance. Such a control starts when new equipment is attained and then continues with the maintenance of the device throughout its working years. Newly attained equipment must be carefully inspected by trained Biotechnical Equipment technicians. After this procedure proves the device to be safe to use, the Equipment Manager has to make sure that the device not only operates in a smooth and safe fashion but is also handled carefully and correctly.
Following this procedure, the other functions of such a manager is to make a detailed Equipment inventory. This must be done to keep a record of all the Equipment that is acquired by the facility and their year of attainment must be recorded along with any complaints that may be associated with the device. This is also associated with the manager’s function as a device quality manager. As soon as the device may fail to function or may show signs of failing, such a manager would have to take care of the procedures following its repair or disposal. He would also have to procure a new device to replace the old one. Therefore the assurance of quality of the equipments has to be looked after by the Equipment manager. This is to ensure the safety of the patients, as a malfunctioning equipment might go wrong in diagnosis or treatment or even monitoring, which could in turn affect a patient’s health. Therefore the manager must keep himself up to date with the condition of each device through constant checking.
