Assessment of the maintenance costs of electro-medical equipment in Spanish hospitals

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Electro-medical equipment generates a high impact on the sustainability of a hospital and require high availability at a reasonable maintenance cost. The aim of this paper is to analyze the sustainability and performance of the maintenance of electro-medical equipment, through several healthcare variables (hospital admissions, surgeries, consultations, etc.), infrastructure variables (surface area, number of beds, number of operating theaters, etc.), human resources and the acquisition value of the equipment, relating them to the labor, materials and total and operative maintenance costs.

Methods

4,586 electro-medical equipments were analyzed (grouped into 16 categories) installed in 12 Spanish hospitals of between 20 and 200 beds during the 2016–2018 period.

Results

The results show that the maintenance costs of electro-medical equipment correlate with the number of beds and operating theaters, nursing staff, equipment acquisition value, number of admissions, surgeries and the total length of hospital stay.

Conclusion

Different equations are proposed to estimate maintenance costs based on the variables studied. They include indicators that give an overall view of maintenance operations.

KEYWORDS:

• Reliability engineering
• electro-medical equipment
• medical equipment failure
• healthcare engineering
• biomedical engineering

Article highlights

• The sustainability and performance of the maintenance of electro-medical equipment were analyzed.

• Four thousand five hundred and eighty-six electro-medical equipment installed in 12 Spanish hospitals of between 20 and 200 beds during the 2016–2018 period were analyzed.

• Maintenance costs of electro-medical equipment were correlated with the number of beds and operating theatres, nursing staff, equipment acquisition value, number of admissions, surgeries and the total length of hospital stay.

• Different equations to estimate maintenance costs based on the variables studied are proposed.

• Indicators that give an overall view of maintenance operations are proposed.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge HM Hospitals for the collaboration provided in the development of this study.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.