I would be interested to know how big is your budget? for example
our non pay budget is approximately 4% of the value of the Assets that we look after.

How many staff do you have compared ie 1 Med Eng per 100 beds.

Lee

Hello Lee,

The average is 125 beds/tech, but it is very much dependant on how much is spent on service contracts. The more service contracts there are, the less need for techs, so the ratio's vary from 80 beds / tech to 200 beds / tech. (in my experience)

The average spend on medical devices maintenance is usually 0.9% to 1.3% of Gross. i.e. if Trust Gross is £100M the spend will ususally be around £0.9 to £1.3M.

So far as non-pay budget, do you mean equipment replacement budget?

Again, as a rule of thumb, the average Trust will have an asset value (For medical equipment) of around 7 to 12% of gross. So for a 500 bed Hospital with a £100M budget, you should be looking at £7M to £12M. To keep this turning over every 7 years, you can do the maths, but an annual investment of £1M would be realistic.

You can start with the number of beds if you like, but I believe that it's better to think in terms of the Asset Register (inventory), or "number of bits of kit". Here's something that I wrote over twenty years ago:-

"In deciding upon an appropriate level of technician deployment, many aspects may need to be considered (including equipment population and complexity, "house policy" and contractual matters, availability of local service contracts at an acceptable level, financial resources, remoteness of location etc.). However, as a starting point and general guide, the following relationship may be found useful:-

2 Techs / AR of 600 entries / 100 beds

(Note: AR refers to Asset Register - the inventory of maintainable items of equipment drawn up to define the biomedical planned maintenance commitment in a particular situation).

That is, assuming that proper planned maintenance is to be practised, then two biomedical equipment engineering technicians at an appropriate level of competence and with a normal range of facilities are generally able to serve around 600 maintainable items of in-service equipment - a workload equating roughly to that of a 100 bed general hospital.

Care needs to be taken in arriving at the Asset Register total. A figure of 600 for a 100 bed hospital may seem low at first, but this dependency may well have been derived from a total "medical equipment" inventory of perhaps 1,000 items if everything is included. Remember that the Asset Register figure is made up from items for which planned maintenance is applicable or is a foreseeable requirement; many minor items of "medical equipment" do not fall within this category, and many other maintainable, but minor items, will be grouped together for maintenance."

When it comes to budgeting, to do the job properly, you need to start from first principles. Something along the lines of:-

1) Ensure you have an accurate Asset Register!
2) Assert that you are going to conduct proper PM on all bits of kit.
3) Decide upon PM intervals (6-monthly, annually).
4) Work out the times for each PM (average, if you like).
5) Multiply it all up to arrive at how many hours will be spent on PM each year.
6) Decide how much of technicians' time PM will represent (start at half, the other half to be spent on repairs, "PR" and all the rest).
7) Arrive at how many techs you need, then multiply by salary plus overheads etc.
8) Make up a wish-list of the tools and test equipment you think you'll need, then get it priced.
9) Consider your policy regarding spare parts. Whatever you decide, you will need a certain amount of "service consumables" and "generic items". Get those priced.
10) Consider contracts with outside service providers (as John mentions). If everything is contracted out, you'll need just the one guy (yourself, presumably) to manager them! In principle, it doesn't matter who maintains the kit (as long as it is maintained)!
11) Add in the cost of the workshop, offices etc. if applicable.
12) Do your sums ... and there's your budget. Obviously, the cost of stuff like tools and test equipment needs to be spread over ten years or so. If it comes in p.a. at around 10% of the replacement value of all the kit, then you can be sure it's in the right ball-park.

... should be enough to be going on with.

Thanks John and Geoff,

I am aware that revealing actual budgets may be sensitive so I was trying to get an impression of the size and budget of departments in releation to my own.

The non-pay budget is all of the dept. budget that is not spent on employee's wages.

Using any of your suggested "rough reconners" reveals that we are vastly under funded, but then that wasn't really a supprise.

Lee

... but don't forget the "Zero Budget" concept also (here's the earlier thread)! It could be the "answer" in some situations.

I would like to try this question again John and Geoff gave some averages and other methods of measurement however nobody actually gave an idea of their own budget.

Geoff I would love the idea of a "zero budget" but for this department to work to all the regulations plus the sensible recommendations more money/staffing are required and nobody wants to pay!

Lee

Hello Lee

You could ask your Trust to benchmark against other similar size Trusts. This would give a good indication. Are you part of a regional EBME group? That could also help your cause by enabling you to gather local data.

The trouble with benchmarking is trying to find an equivalent department - same size, type of location, hospital services, equipment in the Trust, equipment looked after by the department, whether other related departments are in the Trust (med physics) etc.

I used to attend the West Midlands Regional meetings but I haven't heard anything from them in quite a while.

Lee

Lee, what you need (in my humble opinion, of course) is a good Consultant to come in, take a look, and offer some advice!

Sorry Geoff the budget is already to tight without paying for a Consultant, but nice try.

Lee